The Great East Japan Earthquake struck the country on March 11 of this year, leaving tremendous damage in its wake. I pray from the bottom of my heart that those who lost their lives may know eternal peace, and humbly offer my condolences to everyone who has suffered from the disaster.
The Suntory Group is directing all of its energies to providing support for reconstruction and revitalization. We provided disaster areas with one million bottles of mineral water and 300 million yen in donations immediately after the earthquake. In addition, one yen from every can of soft drink and beer will be donated generating roughly 4 billion yen for revitalization efforts. This donation will provide hope and contribute to society in the future including the children and fisheries industry afflicted by the disaster.
Internationally, a sense of uncertainty is increasing when it comes to the political and economic situation, global competition is growing ever more fierce, and difficulties are arising in the business environment that surrounds the company. There has been heightened debate around the world surrounding renewable energy and the pros and cons of promoting nuclear power after the accident resulting from the Great East Japan Earthquake. We will confront the new challenges that arise to generate a more sustainable society.
Inspired by its motto of "Yatte Minahare—Go for it!" the Suntory Group has constantly challenged itself to explore new frontiers of value since its founding in 1899. Today, it is growing as a multi-faceted food and beverage company developing a variety of business such as liquors, soft drinks, health foods, restaurants, and flowers. Furthermore, to accelerate our globalization, we bolstered our structure by founding Suntory Beverage & Food Limited and Suntory (China) Holding Company, Limited in January of this year.
As the business of the Group grows worldwide, we seek to achieve coexistence with people around the world and with nature, based on our corporate philosophy of "In Harmony with People and Nature." I believe that the mission of the Suntory Group is not only to deliver goods and services of the highest quality based on what our customers want, but also to pass on in a sustainable fashion to our children and the generations to come the irreplaceable global environment as well as culturally rich lifestyles.
Shinjiro Torii, the founder of Suntory, strongly believed that "We are able to run our business smoothly thanks to stakeholders and society. This helps us not only to provide services to our customers and business partners and reinvest in our business, but also to make a contribution to society." On that basis, he took on social welfare activities with a passion. Hojukai got its start in 1921 as a free clinic; now celebrating its 90th anniversary, it remains a going concern today.
This belief has been developed further over the years and is with us today as the spirit of "Sharing the Profit with Society" which underpins the CSR activities of the Suntory Group.
Cultural contribution activities whose intent is to help people to have spiritually rewarding lives have also been actively promoted based on the spirit of "Sharing the Profit with Society." We are pursuing such activities with a new resolve this year, which marks the 50th anniversary of the Suntory Museum of Art and the 25th anniversary of the Suntory Hall.
We have also carved out a fresh start by following up on the creation of the Suntory Foundation for Arts in 2009 with the change of corporate status of the Suntory Foundation to a public interest incorporated foundation in May of last year, and with the incorporation of the Suntory Institute for Bioorganic Research under the new corporate status and name Suntory Foundation for Life Sciences this January. We reorganized their structures so they could stand on their own as corporations and make even greater contributions to promoting the arts, humanities, and life sciences.
I hope we will continue to provide abundant pleasure to society through our various cultural activities and contributions to the community.
It is the obligation of all companies as global citizens to take equal responsibility for reducing global environmental impact that comes with developing their businesses. Most of our businesses at Suntory Group are supported by such natural bounties as water and agricultural crops, and we are promoting environmental management geared toward sustainability based on our esteem and gratitude for the enormous blessings of nature. Under the guidance of the Environmental Sustainability Strategy Division that was founded last year, we are engaged in a variety of approaches that bring the Group together with the aims of achieving "water sustainability,""efficient use of resources," and a "low-carbon corporate structure."
As a company whose core business is delivering the blessings of water in the form of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, we have a particularly heavy responsibility when it comes to this irreplaceable resource. Since 2003, the Suntory Group has been making concerted efforts to maintain its Natural Water Sanctuaries, which are forests for water resource cultivation, in order to create supplies of groundwater beyond the volume used in our plants. We expect to expand the total area to 7,000 hectares during 2011, which has been designated the International Year of Forests by the United Nations. That would constitute an area even greater than that of inner Tokyo, a district whose boundaries are marked by the famous Yamanote loop train line. Furthermore, we are moving ahead in this effort with our eyes focused decades and even centuries into the future.
Suntory Group is also fleshing out various other approaches to Water Sustainability. These include being scrupulous about quality assurance with respect to water, conserving the water used in plants, strict waste water management, and implementing environmental education activities for children to convey to them the importance of water.
When it comes to ingredients and energy, as well, Suntory is strengthening its drive to promote "the Three Rs" (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) through constant technological innovation and is working on the thoroughly efficient use of resources. Every company in the Group is also bolstering its approach to global warming policies that call for a reduction in carbon emissions, not only by reducing direct outputs at plants and other sites, but also by setting emission reduction targets throughout the value chain, running from the procurement of ingredients to sales.
The Suntory Group is striving to be a company "Growing for Good" that coexists in harmony with people and nature while creating new value. It is my hope—and, I believe, the social responsibility of the Group—that Suntory continues to grow sustainably as a company so it can offer the best products and services yet, and also contribute to comfortable lifestyles and help the environment on a global scale.
We will continue to listen to what our stakeholders have to say as we steadily engage in activities that are rooted in our CSR vision of "Bringing Water to Life." I hope that we can count on your continued advice and support.
June 2011
Nobutada Saji
Chairman of the Board
Suntory Holdings Limited
