Toward Realizing Sustainability

Promoting the realization of sustainability

First, the Sustainability Committee and other committees discussed what Mitsubishi Electric should do now that sustainability is positioned as the cornerstone of our management, and clarified four actions to promote the realization of sustainability.

The first action is to contribute to the "realization of a vibrant and sustainable society" by solving social and environmental issues through our businesses. The second is to conduct business responsibly in a manner that does not cause or exacerbate social challenges or environmental issues. The third is to adapt to changes in society and the environment not only in the short and medium terms but also in the long term, in other words, to create business opportunities to develop sustainability, and to predict risks to control or minimize their impacts on business management. The fourth is to communicate with society, customers, shareholders, employees, and other stakeholders through highly transparent disclosure of information in a way that reflects society's expectations, requests, and opinions to the corporate management.

Essential KPIs regarding materiality (Important Challenges)

The Mitsubishi Electric Group has set materiality (important challenges) as follows: "Realize a sustainable global environment," "realize a safe, secure, and comfortable society," "respect for all people," "strengthen corporate governance and compliance on a sustainable basis," and "create a sustainability-oriented corporate culture."

As for the five materiality initiatives that we identified from the two aspects of "providing solutions to social challenges through our businesses" and "strengthening our business foundation to enable sustainable growth," we promote continuous activities for improvement by implementing the PDCA cycle for mid-to-long-term goals. In 2023, we identified 17 essential targets and KPI. To achieve them, the Sustainability Committee promotes measures with checking the progress in order to steadily incorporate them into management.

Our challenges toward solving social issues

Among the broad range of our business fields, from home appliances to space electronics, we have reorganized the social issues we want and are expected to solve with the Mitsubishi Electric Group's human capital and technologies. Throughout the reorganization, our Sustainability Vision formulated in 2022, "Creating Harmony with People and the Planet" is always on our minds. It is exactly what we aim to realize by 2050 as "a Sustainable Society Full of Prosperity." Mitsubishi Electric Group believes that such a society makes our stakeholders feel happy, including our business partners, customers, and Mitsubishi Electric Group employees.

Backcasting from our goals for 2050, we identified the five challenge areas as follows: Carbon neutrality, Circular economy, Safety/Security, Inclusion, and Well-being.

Carbon neutrality: A decarbonized society with fewer CO₂ emissions from our company and society itself, and with mitigations against climate change.
Circular economy: A society that effectively uses and sustainably circulates resources.
Safety/Security: A resilient society that can respond to various environmental changes and risks.
Inclusion: A society in which all kinds of people are respected and anyone can live freely, fairly, and in a lively manner.
Well-being: Comfortable lives and physical and mental well-being for each and every individual.

We aim to achieve these challenges to realize a Sustainable Society Full of Prosperity. Especially, carbon neutrality is one area in which we can demonstrate our strengths by accelerating initiatives in terms of both "responsibility" and "contribution." For "responsibility," by which we aim to decarbonize within our domain, we have revised our target for fiscal 2031 from "reducing greenhouse gas emissions at factories and offices by 50% or more (compared to fiscal 2014)" to "net zero by fiscal 2031." For "contribution," we aim to create and expand businesses that contribute to all of society realizing carbon neutrality.

Our approach to human capital

The driving force for realizing sustainability is none other than the people involved in the Mitsubishi Electric Group. Based on this mindset, we are further promoting our human capital strategy that considers "people = capital that generates value for the future." In order to regain society's trust and thrive in an increasingly competitive global business environment, the Mitsubishi Electric Group will push forward with all kinds of reforms by mobilizing the diverse, multifaceted strengths of its individuals.

Toward reforms

It has thus been a year since Mitsubishi Electric announced that it would position the realization of sustainability as the cornerstone of its management. In response to the improper quality control practices in fiscal 2023, Mitsubishi Electric is taking steps to change. This reform will not be accomplished instantly. In particular, the activities we are undertaking to reform our culture will not be a one-time event, and we must patiently resolve each issue individually over the next five to ten years to ensure that a better corporate culture takes root.

In these initiatives, I personally value "taking ownership and working voluntarily." This is what I consider to be my Purpose. I commit myself to achieving sustainability by aligning my own individual Purpose with the ideal conditions that the Mitsubishi Electric Group envisions.