Sustainability

Management with an Emphasis on Sustainability

Stakeholder Engagement

Sustainability

Stakeholder Engagement

Establishing long-term trusting relationships with our stakeholders

Based on the "At your side." spirit, Brother aims to create social value through business activities.
The foundation of this is the building of long-lasting, trustful relationships with our stakeholders that put the customers first. This is contained in the Brother Group Global Charter. All employees of the Brother Group act with this sense of value to continue to evolve Brother's management with an emphasis on sustainability.

Efforts to build long-term trusting relationships with respective stakeholders

Relationship diagram of the Brother Group and stakeholders

Stakeholders Brother Group Global Charter Efforts
Customers
  • Place our customers first everywhere, every time, and provide them with superior value, by quickly creating and delivering high-quality products and services
  • Quickly respond to the demands and expectations of the global marketplace
  • Take customer opinions as the starting point of our business activities and deliver products and services that meet customer needs
  • Establish quality standards and evaluation methods for products and create reliable products
  • Call the percentage of products sent back from customers for repair or return the "rate of product return and servicing," and pursue product quality improvement to reduce product defects close to zero
  • Work in proper cooperation with partners to flexibly respond to diversified business tools, markets, and changes in customers' behavior
Employees
  • Respect diversity, provide a working environment that enables our associates to utilize their talents and abilities to the fullest, and give them great opportunity through challenging work assignments
  • Provide our associates with fair, attractive financial rewards
  • Build systems and environments in which diverse human resources can demonstrate their abilities
  • Support employees with disabilities by selecting "work and life consultants," who provide advice and other assistance for employees with disabilities, from among employees in respective factories
  • Establish various systems, including homeworking and family-care leave systems, to support the work-life balance of employees
  • Institute a target management system to provide fair evaluation and compensation
  • Establish talent development systems, such as manager development and trainee programs
  • Conduct an employee awareness survey annually to grasp and improve conditions, mainly to ensure employees are working energetically
Business partners
  • Act fairly with business partners and build strong, respectful working relationships for mutual growth
  • Make the Brother Group's "Procurement Policy" and "CSR Procurement Standards" publicly available to share the group's CSR procurement concept with suppliers
  • Operate the "CSR Procurement Level-up Program" and continuously conduct CSR questionnaires to suppliers and improvement requests and monitoring based on the results
  • Recognize outstanding CSR efforts by suppliers
Shareholders
  • Effectively utilize capital from shareholders to drive sustainable growth in corporate value and have regular, open communication
  • Provide the latest information to shareholders and investors through general meetings of shareholders and financial results briefings
Local communities
  • Share our social, economic and cultural resources in all the communities where the Brother Group operates
  • Globally promote social contribution activities with a sense of unity, especially focusing on eco-conscious activities and activities involving "communities" and "personal development (including employees)"
  • Contribute to society through activities autonomously conducted by the group facilities in a way tailored to their local communities
  • Provides support during large-scale disasters and pandemics
Environment
  • Help society achieve sustainable development, by positively and continuously considering the environmental impact of all aspects of our business operations
  • Create eco-conscious products
  • Recover and recycle consumables and products
  • Promote CO2 emissions and waste reduction
  • Properly manage chemicals and discharged water
  • Implement environmental communication

Customers

The Brother Group places the customer first, everywhere, every time, demonstrating its motto; "At your side." By quickly and consistently providing superior value, the Brother Group builds strong, long-lasting relationships with customers, gaining their loyalty.

Please see below for details of specific initiatives

Employees

The Brother Group respects diversity, and provides a working environment that enables employees to utilize their talents and abilities to the fullest. The Brother Group gives them great opportunity through challenging work assignments, and provides them with fair, attractive financial rewards. In return, employees are expected to be positive members of society, share the Company's values continually, learn and improve, maximize their capabilities, strive to achieve their goals, and ultimately, contribute to our success.

Please see below for details of specific initiatives

Improving employee engagement

In order to realize the transformation required to achieve the Brother Group Vision and to encourage employees to take on new challenges, the Brother Group has made "visualize employee engagement at the global level and improve engagement survey scores" one of its materiality targets for FY2024, aiming for a relationship in which employees and the company are equal to each other and provide value to each other.
In addition to an employee awareness survey that has been conducted annually since 2008, BIL conducted a new employee engagement survey in FY2022. The results of the survey revealed that about half of the employees felt "support for their growth" from the organization, with a high level of "alignment with the organization" and "sense of contribution," indicating that engagement was high overall.
Alongside activities to share the Brother Group Global Charter, the Brother Group plans to improve engagement across the Group by implementing initiatives to enhance the quality of each employee’s target setting and to promote self-directed career development, as well as by promoting a global engagement survey.

Business Partners

The Brother Group effectively delivers superior value to customers, acts fairly with business partners, and builds strong, respectful working relationships for mutual growth.

Please see below for details of specific initiatives

Responsible Supply Chain

Shareholders and Investors

The Brother Group effectively utilizes capital from shareholders and investors to drive sustainable growth in corporate value. Through regular, open communication, the Brother Group develops long-term, trustful relationships with its shareholders.

Dialogue with shareholders and investors

The Brother Group actively engages in fair and highly transparent information disclosure, as well as constructive dialogue with capital markets throughout the year, with the aim of sustainably improving corporate value. On our website, we disclose the latest information including the Integrated Report. We also provide information for institutional investors and securities analysts in and outside of Japan through quarterly financial results briefings, small meetings, individual interviews, and other means.

Results of meetings with institutional investors and securities analysts in FY2022
Corresponding persons Number of meetings Main themes of dialogue
Representative Director & President, Officer in charge of IR, persons in charge of businesses, persons in charge of IR
  • Institutional investors / securities analysts in Japan: 176
  • Institutional investors / securities analysists outside of Japan: 76
  • Total: 252
  • Brother Group Vision "At your side 2030"
  • Outline and update of the medium-term business strategy "CS B2024"
  • Capital policy / capital allocation
  • Approach to business portfolio
  • Growth strategies for each business
  • ESG efforts
  • Materiality identification process and progress
  • Overview of quarterly financial results

Opinions received through dialogues are reported at the quarterly management meetings and the Board of Directors. This leads to them being reflected in our medium-term business strategy and the strengthening of our ESG disclosure.

The 131st ordinary general meeting of shareholders

As for the general meeting of shareholders, BIL held the 131st meeting at the hall of the Mizuho Factory, located in Nagoya City, on Thursday, June 22, 2023, with the attendance of 114 shareholders. Following last year's meeting, this year's general meeting of shareholders was also broadcast live (virtual general meeting), enabling shareholders who are unable to attend the meeting in person to view it online.

At the general meeting of shareholders, we explained the following;

  • The Brother Group's business performance in FY2022 and forecast for FY2023
  • Updates on the medium-term business strategy "CS B2024"
  • Environmental initiatives toward carbon neutrality
  • Achievements in FY2022 regarding the promotion of DX* and acquisition of RBA certification

and others

All items on the agenda were approved and passed as drafted by a majority of the shareholders during the deliberation.

The 131st ordinary general meeting of shareholders The 131st ordinary general meeting of shareholders

  • Abbreviation for digital transformation. Transformation of business and life through information technology (IT) such as high-speed Internet, cloud services, and artificial intelligence (AI).

Disclosure policy

The Brother Group has published the Brother Group Global Charter as its foundation for all Brother Group activities in the global marketplace. It proactively discloses information in a fair and highly transparent manner to build a long-lasting relationship of trust with all of its stakeholders, including customers, employees, business partners, shareholders, and local communities, and to stay environmentally responsible. The Company also strives to enhance its corporate value continuously through various communications with its stakeholders.

Disclosure Policy

Data related to shareholders and investors

FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Financial results briefing Held four times a year Held four times a year Held four times a year Held four times a year
Medium-term report
(only in Japanese)
Issued twice a year
(The full-year newsletter is integrated with the convocation notice of a general shareholders' meeting, and the second-quarter newsletter is published only in Japanese.)
FTSE4Good Index Series Included since June 2020
FTSE Blossom Japan Index Included since June 2020
FTSE Blossom Japan Sector Relative Index Included since March 2022
MSCI Japan ESG Select Leaders Included since June 2023
MSCI Japan Empowering Women (WIN) Select Index Included since November 2019
Morningstar Japan ex-REIT Gender Diversity Tilt Index Included since 2022
S&P/JPX Carbon Efficient Index Included since 2018
The SOMPO Sustainability Index Selected since 2012
Health & Productivity Stock Selection Program Recognized in 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2021
Certified Health & Productivity Management Outstanding Organization Certified since 2017

Local Community

The Brother Group must always be a good corporate citizen, sharing our social, economic and cultural resources in all the communities where the Brother Group operates.

Please see below for details of specific initiatives

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