Message
from the President
Placing our relationship of social trust at the core of my management agenda, I pledge to fulfill SMM’s responsibility to create a sustainable society.
My pledge as your new president
It is an honor to address readers of this Sustainability Report as
SMM’s new president, a position I was privileged to assume in
June 2024. In accepting this weighty responsibility, I pledge to
wholeheartedly embrace the “Sumitomo Business Spirit” passed
down by my predecessors and to maintain the Company’s solid
relationship of social trust as the core of my management agenda.
More than 35 years have passed since I joined SMM in 1987,
and in retrospect the bulk of that time I was directly involved in
production. A particularly memorable period is the two years,
from 2006 to 2008, I worked at HPAL plant in the Philippines.
After returning to Japan, I then served as General Manager of the
Niihama Nickel Refinery. In both postings, I gained precious and
valuable experience in hands-on operations. This long record of
working where MONOZUKURI (manufacturing and operation)
takes place now underpins my intent to focus on MONOZUKURI
RYOKU (manufacturing and operational capability) as the primary
source of the SMM Group’s competitive power.
Addressing material issues from both business and social perspectives
When the SMM Group set down its “Vision for 2030” as interim targets
in the runup to achieving the Company’s Long-Term Vision,
we identified eleven material issues of major importance in both
business and broad social terms.
In the 2023 fiscal year, we scored significant progress in addressing
a number of those issues. First, to offset climate change,
we formulated and announced an interim target and roadmap for
achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. Our new target is to cut the
Company’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in fiscal 2030 by 38%
or more compared to the level of fiscal 2015. We aim to achieve
this largely by developing technologies that will contribute to
reducing GHG emissions. Central to this program will be pursuit of
energy conversion: transitioning from heavy oil and coal to LNG
and biofuels.
In conjunction with our commitment to make optimally
effective use of non-ferrous metal resources, this past year we
began construction of a recycling plant for lithium-ion secondary
batteries, part of our quest to build a circular economy. The
plant will incorporate a “battery to battery” approach: recovering
non-ferrous metals from spent EV batteries and reusing the recovered
metals in new batteries. In the resource procurement phase
also, in fiscal 2023 we launched demonstration testing of Direct
Lithium Extraction (DLE), a technology that enables faster lithium
recovery with a light environmental load.
In other areas, as part of our ongoing efforts to prevent
serious environmental accidents, we are striving for proper
management of our tailings dams in line with the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM). In the context of promoting
human rights throughout our supply chain, we are also
focusing on maintaining responsible sourcing. Besides receiving
third-party certification for the Company’s smelters and refineries,
I aim to also further strengthen management throughout our
supply chain.
Two other material issues to which I am personally strongly
committed are “diverse human resources” and “development and
participation of human resources.” Expanding and improving
the human capital needed to sustain our MONOZUKURI RYOKU is
absolutely essential in order for us to fulfill our corporate mission
to maintain stable provision of non-ferrous metals. Under the
managerial track employees system revised in fiscal 2023, going
forward we will promote organizational vitalization through utilization
of our internal recruitment system (“Career Up Challenge
System”) and mid-career hiring. Through these and other steps,
we will create a free and open corporate culture whereby diverse
human resources can take a vibrant and active part.
Commitment to carrying on the Sumitomo Business Spirit and maintaining awareness toward acquiring social license
The Sumitomo Business Spirit incorporates two core ideas: jiri-rita,
i.e. bring benefit to oneself and to others, and koushi-ichinyo, i.e.
what benefits the public interest ultimately also benefits the individual.
In essence, they express the belief that Sumitomo’s business
operations must bring benefit not only to the Company itself but
also to the Japanese nation and, even more broadly, to the world as
a whole. What these ideas convey has much in common with the
“sustainable management” sought throughout society today.
Today, embracing a stance calling for proactive contributions
to solving social issues through our business operations is
absolutely necessary for the SMM Group if we are to become “the
world leader in the non-ferrous metals industry” as etched in our
Long-Term Vision. One contribution can be made by helping to
address climate change, an urgent issue affecting all mankind. In
the years ahead, demand for the non-ferrous metals which the
SMM Group produces – copper, nickel, cobalt, etc. – is projected
to increase in conjunction with measures for fighting climate
change: renewable energy-related facilities, EVs, etc. Today, as
excellent mines become fewer in number and securing mineral
resources becomes increasingly difficult, the SMM Group has a
social obligation to maintain stable supplies of such resources as a
way of contributing to the creation of a sustainable society.
At the same time, because the mineral resources industry
necessitates large-scale development, impact on local communities
is significant. As such, not only must we do everything conceivable
to minimize negative environmental and social impacts
during the development phase, before we proceed with a project
we must also acquire a social license from the regions affected for
what will eventuate after a development project has been terminated.
From my experience having been involved in starting up a
factory in the Philippines, I know the importance of engaging in
dialogue with members of the local communities. The experience
made me doubly aware that the SMM Group’s business is possible
only when understanding and cooperation are received from the
regions where mineral resources exist.
Ever since I joined the Company, from my occasional
instructions in the Sumitomo Business Spirit and from what I
have learned through the years at my worksites, I believe that
“co-existence and co-prosperity” with local communities should
be the core commitment of our business operations. Today, as
dramatic changes take place in the social landscape and our
business environment, carrying on “as usual” is not enough. Based
on firm recognition of current changes, we must expand our focus
to include the need to secure new social licenses that respond
to society’s evolving demands. I pledge to do precisely this in the
performance of my management duties going forward.
From my experience working in the Philippines, I came to feel
deeply that what is most important in management is to build
solid relationships of social trust throughout the performance
of one’s business operations. For the SMM Group to grow on a
sustained basis, it is indispensable that we win the trust not only of
the local communities impacted by our operations but of a broad
range of stakeholders. Based on this awareness, I pledge to fulfill
our social responsibilities in the performance of my new position.
This Sustainability Report was published to engender broad
understanding of the SMM Group’s initiatives being undertaken
to advance sustainability management. We hope the Report will
help deepen our dialogue with our stakeholders and promote
working together in initiatives to create a sustainable world.
Nobuhiro Matsumoto
President and Representative Director