Message from the Director in Charge of Sustainability

Sustainability Management at the MEDIPAL Group

The MEDIPAL Group contributes to healthy lives through our distribution operations in the “Pharmaceuticals, Health, and Beauty” business fields. Our mission, as defined in our management philosophy, is to increase value in distribution and we believe that our business activities are helping Japan to become a sustainable society. As a corporate group that is part of the social infrastructure, we must be able to provide distribution services at any time without interruption, and we also value our role in connecting various people, goods, and services to create new value. To fulfill this mission, we have defined material sustainability tasks (materiality) and are implementing sustainability activities across the Group. The 2027 MEDIPAL Medium-Term Vision includes sustainability perspectives and provides solutions to social issues through our growth strategies. Dialogue with a range of stakeholders is crucial if we are to make further progress in the future, and we aim to actively increase opportunities for such interactions with the goal of increasing corporate value.

The MEDIPAL Cantabile*¹ Program

We include promotion of diversity and inclusion as part of our material sustainability tasks because we believe that human resources with diverse values, who exchange opinions and work with mutual respect regardless of gender, nationality, or background, drive personal growth and the development of the Company.
We named our diversity and inclusion initiatives the MEDIPAL Cantabile Program to help disseminate the message in an easily understandable way. We have run various activities under this banner, including a panel discussion with female employees in management positions and sharing the experiences of male employees taking childcare leave. As a result, a sense of personal responsibility is gradually spreading among our employees and we are steadily changing mindsets, as evidenced by the 48.1% of male employees who took childcare leave in FY2023 (an approximately 20% increase over the previous fiscal year). However, the percentage of female employees in management positions is only 8.5% compared with our target of over 20%. We are actively working to achieve this goal by creating employee-friendly workplaces where diverse human resources can actively contribute.

*¹Cantabile is a musical term meaning song-like. Everyone working in the MEDIPAL Group wants to be part of a “health support orchestra” that brings a rich song-like tone to the performance, rather than simply playing off the musical score (in their job roles).

Extending the Reach of Our Programs to Realize a Decarbonized Society

We are targeting a 50% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by Group companies by FY2030 compared with FY2020 and carbon neutrality by FY2050. We are working on various programs to reduce our environmental impact, including the installation of solar panels and introduction of EVs. As well as investment in environmentally friendly hardware, we have also run in-company events for the purpose of improving environmental literacy. We have already achieved an 11% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions versus the base year. However, we must ensure such changes are made across the supply chain if we are to become a decarbonized society, and we see this as a challenge. In the future, we will work with experts in the field and extend the reach of our decarbonization programs in order to increase the accuracy of Scope 3 calculations and set targets.

Deepening Group Governance

We need to build appropriate governance systems to ensure sound and transparent corporate management. Given the expansion in our business portfolio and the diverse range of companies that are now part of the MEDIPAL Group, we have recently started to consider Group company history, culture, and even management temperament alongside company size and business operation as important factors when developing company systems. The answer to governance structures is not one-size-fits-all. In order to make governance more effective across the Group, we will continue to investigate how to strengthen our governance systems with an approach founded on mutual respect and reflective of the circumstances at the various Group companies.

Continuing to Take on Challenges and Not Fear Change

Since our founding, we have continued to take on the challenge of expanding our business portfolio and not fear change as we strive to contribute to people’s health and the advancement of society. Our sustainability activities progressed into the execution phase in 2023 and we are now running our programs across the entire Group. Program continuity is key when promoting sustainability management. We will therefore collaborate with a wide range of partners while also proactively taking on new challenges, so that we connect to the future with “Energy and Brightness.”