The opinions about AGC Group's CSR activities

• Compliance
• Environmental Activities
• Occupational Health & Safety
• Employee Satisfaction (ES): Employee Job Satisfaction and Pride in Accomplishment
• Social Contribution Activities

About AGC Group CSR Report

Editorial Policy of AGC Group CSR Report

This report is designed to communicate, in a clear manner, how Asahi Glass Company (AGC) Group is striving to fulfill its corporate social responsibility (CSR).
Featured articles outline how the Glass, Electronics and Chemicals companies are committed to providing "Technology solutions for climate change," which is a target set in our management policy. These articles also show how AGC Group's innovative technologies, particularly those related to manufacturing processes and products, contribute to bettering the global environment.
In the pages outlining the "Report on AGC Group's CSR Activities," which are structured based on the items of the AGC Group Charter of Corporate Behavior, details of the activities are reported with specific examples, including their concepts, targets, results, challenges, and implementation systems.

Procedures for the Creation of the CSR Report

We have created this report by following the procedures described below:

Scope of Reporting

Reference Guidelines

Sustainability Reporting Guidelines 2006, Global Reporting Initiative
Environmental Reporting Guidelines (2007), Japanese Ministry of the Environment

Publication

June 2010

We Have Received Third-Party Opinions about AGC Group CSR Report 2010

Mr. Eiichiro Adachi
Research Chief
Head of ESG Research Center
The Japan Research Institute, Ltd.

This CSR report is all-encompassing and appropriately communicates AGC Group's commitment to fulfilling its CSR through a PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, and Act) cycle and contributing to the global environment by the use of innovative technologies and products. I also highly appreciate that the Group has shown its future vision in its “Aspirations for 2020.”
The report, however, also clearly shows the challenges that AGC Group must meet to accomplish more in its CSR activities. AGC Group is a global corporate entity; on a consolidated basis, 73% of its employees work outside Japan and 53% of its sales are obtained outside the country. Moreover, it is reported that 29% of its outstanding shares are owned by non-Japanese entities such as foreign corporations. The Group therefore cannot show the whole picture of its activities or communicate all necessary information by only introducing its activities in Japan.
For example, with regard to AGC Group's greenhouse gas emissions, emissions in Japan account for only 27% of the total. Regarding the related environmental indicators, however, this report shows only unconsolidated data for Asahi Glass. The Group's greenhouse gas emissions per unit of sales in each of the regions outside Japan are double the amount in Japan, and I want to know what efforts the Group is making to reduce its emissions overseas as well as actual achievements. There are no comments about the Group's management of chemical substances in foreign countries in this report. Also for information about occupational accidents, the report says the Group has been tabulating data for the entire Group since 2007, but contains no information about the tabulation results. AGC Group has set the target of lowering its environmental indicator for greenhouse gases to below 1.3 after fiscal 2010, and I expect that it will build a globally integrated environmental management system to attain this target.
In the “Respect for People” chapter as well, the report seems to focus a bit too much on topics in Japan. It is true that human resource exchanges can provide a good starting point to increase diversity, but I think it is necessary for the Group to go as far as appointing the right person for the right job on a global scale if it wants to achieve diversity in a true sense. In the “Compliance” section, the report says that the Group received 404 inquiries and questions through its Help Lines and I am interested to know how many of them have led to actual improvements. The report also says the Group will implement measures to increase the awareness of “AGC Group Purchasing Policy” across the globe and I will monitor the progress regarding this matter. In the feature articles, green procurement efforts made by the In-house Companies are described. It is indeed important for these companies to foster green procurement across their supply chains, in view of the fact that the natural environment tends to be destroyed and human rights tend to be violated in a more conspicuous manner in the most upstream portion of a supply chain, for example when resources are exploited.
I expect AGC Group, which aspires to become an excellent global corporation entity that contributes to the growth of newly developing regions and also advocates diversity among its 50,000 employees as a core strength, to advance to the next stage in its CSR activities.

* In this third-party opinion, I have made comments about AGC Group's social and environmental activities and the disclosure of related information based on my understanding of this CSR report in my capacity as a researcher who provides financial institutions with corporate information necessary for making socially responsible investments. Please note that the comments do not constitute a judgment about whether the data contained in this report was measured and calculated according to the criteria for environmental and other reports that are publicly approved to be fair and appropriate and whether the report contains all necessary information.

In Response to the Third-Party Opinions

Tokio Matsuo
Executive Officer
General Manager of CSR Office
Asahi Glass Co., Ltd.

AGC Group has shown its future vision in “Aspirations for 2020”. To achieve this vision, which demonstrates our commitment to making contributions to a sustainable society, we must give first priority to the climate change problem, and accordingly we have introduced our measures for this theme in the feature articles of this CSR Report as we did in the previous CSR Report. In this report, we have also introduced the measures implemented by each of our In-house Companies in their respective business processes.
In the pages on our CSR activities, we have included more information about the targets and results which enrich our PDCA cycle in reference to the third-party opinion we have received. Moreover, believing it important to listen to a range of stakeholders and incorporate their opinions in our CSR activities, we have asked several experts to give their opinions on the individual activity areas introduced in this report in addition to asking for another opinion on the entire report. We also held a dialogue meeting at a plant of Asahi Glass to ask the opinions of local stakeholders.
Our CSR activities have been improved year by year, but the third-party opinions have made us recognize that we must meet yet more challenges, including the implementation of global measures in an accelerated manner. By tackling these challenges, we will achieve our vision shown in the Aspirations for 2020 and become a corporate group that is trusted and supported by society. We look forward to also receiving frank opinions and comments from the readers of this report.