Message from the Sustainability Officer

Formulating our long-term vision and a new four-year business plan

In May 2024, the Daifuku Group announced our long-term vision, Driving Innovative Impact 2030, and our four-year business plan for 2027 (hereinafter referred to as the business plan). We are committed to contributing to the realization of a sustainable society through our business activities by setting integrated goals that take into account both economic and social values in our long-term vision—what we would like our company to look like in 2030—and in our business plan, which is our midpoint on the road to achieving that vision.
From fiscal 2021 through fiscal 2023, we promoted our sustainability initiatives based on the five themes and 18 priority topics established in the Sustainability Action Plan effective. However, from fiscal 2024 onward, in line with 10 frameworks and the priority topics linked to them, we will promote our initiatives as a unified Group in order to realize the long-term vision set out in this business plan.
In accordance with the long-term vision we have formulated, we are committed to further accelerating our initiatives focused on the future and realizing the economic and social value we must aim for.

Vision and Four-Year Business Plan
Materiality

Meeting society’s expectations at a higher standard

We have been actively promoting ESG (environmental, social, and governance) and SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) initiatives, but I believe that we must strive to meet the demands of society at an even higher level in the future.
In May 2023, we revised the Daifuku Environmental Vision 2050, which included raising the environmental targets for 2030; however, as we expect to achieve the targets we initially set ahead schedule, we made further revisions to one of our priority areas, addressing climate change, in May 2024. In addition to upwardly revising our company’s CO₂ emissions (Scope 1 and Scope 2) reduction targets for 2030 (compared to fiscal 2018) from 50.4% to 60%, we have also established a new target for the ratio of electricity derived from renewable energy sources, aiming for 80% by 2030 (Japan is expected to achieve 100% by 2027). We also aim to achieve our 2030 targets for emissions related to procurement activities and the operation of our products (Scope 3), which account for the majority of our CO₂ emissions. To do this, we will continue to focus on encouraging our main suppliers to reduce their emissions as well as making our own products and systems more efficient and energy-saving.
The Group also regards building a sustainable supply chain as one of our priority topics, and in January 2024, we established new Sustainable Procurement Guidelines that outline the standards we expect our suppliers to meet. These Guidelines require not only compliance with laws and regulations, but also respect for internationally recognized norms and principles, and we hope to work together with our business partners to resolve a wide range of social issues, such as climate change and human rights concerns.

Building an organization to realize further growth

We continue to view human capital initiatives as a priority topic, and in this business plan we will further expand on the efforts from our previous three-year business plan.
Until now, our Group has continued to grow under a business division system, implementing division-specific mechanisms that optimize both the division and its personnel while taking into account the characteristics of each business. However, in order to generate innovation in response to the rapid changes in the business environment, we need a system that can increase the fluidity of personnel between divisions, ensure that the right people are in the right place, and efficiently share and apply expertise within the company. Building on this recognition of these issues, we are aiming to build a foundation that will enable us to manage human resources across the entire Group from a more company-wide perspective. In fiscal 2023, we established a new Human Resources Committee to oversee the suitability and development of candidates for key positions (senior management), as well as their appointment and promotion. In order to achieve our targets for the adequacy of staffing in key positions, we will further promote the visualization of the experience and skill levels of human resources within the Group in addition to carrying out systematic training and placement. In Japan, we plan to expand the operation of the internal job posting system and internal secondment system, which were newly established in fiscal 2023.
Looking ahead, securing and developing talent in areas such as advanced technology and data science is a critical priority. While strengthening our collaboration with the CTO (Chief Technology Officer), CPO (Chief Production Officer), and CIO (Chief Information Officer), we are working to define a clear vision of the human resources that will support medium- to long-term growth and to create and implement strategies for attracting and developing this talent. Under our business plan, we will fortify training related to AI and digital transformation (DX) for various job types within the Group, and we will also consider new systems and policies for highly skilled personnel.

Strengthening sustainability and governance

We reviewed the structure of our sustainability-related committees in fiscal 2024 in order to further stimulate discussions that focus on improving corporate value over the medium to long term and to strengthen our ability to respond to the priority topics that have been identified. From fiscal 2020 to fiscal 2023, we addressed sustainability-related priority topics through the Sustainability Committee, chaired by the CEO, but we have reorganized this structure into the Sustainability Management Committee and its subordinate organization, the Sustainability Promotion Committee. The former will be used to verify the progress and results of strategies such as the business plan as well as to hold important discussions on management strategy, in order to enhance management. The latter will study and execute more specific measures at the operational level based on our management strategy. By clearly defining the roles of each committee and ensuring that they function as complements to each other, we will boost the effectiveness of our sustainability initiatives.

To our stakeholders

Our Group is a corporation that plays an indispensable role in the world’s social infrastructure. We believe that we have a mission to create a better society in which people can live prosperous lives. To sustain our position as a company that is trusted and relied on by society, we will continue to engage in dialogue with our stakeholders and challenge ourselves to improve our corporate value and realize a sustainable society. We would like to ask for your continued guidance and support.