The DIC Group's Sustainability Program

DIC Group Sustainability Policy

• Purpose
  

  The DIC Group is dedicated to conducting its business while retaining a strong commitment to five key concepts: preserving safety and health, managing risks relating to ESG issues, ensuring fair business practices and respect for diversity and human rights, maintaining harmony with the environment and advancing its protection, and creating value for society through innovation and contributing to ongoing economic growth.

  The DIC Group is committed to conducting business activities in accordance with The DIC WAY, our fundamental management philosophy. The DIC Group will continue to promote efforts aimed at enhancing corporate value and achieving sustainable growth.

  The DIC Group will continue working to deliver the value that its stakeholders—including its customers, suppliers, local communities, shareholders and investors, and employees—expect, showing ingenuity and a sense of responsibility.
  The DIC Way

  The DIC Group endeavors to take the principles of sustainability set forth in this policy into account when making and implementing strategies, risk management and investment decisions.

  The DIC Group itself will strive to remain an organization that contributes to sustainability for society, as well as to the conservation and improvement of the global environment.

• Scope
  

  This policy applies to all DIC Group operations, including individual Group companies, employees and officers.
  The principles as shown in this DIC Group sustainability policy will guide the DIC Group in selecting supply chain partners. 

• Materiality
  

  The DIC Group regularly conducts materiality assessments from a global perspective to identify priority issues that it must address.

  The assessments are carried out using methods that the DIC Group deems appropriate and as legally required, taking into consideration the circumstances at each of its global operating locations.

• Policy Principles
  
  • Health and Safety
    

    The DIC Group recognizes operational safety both as fundamental to its businesses and the core component of the DIC Group’s Responsible Care program (find more information here Toward the Achievement of a Sustainable Society). The DIC Group thus promotes active occupational safety and health, security and disaster prevention measures to foster a “Safety First” approach Group-wide and involving every employee.

    The DIC Group policy on Environment, Safety and Health can be found at this link:
    Policy for Environment, Safety and Health

  • Ethics and Compliance
    

    Compliance in the DIC Group encompasses not only obeying laws but also acting in a manner that aligns with social norms and the interests of relevant stakeholders and customers. With the aim of ensuring sustainable growth for businesses that are both fair and transparent, the DIC Group Code of Business Conduct, details a unified set of guidelines which the DIC Group considers to be fundamental to compliance. The DIC Group requires all DIC Group employees to conduct themselves in accordance with the DIC Group Code of Business Conduct.

    The DIC Group Code of Business Conduct can be found at this link:
    DIC Group Code of Business Conduct

  • Governance
    

    The DIC Group defines corporate governance as a mechanism to ensure effective decision-making pertaining to its management policy of achieving sustainable corporate growth and expansion through sound and efficient management. DIC Group’s sustainability initiatives are the responsibility of the President & CEO and shall be carried out under their supervision. The Sustainability Committee functions as a deliberative body for the purpose of promoting, improving and coordinating sustainability initiatives across the DIC Group. Sustainability Committee deliberations and the results thereof shall be reported to the Board of Directors. 

    The DIC Group policy on Corporate Governance can be found at this link:
    Policy on Corporate Governance

  • Environment
    

    As a global organization that manufactures and sells chemical substances, the DIC Group promotes a broad range of environment, safety and health initiatives through its Responsible Care program. The DIC Group aims to implement initiatives that exceed regulatory requirements.

    The DIC Group strives to reduce CO2 emissions through its business activities and endeavors to lower risks associated with climate change.

    The DIC Group policy on Environment, Safety and Health can be found at this link:
    Policy for Environment, Safety and Health

  • Innovation
    

    Seeking to fulfill its mission to improve the human condition to realize sustainable prosperity, the DIC Group strives to contribute to the realization of a society that is increasingly green, digital and quality-of-life oriented.

    To drive sustainable growth, the DIC Group continues working to integrate Group-wide technological resources, as well as to promote open innovation.

    Circular Economy
    The DIC Group has determined that “responding to a circular economy” is an important pillar of our sustainability strategy. Built on what we call “the five Rs” – reuse, reduce, recycle, renew, and redesign – we are making various efforts towards realizing a circular economy, in collaboration with customers.

    The DIC Group Circular Economy Statement can be found at this link:
    Circular Economy

  • Product stewardship
    

    The DIC Group strives to ensure its products are safe, sustainable, and compliant. The DIC Group will provide necessary product safety information to its customers.

    The DIC Group policy on Environment, Safety and Health can be found at this link:
    Policy for Environment, Safety and Health

    Animal Welfare
    In line with the “3Rs” of animal use in research – replacement, reduction, refinement –, which are guidelines designed to ensure the more ethical use of animals in testing, the DIC Group actively promotes safety evaluation using alternative testing methods and Quantitative Structure–Activity Relationship (QSAR) models that do not require animal testing.

  • Sustainable Procurement
    

    To ensure our business partners in our supply chain reflect similar commitments to sustainability, the DIC Group formulated the DIC Group Universal Purchasing Policy and the DIC Group Sustainable Procurement Guidelines, which set out matters related to procurement activities.

    The Group Universal Purchasing Policy and DIC Group Sustainable Guidelines should guide the DIC Group when deciding which supply chain partners to procure from and transact business with.

    The DIC Group Universal Purchasing Policy and DIC Group Sustainable Procurement Guidelines can be found at the following links:

    Universal Purchasing Policy
    DIC Group Sustainable Procurement Guidelines

  • Social and Human Rights
    

    The DIC Group strives to protect and promote human rights through our business activities. Each officer and employee of the DIC Group will aim to conduct business activities in a manner that promotes and respects human rights.

    Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI)
    The DIC Group is committed to creating workplaces that respect the individuality of each and every employee (diversity), provide equal opportunities and prospects to all employees (equity) and enable all employees to exercise their capabilities and play an active role (inclusion).

    The DIC Group policy on Human Rights can be found at this link:
    DIC Group Human Rights Policy
    

  • Continuous Improvement
    

    The DIC Group is committed to ongoing improvement through innovation, benchmarking and considering feedback from relevant stakeholders.

• Implementation and Monitoring
  

  In order to take concrete steps to address the priority issues identified as a result of its materiality assessments (as referenced in Section 3 of this Policy), the DIC Group will continuously formulate key performance indicators (KPIs) for the purpose of monitoring its progress and activities.

  The DIC Group supports continuing education and professional development, as these are important to raise employees' awareness of sustainability. The DIC Group will provide training and other opportunities so that employees can understand their own contributions and recognize the impact their work activities have on the environment. 

• Review and Updates
  

  This policy will be reviewed periodically and updated as needed.

• Disclosure
  

  The DIC Group reports its progress on sustainability performance, transparently once a year.