Material Issues

Material issues

VITAL KSK Holdings assessed the importance of various issues from the perspectives of social trends, stakeholder expectations, and the potential contribution to improving corporate value. After repeated discussions by the Sustainability Committee, we identified the following material issues and formulated initiatives to address them.

Notes:

1. Practice (standards for the effective distribution of pharmaceuticals).

2. Practice (Ministerial Ordinance on Standards for Manufacturing Control and Quality Control for Drugs and Quasi-drugs).

Material Issues Policy Contributing to
achieving the SDGs
Environmental Response to climate change problems
  • Reducing GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions
  • Promoting renewable energy
  • Various initiatives leading to a reduced environmental impact

7.エネルギーをみんなに。そしてクリーンに

12.つくる責任、つかう責任

13.気候変動に具体的な対策を

Social Developing of a safe, secure, and effective
pharmaceutical distribution system
  • Developing a high-quality pharmaceutical distribution system that is GDP1 compliant and partially GMP2 compliant
  • Developing a BCP (business continuity plan) that ensures continuity of distribution even after a large-scale disaster or pandemic
  • Improving the efficiency of distribution costs by promoting digital transformation (DX) and developing customer support services
  • Improving pharmacy functions to manage the “last mile”

3.すべての人に健康と福祉を

9.産業と技術革新の基盤を作ろう

11.住み続けられるまちづくりを

Fostering diverse human resources and
improving the workplace
  • Respecting human rights, active participation of female employees, and promoting diversity
  • Creating a work environment that improves employee job satisfaction and health
  • Developing a training system and fostering employees who can create new value
  • Improving employee engagement

5.ジェンダー平等を実現しよう

8.働きがいも経済成長も

10.人や国の不平等をなくそう

Contributing to communities
  • Employing various initiatives based on coordination and collaboration with local governments and professional associations
  • Implementing community support activities by Group companies

11.住み続けられるまちづくりを

17.パートナーシップで目標を達成しよう

Governance Sound and highly transparent
corporate governance
  • Strengthening the group governance structure
  • Managing with the highest emphasis on compliance as well as preventing corruption and fraud
  • Compliance training and awareness surveys
  • Effectively assess risks and create new opportunities by improving the management system
  • Ensuring transparency through dialogues and full disclosure of information

16.平和と公正をすべての人に

Process for Identifying Material Issues

Identifying issues

When considering the kind of society we want to create and what we want to do through business operations, we must not forget that our primary mission in dealing with healthcare products is to deliver pharmaceuticals to people who need them, when they need them. While focusing on this mission, we also identified issues from other perspectives, such as the Company’s evaluation by various institutions as well as dialogues with and requests from stakeholders.

Assessing identified issues

Identified issues were classified into ESG (environmental, social, and governance) categories, as initiatives to create a sustainable society and assessing the importance (materiality) of each issue.

ステークホルダーへの重要度と、当社グループにとっての優先順位の分布図

Identifying material issues

Based on the assessment of material issues, the Sustainability Committee held additional discussions and identified five key material issues. We also linked these to the 17 goals and 169 targets of the UN’s SDGs.

Risks and Opportunities by Material Issue

Material issues Major risks Main opportunities
Response to climate change problems
  • Suspending business activities, etc., due to natural disasters, etc.
  • Promoting renewable energy
  • Deploying disaster response vehicles
  • Reducing the environmental impact through various initiatives
Developing of a safe, secure, and effective
pharmaceutical distribution system
  • Suspending business activities, etc., due to natural disasters, etc.
  • Year 2024 logistics problems caused by improving working conditions for drivers
  • Depopulation, population decline, and social aging in areas where we operate
  • Developing BCPs (business continuity plans)
  • Building a resilient logistics network by using the experiences of large-scale disasters
  • Deploying disaster response vehicles
  • Developing a high-quality pharmaceutical distribution system that is GDP*1 compliant and partially GMP*2 compliant
  • Assessing the most effective location of bases
Developing a diverse workforce and
workplace environment
  • Labor shortages
  • Regional disparities for population decrease and aging
  • Harassment
  • Employee health
  • Respecting human rights
  • Active participation of female employees
  • Promoting diversity
  • Creating a work environment that improves job satisfaction and health
  • Promoting health management
  • Addressing labor shortages
  • Training highly specialized employees who support community healthcare
Contributing to communities
  • Depopulation, population decline, and social aging in areas of operation
  • Loss of opportunities for helping to resolve community healthcare issues
  • Resolving community healthcare issues
  • Addressing labor shortages
  • Developing business operations deeply rooted in local communities by recruiting local employees
Sound, transparent
corporate governance
  • Violation of laws and regulations, such as compliance
  • Loss of trust and damage to corporate value due to business behavior that deviates from social norms
  • Proactive disclosure of information and dialogues with investors and stakeholders
  • Strengthening the Group governance system

SDG Initiatives

We believe that the Group’s operations and initiatives will contribute achieving the 17 SDGs adopted at the United Nations Summit in September 2015.

SDG initiatives by Group Companies