METI to establish Working Group on Efficient Collection and Strategic Use of Sustainability

As various sustainability challenges—such as climate change and human rights—surface and become increasingly complex, companies are putting sustainability at the core of their management and promoting efforts to make management more resilient and sustainable.

In addition, investors—particularly long-term active investors—are putting more emphasis on sustainability-related information in addition to financial information evaluating the sustainability of corporate value. Furthermore, more and more investors are calling on companies to disclose sustainability-related information, and standards are being developed in many countries and regions on the disclosure of sustainability-related information.

In light of these developments, the Working Group on Efficient Collection and Strategic Use of Sustainability-Related Data for Creation of Sustainable Corporate Value will be newly established under the Study Group on Disclosure Policies for Non-financial Information to promote the accurate and efficient collection and strategic use of sustainability-related data from companies, and to discuss how to address issues and form policies to reform management and businesses to create long-term, sustainable corporate value.

Note: “Sustainability-related data” is facts, figures, and other information related to sustainability (e.g., raw data on GHG emissions collected from each site or base) collected from within the company or its group companies for disclosures, management, or other purposes. “Sustainability-related information” is facts, figures, and other information related to sustainability that have been processed (e.g., the group’s GHG emissions over a five-year period, comparisons with the industry averages, and qualitative information such as evaluations and analyses, mainly for the purpose of disclosing integrated reports and other items).

The members are as listed in the attached document, “About the Establishment of a Working Group on Efficient Collection and Strategic Use of Sustainability-related Data for Creation of Sustainable Corporate Value.”

The first meeting will be held on December 13 (Tue.). Meetings will be held approximately once a month after the first one, aiming to prepare an interim report including identification and classification of challenges related to the collection and use of sustainability-related information and other items by next spring.
And then they will also discuss policies to address each challenge while considering progressive efforts and other activities in Japan and abroad.
The working group’s meetings will be conducted privately to ensure that its members can exchange views openly and freely, but the secretariat will prepare and release materials and summaries of the minutes.