President's Message
The PLUS Group directly confronts global issues among social circumstances that continue to intensify. In recent years in particular, there continue to be extremely impactful events, such as growing geopolitical risks, uncertain foreign exchange markets, intense natural disasters due to climate change, and increasing human rights risks. These global social issues and environmental issues require solutions. Under such uncertain conditions, I believe that management based on a philosophy, which is the foundation of a business, is crucial.
The management policy of the PLUS Group is “Four Way Satisfaction.” This policy places importance on simultaneously achieving “satisfaction” for the four entities of “customers, corporate partners, employees, and society.” In other words, I believe that we should not seek to optimize only our company. Rather, it is important to pursue “social optimality” that harmonizes the economy, society, and the environment and expand our business fields. As sustainability-conscious business management is essential in our current environment, I believe it is a good opportunity for us to contribute more to society based on our long-cherished corporate philosophy as well as the concept of social optimality.
Steady progress in sustainability measures
The PLUS Group has positioned our Sustainability Policies formulated in 2022 along with 14 materialities as the basic policies of our Medium-term Business Plan (fiscal year 2023 to 2025), and we are working to solve various social issues. We implemented the PDCA cycles every year in the last two years. Among sustainability measures formulated, 32 measures were achieved, and 74 measures are making good progress. For example, our furniture business sector started our “MOKURAL” timber utilization project to create the future starting from offices, as an initiative to address climate change. This project creates office furniture using domestic timber with the aim of realizing carbon neutrality.
In our stationery business sectors, we are promoting development of environmentally-friendly products, such as our eco-friendly stationery brand “COE365,” which allows our customers to enjoy themselves while thinking about the future and to contribute to the environment. We are working on creating products with a focus on the recycling of resources while reducing raw materials and waste, through efforts such as using recycled paper and reducing use of plastics.
In the distribution business sector, we have started the “COREIL” purchase agency service for users of nursing facilities, as a solution for social issues such as insufficient human resources in all industrial sectors, the logistics crisis, increasing burden on nursing facility workers, and disaster prevention and BCP planning. Moreover, we are tackling initiatives according to the changes in markets and social needs, such as promoting disaster prevention and epidemic prevention agreements that prioritize supply of daily commodities to local authorities across the country in the event of a disaster. Also, in our management system for achieving sound management, we have organized, and stipulated the Group’s approach to respect for human rights, in line with international norms, and have formulated new human rights policies in order to further strengthen and advance our human rights initiatives. In order to eradicate human rights issues, we will work to strengthen our initiatives on respect for human rights, such as by providing thorough training on human rights and improving the effectiveness of human rights due diligence.
In our ongoing efforts to achieve low carbon and decarbonized societies in response to climate change, one of our first actions was to finish our calculations of GHG emissions at the PLUS Corporation. Going forward, we will continue calculations of emissions at each Group company. We will also establish objectives regarding reduction of emissions and make efforts to realize a decarbonized society.
Also, in the field of natural capital, we are working to realize a society that coexists with nature by preserving the remaining natural environment and the various lifeforms with their ecological environment. “PLUSLAND,” which was completed in 1991, is a combination of our furniture plant, our logistics center, and training facilities. It is a an industrial complex that maintains a perfect symbiotic balance between nature and humans. The entire green space serves as an environment for nurturing a single ecosystem. We manage the green space to conserve the biodiversity of the region and to provide environmental education, with the aim of creating factory green spaces that are needed more by society.
Contributing to a sustainable society with long-term vision and flexibility
Modern social issues are becoming more sophisticated and more complex, and are spreading throughout the globe. Our business initiatives require long-term and broad perspectives as well as the speed and flexibility to stop and fix any mistakes that occur in those initiatives. Fiscal year 2025 is the final fiscal year of our Medium-term Business plan. To achieve sustainability objectives that we formulated, the entire Group will closely look at how we can contribute to society and will contribute to the development of a sustainable society.