Comment

Reading the Kobe Steel Group Sustainability Report 2016, one part that left a strong impression on me was the section titled "Chairman, President and CEO Hiroya Kawasaki discusses the challenges on the road to 2020." Regarding weight savings in transportation machines, a growth field for Kobe Steel, the section introduced Group products that combine weight savings with machine strength, such as aluminum products and ultra high-strength steel sheet, as well as the Group's sophisticated technologies for joining dissimilar materials. The Kobe Steel Group's superior advantage in this area might be common knowledge, but the efforts to which the Group makes to evolve those technologies on a day-to-day basis was also apparent. The G7 Summit, which was held in Japan in May 2016, passed the Toyama Framework on Material Cycles. You could say that the message is the world will not be sustainable unless we aim for a more resource-efficient society, so it seems as if transportation weight savings are in many aspects a desirable vector.

The report also introduced Kobe Steel's new medium-term management plan, which is posited on meeting three important societal needs. Regarding two of those needs—global environmental regulations and diversification of power sources—I think approaching them will require continuous inspection and flexible response. I'm referring to development of deeply related businesses, in particular the electric power business in the energy and infrastructure fields. It may also be necessary to implement relatively short PDCA cycles, in order to inspect whether current business development is sufficiently diversified and responsive to global and societal trends, and to look back on operations to review how a variety of risks are being handled. Keywords to remember will likely be the Paris Agreement on greenhouse gas reduction, renewable energy and resource efficiency. The report mentioned responding to trends such as these by reducing CO₂ emissions through products by 52.1 million tons. The first step, I believe, is disclosing the method and basis for calculating that impact.

The Kobe Steel Group turned a new corner in 2010, working to clarify its CSR management and social contributions through manufacturing, and advocating for management focusing on CSV (Creating Shared Value). In terms of sustainability, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) established in September 2015 will likely become major, global CSR targets. I'm referring to the SDGs with a target date of 2030, comprised of 169 targets in 17 goals—including the environment, poverty and health—and supported by countries around the world. The goals, themselves, are more than simple targets, and might be better thought of as aspirations. In the context of creating shared value, along with climate change countermeasures from the Paris Agreement, I hope that Kobe Steel will be able to identify concreate avenues for effectively applying the SDGs.