Konica Minolta included in FTSE4Good Index Series
August 24, 2023
Konica Minolta, Inc. (Konica Minolta) has been included in the FTSE4Good Index Series, which is one of the most well-known sustainable investment indexes in the world, for 20 consecutive years.
To coincide with this, Konica Minolta has also been named to all of the six responsible investment (RI) indexes adopted by Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) for the seventh consecutive year. These six indexes are the FTSE Blossom Japan Index, the FTSE Blossom Japan Sector Relative Index, the MSCI Japan ESG Select Leaders Index, the MSCI Japan Empowering Women Index, the S&P/JPX Carbon Efficient Index and the Morningstar Japan ex-REIT Gender Diversity Tilt Index.
Sustainability is now a common issue throughout the world, and since the integration of Konica and Minolta in 2003, the Company has positioned sustainability as the core element of management strategy. More recently, in 2020, Konica Minolta evaluated its own impact on society at large and the environment to help identify opportunities and risks to work towards creating a more sustainable society by 2030. As such, Konica Minolta has identified five material issues to focus on to create value within society, namely:
- Improving fulfilment in work and corporate dynamism
- Supporting healthy, high-quality living
- Ensuring social safety and security
- Addressing climate change
- Using limited resources effectively
Mostly notably, Konica Minolta is working to achieve these material issues across all its business units.
Within the Professional Print Business, reducing transportation, storage, waste, and intermediary materials by offering technologies that make production of the proper amount at the proper time and at the proper location possible contributes to addressing climate change (material issue) and using limited resources effectively (material issue).
Within its Industry Business, as an example, the company is working to resolve the issue of passing on the skills of top workers by automating the inspection process, which relies on the skills of experienced workers at production sites, and saving labours, and contribute to greater quality of end products, and improve fulfilment in work and corporate dynamism (material issue). In addition, services that detect signs of and prevent accidents at warehouses and factories contribute to ensuring social safety and security (material issue).
Through the Healthcare Business, Konica Minolta also contributes to supporting healthy high-quality living (material issue) through precision medical care and early detection and diagnosis.
Through these efforts, Konica Minolta is striving to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while facilitating the evolution of the business community and human society.
FTSE4Good Index Series
The FTSE4Good Index Series, which was introduced by FTSE Russell, a UK-based global index provider, lists companies around the world demonstrating strong environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices, and provides a means for investors and RI funds to select companies with good sustainability prospects for investment.
FTSE Blossom Japan Index
The FTSE Blossom Japan Index is designed to include Japanese companies with excellent performance in ESG practices, and was selected by GPIF, the world’s largest public pension fund, as one of the ESG indexes for its passive investment strategy.
FTSE Blossom Japan Sector Relative Index
The FTSE Blossom Japan Sector Relative Index is a comprehensive ESG index that incorporates Japanese companies selected based on assessments of the size of companies’ environmental impact and their management of climate change risks, as well as the ESG assessments of FTSE Russell. This index was adopted as an ESG index by the GPIF in 2022.
MSCI Japan ESG Select Leaders Index and MSCI Japan Empowering Women Index
The MSCI Japan ESG Select Leader s Index and the MSCI Japan Empowering Women Index are ESG indexes introduced in 2017 by MSCI Inc., a US-based global ESG research and index provider.
S&P/JPX Carbon Efficient Index
The S&P/JPX Carbon Efficient Index was launched jointly by S&P Dow Jones Indices, one of the world’s major index providers, and Japan Exchange Group, Inc. Using TOPIX as a benchmark, it is designed to reduce exposure to high-carbon companies while maintaining the risk/return profile similar to that of their benchmarks.
Morningstar Japan ex-REIT Gender Diversity Tilt Index
The Morningstar Japan ex-REIT Gender Diversity Tilt Index is one of the gender diversity indices provided by Morningstar, a U.S. provider of investment research and investment management services. It utilises data and evaluation methods from Equileap and is designed to enable investment focused on com panies that have established gender diversity policies as part of their corporate culture, and companies that promise equal opportunities to their employees regardless of gender. This index was adopted as an ESG index by the GPIF in March 2023.
Categories : Around the Industry
Tags : Environment FTSE4Good Index Series Konica Minolta Sustainability
