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Promoting CSR Procurement

Brother's CSR

  • 8 DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
  • 12 RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION

Promoting CSR Procurement with Suppliers

The Brother Group publishes its "Procurement Policy" and "CSR Procurement Standards"

The Brother Group makes its "Procurement Policy" and "CSR Procurement Standards" publicly available to share its CSR procurement concept with parts and materials suppliers. The policy and standards cover a wide range of fields, including human rights and labor, the rights to organize and bargain collectively, safety and health, global environmental protection, fair trade and ethics, product quality and safety, raw materials, information security, and social contribution. The Brother Group complies with local laws and regulations and supports workers' collective bargaining rights by conducting collective negotiations and respecting communication between management and employees on working conditions and management practices. In addition, in January 2019, the Group joined the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) to better correct and assess risks such as human rights and labor, safety and health, the reduction of environment impacts in its supply chain. At suppliers explanatory meetings in Japan and abroad, we explained the "CSR Procurement Standards" for the Brother Group to our suppliers in FY2020. We are also asking suppliers to sign a consent form that confirms their intent to adhere to the CSR Procurement Standards.
In addition, we request that suppliers regularly cooperate by partaking in our CSR questionnaire, a questionnaire survey on slave (forced) labor with the goal of preventing forced labor, and a conflict minerals survey to confirm whether a supplier is using minerals that are mined by smelters in war zones and are confirming whether this is being reflected in our shared "Procurement Policy" and "CSR Procurement Standards."

The Brother Group remains committed to promoting CSR procurement together with its suppliers.

Procurement policy

  • The Brother Group acts fairly with all suppliers.
  • The Brother Group respects the rules and spirit of laws in all countries and regions where we operate, and builds strong, respectful working relationships with suppliers for mutual growth.
  • The Brother Group promotes environmentally friendly "green procurement," and reduces impact on the environment through the lifecycle of its products.
  • The Brother Group places our customers first everywhere, every time, while remaining committed to delivering high quality products and services at reasonable costs.
  • The Brother Group considers issues concerning conflict minerals* as very important matters, and will take proactive approaches toward responsible procurement of minerals.
  • Conflict minerals are minerals unrightfully mined in a conflict zone. Trading of conflict minerals helps finance armed groups and results in human right violations, labor maltreatment, environmental destructions, etc. in the areas, which has been plagued by regional conflict.

CSR procurement standards

The Brother Group procures products and services from business partners that adhere to the following guidelines:

Labor
  • Respect for Human Rights and Prohibition of Discrimination
    Respect fundamental human rights of all people, and do not discriminate by race, nationality, gender, religion or creed.
  • Prohibition of Child Labor and Forced Labor
    Do not enforce unfair labor practices and illegal labor of children at any production stage.
  • Appropriate Management of Working Conditions and Prevention of Overwork
    Appropriately manage employees' working conditions including working hours in accordance with local labor laws and regulations, and prevent overwork with consideration for employees' health such as by providing adequate rest days.
  • Guarantee of Minimum Wage
    Pay wages higher than the legal minimum in accordance with local labor laws and regulations, and do not reduce wages unfairly.
  • Guarantee of Freedom of Association and Support for Collective Bargaining Rights
    Respect the rights of employees to associate freely with others and join or not join the association as a means to facilitate consultation between labor and management over working conditions, working environment, wage levels, etc. In addition, support collective bargaining rights and hold sincere consultations and discussions with employees.
Safety and Health
  • Health and Safety Conscious working Environment
    Ensure the safety and health of employees and act to create a comfortable working environment.
Environment
  • Environmental Consciousness
    Take proactive measures to protect the global environment. Comply with the Brother Group Green Procurement Standard.
Ethics
  • Legal Compliance
    Respect the rules and spirit of laws, and act fairly with the highest integrity.
  • Adequate Information Management
    Have a framework for managing information in place, and keep personal information and confidential information secure.
  • Responsible Minerals Procurement
    To promote responsible minerals procurement, try to avoid using unrightfully mined minerals from conflict zones as raw materials in reference to the Conflict Minerals Response Policy.
Management System
  • Provision of Superior Quality
    Work on building a framework for delivering safe, high quality products and services to customers who use our products and services.
  • Continuous Improvement of Activities
    Use CSR procurement questionnaires, surveys and others that we provide you and try to make continuous, PDCA-conscious improvements in responding to social requirements.
Contribution to Sustainable Society
  • Social Contribution in Consideration of Communities and the Environment
    Make efforts to become a good corporate citizen through social contribution activities while sharing our social, economic and cultural resources in communities and considering the global environment.
Request for Cooperation to Business Partners
  • Request for Cooperation to Your Business Partners
    Request your business partners to cooperate with our efforts to fulfill our social responsibilities from the viewpoints of legal compliance, human rights, labor, safety and health, environment, ethics, management system, etc. stated in these CSR Procurement Standards.

Conflict Minerals Response Policy

A part of minerals (tantalum, tin, gold and tungsten) produced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighboring countries in Africa are some sources of funds for local armed groups, and there are concerns that transactions for such minerals may promote conflicts and involve matters such as human rights violations, labor issues and environmental destruction problems.
These minerals are called "conflict minerals," and the Brother Group recognizes the issue regarding them as an important issue from a corporate perspective to fulfill its corporate social responsibility (CSR).
The Brother Group makes efforts to avoid the use of those minerals by means such as carrying out a use survey and, in cooperation with suppliers, will steadily carry out such efforts.

State of Efforts to Deal with Conflict Minerals in the Brother Group

The Brother Group has examined systems and methods to deal with the issue of conflict minerals since 2014 and established a working group in which related business units including units in charge of purchasing, law or CSR affairs participate. Currently, the Group deals with this issue in a comprehensive manner.
The Brother Group has been carrying out a conflict minerals survey once a year since 2016 targeting suppliers that supply raw materials or parts used in the Group's products. In this survey, the Group uses the Conflict Minerals Reporting Template (CMRT) provided by the Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI)* to verify the content of conflict minerals, identify smelters and refiners in the supply chain of the Brother Group, and confirm the state of efforts made by each supplier toward the issue of conflict minerals.
The Brother Group also requests that suppliers understand what the Group thinks through means such as the CSR Procurement Standards and work on procurement activities to avoid the use of conflict minerals.
In 2019, the Brother Group carried out the survey and obtained answers from more than 95% of the targeted suppliers. The Group will make ongoing efforts to obtain answers from all of such suppliers. The Group also appropriately answered and dealt with inquiries from customers about the conflict minerals survey by means such as the submission of CMRT.

  • Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI): An organization that promotes the responsible procurement of minerals globally in cooperation with companies. Brother Industries, Ltd. is a member of this organization.

Brother Is Committed to Building a Trusting Relationship with Its Suppliers

Brother offers feedback on CSR questionnaire

The Brother Group implements CSR questionnaire activities over a three year cycle for suppliers in China, Vietnam and the Philippines, where the manufacturing facilities of the Printing & Solutions Division (P&S) are located. In the first year, we request suppliers to take and return the questionnaire. In the second year, we make a close inspection of the results collected and provide feedback to suppliers and request they develop improvement plans. In the third year, we conduct on-site confirmation of improvements performed in line with the improvement plans. Through these undertakings, the Brother Group and its suppliers make an effort to comply with "Procurement Policy" and "CSR Procurement Standards."

In the FY2018 CSR questionnaire, we confirmed the activities of our suppliers with regards to healthy working environment, workplace safety, environmental conservation, ethical business activities, product quality and safety, social contribution, and the establishment of in-house frameworks. The questions about environmental conservation efforts ask respondents to provide numerical values, such as the greenhouse gas emissions produced by their company (in terms of CO2-equivalent emissions) and the amount of water withdrawal. Some suppliers also set their reduction targets in these categories and report on the degree of achievement of the targets.

In FY2019, we tallied and analyzed the completed questionnaires collected from around 500 suppliers who responded to our CSR questionnaire, and provided information on the standards, trends, supplier activity level and other data for each region. In addition, we had these suppliers establish improvement plans in areas in the questionnaire where they answered "not implemented." In FY2020, we plan to check manufacturing facilities, including visiting suppliers, to confirm the progress being made in their respective improvement plans.

Make revised version of CSR Procurement Standards(RBA compliance) common knowledge at the supplier explanatory meeting in FY2020

In June FY2020, we held an explanatory meeting for suppliers, including an online meeting, at P&S manufacturing facilities in Japan and Vietnam. There were 217 people from 129 companies that participated in the meeting. We are working to thoroughly make the revised version of our CSR Procurement Standards common knowledge among our suppliers. In China, the Philippines and other areas where we did not hold explanatory meetings, we used communication tools, including email, to contact suppliers and share information.

At the explanatory meetings in Japan and Vietnam, we requested that suppliers "fully comply with laws and ordinances," "comply with the revised version of CSR Procurement Standards," "revise the CSR questionnaire in FY2021," and take a "questionnaire survey on forced labor." In addition, we explained the fortification of risk management response while reviewing the handling of COVID-19.

Suppliers that participated in the policy explanatory meeting voiced their consent of the Brother CSR Procurement Policy. These are some of the comments we received—"Brother's policy on social issues, including the strengthening of SDG initiatives, resonate with us;" "Regarding compliance with laws and ordinances, our company also advocates compliance management and corresponds with the Brother's targets;" "We understand the background for the revision to CSR Procurement Standards, as a part of Brother's SDG initiatives;" and "As a supplier, we aim to respond to Brother's expectations."

The Brother Group aims to grow together with its suppliers while remaining committed to establishing a good relationship with them through communication.

Brother holds training sessions to familiarize its suppliers with the Brother Group CSR Procurement Standards

In FY2019, Brother hosted training sessions on the Brother Group CSR Procurement Standards in its main manufacturing facilities outside Japan to share the standards with its suppliers. These sessions, which were attended by a total of 37 partner companies and 67 individuals, helped the participants understand the Brother Group CSR Procurement Standards by providing an explanation on them. In addition, the participants were engaged in group discussions on social themes, such as human rights, occupational safety and health, and local society, and on other themes, such as the environment, legal compliance, and ethics, while sharing their findings and best practices.

Brother will continuously strive to familiarize more suppliers with the Brother Group CSR Procurement Standards through this type of study sessions.

Training session on the CSR Procurement Standards at an overseas facility Training session on the CSR Procurement Standards at an overseas facility

Promoting CSR Activities at Suppliers in Part Through Workplace Visits and the Selection of Outstanding CSR Activities

Implementing questionnaires on supplier CSR activities and visits to supplier companies at each manufacturing facility; Selected three Outstanding CSR Suppliers in China from submitted entries

Aiming to further promote the CSR activities of its suppliers, the Brother Group has been conducting questionnaire surveys about their CSR efforts and, selecting and honoring excellent ones since 2015 at its three manufacturing factories of the Machinery business, including Kariya Factory, Brother Machinery Xian Co., Ltd., and Brother Machinery Vietnam Co., Ltd.

In FY2019, questionnaire surveys and audits were conducted in Japan, China and Vietnam.
In Japan, questionnaire surveys on CSR activities were implemented in two rounds and responses were received from a total of 86 supplier companies. In the questionnaire survey, emphasis was placed on reviewing previous CSR activities and confirming current conditions of suppliers with the goal of further improving and reinforcing CSR activities at suppliers going forward.

We also carried out a questionnaire survey at suppliers in China as well. We received responses from 74 companies. Furthermore, we asked suppliers to submit examples of their CSR activities. Of the submissions we received from 50 companies, we divided our suppliers into three categories based on scale, and selected one outstanding CSR company per category. We actually conducted on-site inspections for each supplier that was selected to confirm conditions. The award-winning suppliers were actively engaging in various activities, including enthusiastically training their employees, employing the physically impaired and maintaining the labor environment.

In addition, in Vietnam we conducted fact-finding investigations and audits related to CSR procurement activities at 22 suppliers. Of these, at suppliers where we audited compliance to the Brother Group Green Procurement Standards, we requested improvement in those areas that were not in conformance with these standards. At nine suppliers we conducted an electrical safety audit accompanied by the Japanese staff member in charge of electrical facilities. We aimed to strengthen follow-ups where needed.

The Brother Group continually strives to develop relations of mutual trust with its business partners and grow together with them to quickly deliver superior value to customers.

FY2019 award-winning company
BROTHER MACHINERY XIAN CO., LTD., Outstanding CSR award

  • C&U XIAN ELECTROMECHANICAL CO., LTD. (Large scale)
  • ZHANGJIAGANG JINCAIYANG MACHINERY CO., LTD. (Medium scale)
  • XI'AN QING'AN PACKAGING INDUSTRY CO., LTD. (Small scale)

Electrical facilities audit in Vietnam Electrical facilities audit in Vietnam

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