Shiseido’s Strategic Actions Toward Sustainability
Shiseido has established 6 strategic actions based on different material issues, three each in the areas of environment and society, in order to realize a sustainable world where everyone can enjoy a lifetime of happiness through the power of beauty.
Our strategic actions for society focus on addressing social issues, primarily through our diversity and inclusion (D&I) initiatives. These three strategic actions are: “Advancing Gender Equality”, which we will implement by leveraging our strengths as a beauty company; “Empowering People Through the Power of Beauty”, which will help people shine in their own ways; and “Promoting Respect for Human Rights”, which underlies all our activities.
Our actions for the environment are based on the idea of banbutsu shisei the phrase from which our company name “Shiseido” originates. We are working to develop technologies and business models that can reduce environmental impact and realize a circular economy. To do so, we are taking the following three strategic actions throughout the entire value chain: “Reducing our environmental footprint”, “Developing sustainable products”, and “Promoting sustainable and responsible procurement”.
Material Issues
At Shiseido, we are committed to creating a sustainable world and enhancing people’s sense of happiness and fulfillment through value creation, as we have done since our founding. To select social and environmental issues to be addressed through our business, we compiled a list of sustainability issues based on interviews, surveys, and discussions with stakeholders. We first examined the importance of these issues to Shiseido’s business and to all of our stakeholders, from employees and consumers to business partners, shareholders, and society, and the earth. We then categorized and prioritized the issues along two axes and defined 18 material issues.
How We Formulated Our Material Issues
The following process was implemented to define material issues.
Identify social and environmental issues in consideration of all stakeholders based on their expectations and demands along with various perspectives collected from
- Experts in environmental and social fields globally
- Consumer feedback (from company surveys conducted in five countries)
- External surveys, reports from major international organizations (GRI, SASB, SDGs etc.)
- investor feedback
- Executive officer and employee feedback
Shortlist the identified issues based on their relevance to our businesses and make a more informed analysis
- Issues are narrowed down to those highly relevant to our businesses through discussions with executive officers and various internal divisions.
- Issues are then selected by scoring them based on the two axes of importance to our businesses and importance to the entire company’s stakeholders (employees, consumers, business partners, shareholders, society, and the earth).
- The questions and strategic actions surrounding these issues are then confirmed by the executive officers.
Submit the finalized list of material issues to the Sustainability Committee for approval
Strategic Actions & Corresponding SDGs
Shiseido has established 6 strategic actions based on different material issues, 3 each in the areas of environment and society. To implement these initiatives, we are distributing management resources on a priority basis in each department across the entire company.
- Development of eco-friendly formulas
- Sustainable packaging
- Deforestation
- Responsible procurement
- Waste reduction
- Water usage
- Quality of life
- Professional development
- Occupational health and safety
- Respect for human rights
- Fair business transactions
- Quality assurance
- Responsible marketing and advertising
- Information security and privacy
- Art and heritage
- We promote activities in art and heritage through our corporate culture that generates social value and shares a uniquely Japanese aesthetic with the world.
A System for Promoting Sustainability
At Shiseido, we work to promote sustainability across the entire company through our brands and regional businesses. In 2022, the Sustainability Committee met regularly to ensure timely management decisions related to sustainability and their implementation. The committee decides on Group-wide sustainability strategies and policies, discusses specific topics such as TCFD reporting and human rights actions, and monitors the progress of medium-to-long-term goals. The committee consists of the representative directors and executive officers in charge of Corporate Strategy, R&D, Supply Network, Corporate Communications, and our brands, as well as other executive officers from different fields, allowing us to discuss a range of issues from different perspectives. In addition, the Global Strategy Committee and the Board of Directors are specifically consulted when a decision is needed on important matters related to business execution. We also publish an annual sustainability report for our global stakeholders in which we disclose the medium-to-long-term targets we have for actions we can take toward sustainability in our core business, as well as the progress toward those goals. Furthermore, in order to promote sustainability initiatives, we have introduced a long-term incentive-type remuneration that incorporates multiple internal and external performance targets related to ESG including CO₂ emissions reduction and female ratio in managerial positions, for Directors (excluding external Directors and Auditors), Executive Officers and leaders in critical positions in Japan and overseas. The actual value of this incentive remuneration increases or decreases depending on the achievement against each individual target.
Medium- to Long-term Targets and Results
(compared with 2019)
（compared with 2014）
(palm oil equivalent basis)
(paper weight basis)
at all levels in Japan
40.0%
35.3％
37.6%
- Support education and financial independence for socially vulnerable women worldwide
(to reach directly)
- Challenging the Unconscious Biases and Prejudices That Limit Individual Beauty
(to reach directly)
