Growth with communities
Basic approach
Our mission from the Company’s very beginning has been to create innovative paint and coating solutions that bring colors and joy to people’s everyday lives. The Group will
contribute to supporting and promoting sustainable development of communities through its business activities. We have set three priority areas, which we call the “Three Es,” under Nippon Paint Group’s global CSR umbrella, “Coloring Lives,” for conducting activities to promote the Growth with Communities: Education, to foster our stakeholders of the future; Empowerment, to develop our industry through activities to support and provide vocational training to socially vulnerable people and to discover talent among younger generations; Engagement, to work together with local communities and stakeholders.
Potential opportunities from the Group investing in society are increased business opportunities in flourishing local communities generating economic growth, increased employee engagement and commitment to our Group companies, and strong connections with local communities, which contributes to MSV. On the other hand, we have identified potential risks from the Group neglecting its obligations to stakeholders, which include a loss of trust from local communities leading to decreased ability to attract and retain talented employees and favorable business partners, lower consumer and customer loyalty – and ultimately – loss of shareholder confidence and reduced opportunity to deliver on our promise of MSV.
The Three Pillars of Social Contribution
We have set three priority areas, which we call the “Three Es,” for strategically developing the Group’s business and the paint industry for making a positive contribution to society.
- Education, to foster our stakeholders of the future
- Empowerment, to develop our industry through activities to support and provide vocational training to socially vulnerable people and to discover talent among younger generations
- Engagement, to work together with local communities and stakeholders
Pillars (focus areas) and examples of social contribution activities
| Pillar | Description | Example of activities |
|---|---|---|
| Education | Activities for children and students who are our potential future customers or employees |
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| Empowerment | Support activities and vocational training for socially vulnerable people, and activities to find talented individuals |
|
| Engagement | Collaborations with local communities and stakeholders, cooperation with NGOs, and disaster relief |
|
Risk and Opportunity
Potential risks from the Group neglecting to support and invest in society include the loss of trust from local communities leading to talented individual, favorable business partners, and shareholders avoiding association with the Group. Potential opportunities from the Group investing in society are increased business opportunities in a flourishing local communities and economies, greater employee commitment to our Group companies, and strong connections with local communities.
Management System
Global promotion system
In FY2020, we launched a global conference to create closer links among Group companies for closer information sharing and mutual consultation. The conference is the centerpiece of the NIPPON PAINT Group Global Outreach Program designed to enhance social contribution efforts throughout the Group. Based on this program, we have implemented outreach programs in 20 countries across Asia and Europe as well as in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and Japan. Progress is shared globally to upgrade our initiatives across the Group.
The resources used, results, and impact of our activities are briefly summarized in the following table. In FY2021, the Group used funds amounting to over US$7.08 million for roughly 204 activities that positively affected the lives of some 290,000 people worldwide. In Japan Group, the Group used over ¥269 million for social contribution activities, including some ¥5.22 million in donations to NPOs and other organizations.
Investment in social contribution activities and its results and impacts
| FY2021 | Data collected | Results | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Global | Country/region |
|
20 |
| Number of projects |
|
204 | |
| Resources input | Money spent on the activities | 7.08 million USD | |
| Time spent on the activities | 61,000 hours | ||
| Employees and volunteers who participated in the activities | 2,100 participants | ||
| Paint used in the activities | 0.64 million liters | ||
| Results and impacts | People impacted | 0.29 million people | |
Group Company Collaboration
Nippon Paint Holdings and our partner companies are engaged in numerous cooperative activities. Our partner in Asia, the NIPSEA Group, for example, holds conferences for partner firms across the region and is promoting various global projects. In September 2020, the NIPSEA Group’s Asia Young Designer Awards encouraging young painters and its n’Shakti vocational training program for women in impoverished regions in India received awards at the Asia Responsible Enterprise Awards 2020.
In Japan Group, in fiscal 2021 we launched a program of conferences for business and operations managers of our domestic partner companies. We are proactively sharing information about successful activities to promote social contribution efforts at our business sites throughout the Group.
Specific initiatives
Engagement: Pandemic prevention and countermeasures
The COVID-19 pandemic that started in fiscal 2020 prompted us to reevaluate the potential business risk posed by the virus as well as other infectious diseases like tuberculosis and malaria. In its response to the pandemic, the Group followed three fundamental policies: protect employees and their families from the virus, secure funds to protect Group businesses around the world, and maintain a clear business continuity plan.
We applied the Group’s business activities and know-how to promote various activities, including donating ¥12 million worth of supplies to medical institutions (Japan), providing monetary support to painters (Bangladesh, India), donating of anti-viral paint (China, Thailand), and giving out masks for customers (various countries).
We also donated masks and faceguards as part of our ongoing support for the infectious disease research of the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR), one of Africa’s leading infectious disease research institutes. NMIMR is located in Ghana, where infectious diseases, such as bronchitis, malaria, and HIV/AIDS, affect 70% of the population.
Empowerment: Supporting the socially vulnerable
The Group has set Empowerment as one of its fundamental Three Es concepts for its social contribution activities. Empowerment focuses on supporting people who are socially disadvantaged. One such activity is the n’Shakti program in India, which teaches painting skills to women in impoverished regions to provide them with vocational skills and support their independence. To date, the program has provided over 20,000 hours of training to more than 450 women aged in the teens to their thirties, and women who have completed the training have gone on to start a painting service company and become employed in the construction and other industries.
In Japan, we are supporting the employment of senior citizens and people with disabilities at local farms under contract with Saitama City. The indoor Nippe Fan Farm launched in 2019 currently employs five people with disabilities and two seniors. Produce that the farm harvests is donated to a children’s cafeteria near our office in Shinagawa City, Tokyo.
Education, Empowerment, Engagement: Activities meeting local community needs
Understanding the needs of the local community is essential for more effective social contribution activities. About 70% of the activities of Nippon Paint’s Happy Paint Project were begun in response to requests from local communities. The project proposals are selected for being original, social, and local and for being a positive element for local business.
Japan Group is delivering supplies to medical institutions at the forefront of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. As we deliver the supplies, we are also gathering information about what supplies the institutions need and working with the medical support service provider Happiness-i to keep track of the institutions’ changing needs. Our actions appear to be having an impact, as we have received many letters of gratitude for our efforts.
Education, Engagement: Promoting employee participation in social contribution activities
The Group supports and encourages employees to participate in social contribution activities, and have also granted special leave to employees requesting time off to participate in the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers. Employees join in many types of activities. Every year, about 60 employees volunteer to participate in the annual children’s chemistry experiment shows sponsored by Dream-Kagaku 21 in the Tokyo and Osaka areas. The booth where the children learn how electrodeposition coating technology is used to paint automobiles by applying it to their own rulers is always popular. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, the shows were cancelled in fiscal 2020 and 2021.
Many employees participate in regularly scheduled public cleaning events near our business sites. The Tokyo Office of Nippon Paint Holdings (NPHD) in Shinagawa City, Tokyo, and the Toyota Office of Nippon Paint Automotive Coatings (NPAC) in Toyota, Aichi, hold public cleanups every month. The NPAC’s Head Office in Hirakata, Osaka, and Aichi Takahama Plant in Takahama, Aichi, also actively participate in local disaster and crime prevention activities. Employees of the Aichi Taketoyo Factory in Taketoyo, Aichi, not only run in the annual Taketoyo Yumetaro Smile Marathon, they also volunteer to help put on the event. In fiscal 2020, seven employees ran and 14 participated as volunteers.
Members of the professional women’s table tennis team Nippon Paint Mallets share their professional skills and know-how by offering lessons to elementary schools and other organizations. The Tokyo Office of NPHD and the Aichi Takahama Plant of NPAC for many years have been providing bright new coats of paint to aging playground equipment and other facilities at elementary schools in their areas.
The DuluxGroup has a corporate culture in which employees plan volunteer activities. Some 90% of the group’s social contribution projects in 2020 were proposed by employees. The DuluxGroup highly values the grassroots movement of its employees taking the initiative and play a leading role in social contribution activities.
In 2020, we launched a new food drive initiative to collect and donate surplus food from families, which adds to our other activities that include blood drives, collecting books to donate, and participating in the “Bell mark” initiative supporting educational institutions. Several new activities were begun in 2021, including repurposing flowers used at celebration events and placing boxes of sweets made at local welfare facilities to collect money for donations. The Global Team that works directly under the Directors, Representative Executive Officers & Co-Presidents takes the initiatives in rolling out these activities to other business locations and partner companies.
We are also creating a program that will commend employees who are enthusiastic about social contribution activities. The President’s Award was established in 2020, with the first award being presented to an NPAC employee who saved a person’s life. In 2021, we launched a program on the company intranet to commend employees demonstrating commitment to working on our items of materiality in ESG management. We give stickers designed for each item of materiality to raise awareness that each person’s work contributes to social contribution activities and ESG management.
