To ESG Investors and Experts
Promote ESG management
The AEON Mall Group strives to achieve ESG-oriented management that will achieve sustained growth and medium- to long-term enhancement of our corporate value. To meet this challenge, we have defined our materialities as developing community and social Infrastructure, building bridges to local communities, the environment, diversity and work-style reform, and accountability in business.
In addition to practicing management from an ESG perspective to realize sustained growth and medium- to long-term enhancement of our corporate value, we are working to achieve sustained growth together with our communities by making ESG-oriented reforms in how we deal with COVID-19 and by creating economic, social, and environmental value.
The current business environment surrounding AEON MALL reflects the emergence of large shopping centers and high-growth retail markets in connection with overseas GDP growth on the one hand, and accelerated mall openings by competing developers and concerns about a slowing Chinese economy on the other. Other emerging factors include demographic changes in Japan (declining population, aging society, low birthrates), as well as changing family compositions, and changes in consumer behavior, including e-commerce, budget-mindedness, sharing economies, etc. In this changing environment, we will strive to achieve ESG-oriented management, defining materialities in terms of regional and social infrastructure development, local community ties, the environment, diversity, work-style reform, and responsible business.
Our Vision for 2025 encompasses more than generating profits from malls in Japan. We aim to build a portfolio consisting of multiple businesses, while becoming a top-class global commercial developer with consolidated operating income in excess of ¥90 billion. Further, we plan to be active in floor space expansions and renovations, evolving into the overwhelmingly dominant mall in each region. For our overseas business, we aim to achieve an operating margin of 25% across 50 malls, working at the same level of efficiency and scale as our domestic operations. By so doing, we aim to record consolidated operating revenue of ¥440 billion with consolidated operating income of ¥90 billion.
AEON MALL pursues ESG-oriented management in line with the Basic Policy on Sustainability of the AEON Group. We have in turn drawn up the AEON MALL Co., Ltd. Environmental Policies based on the AEON Basic Policy on Sustainability.
AEON Basic Policy on Sustainability
We at AEON operate on the basic principles of pursuing peace, respecting humanity, and contributing to local communities, always with the customer’s point of view as its core. Based on these, it is our goal to achieve a sustainable society and grow as a group. In our endeavors we think globally both on the environment and society. Our actions are rooted in each community and we move forward together with our many stakeholders.
AEON MALL Co., Ltd. Environmental Policies
AEON MALL aims to realize a sustainable society by creating malls that minimize the impact on the environment while effectively utilizing resources and energy and raising the quality of service. We have prescribed Environmental Policies as follows and will work accordingly to promote communications with our numerous customers and contribute to communities.
- AEON MALL shall contribute to the mitigation of climate change and adaptation to climate change.
- AEON MALL shall realize zero-emission malls to conserve the earth’s resources and to build a recycling-oriented society.
- AEON MALL shall promote the protection of biodiversity and ecosystems.
- AEON MALL shall contribute to improving the living environments of our partners, including our customers, as well as to the development and environmental protection of local communities.
- AEON MALL shall comply with environmental laws and regulations as well as with the required matters we have decided to accept.
- AEON MALL shall build an Environmental Management System, formulate targets and build a system for preventing contamination in each department as well as promote continuous improvements to raise environmental performance.
- AEON MALL shall raise environmental awareness among all employees and widen our circle of initiatives with customers and partners.
- These policies shall be made known to our employees as well as partners, while publicly disclosing our environmental information.
The Materiality Analysis Process
1
Identify Topics
We identified relevant social issues by referencing sources including DJSI*1, FTSE*2, GRI, generally accepted industry issues, etc. The AEON MALL Group defined 34 topics related to our business in Japan and overseas, reflecting SDGs and issues specific to Japanese society.
*2 FTSE:The London-based FTSE calculates and manages stock indices.
2
Importance to Stakeholders
We used SASB* and other guidelines, as well as categories used by ESG benchmarking organizations, to assess importance to stakeholders.
3
Importance to AEON MALL
We used our management philosophy and medium-term management plan to ascertain the importance of these topics to AEON MALL.
4
Confirm Relevance
Finally, we confirmed the relevance (materiality analysis process and results) of these topics from the standpoint of our outside independent directors and in consideration of the unique AEON MALL business model. We revised group-wide materiality based on these opinions and then confirmed the topics in a meeting of the CSR Council (currently the ESG Promotion Committee).
Process to Identify Materialities
We conducted a materiality analysis that considers the global SDGs plus social issues unique to Japan. We assessed the importance of the issues we listed to stakeholders and AEON MALL, then classified the important materialities into 10 categories in five areas.
Measures Addressing Materialities
| Materiality | Related SDGs | Main measures | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Developing community and social infrastructure | Developing sustainable and resilient infrastructure |   |
Developing safe, secure, and comfortable facilities Developing malls that promote the unique character of the community Town planning for disaster prevention Expansion of public functions Promote the use of electric vehicles (EVs) Promote the use of public transportation |
| Production and consumption formats | |||
| Build community relationships | Cultural preservation and inheritance |  |
Happiness Mall initiative Hyper-localization that enhances the attractiveness of the community AEON Yume-Mirai Nursery SchoolAEON Yume-Mirai Nursery School |
| Low birth rates, aging society | |||
| Environment | Climate change, global warming |      |
Responding to climate change and global warming AEON Hometown Forest Project (biodiversity) Obtaining ABINC certification (biodiversity) Recycling waste products |
| Protecting biodiversity, resources | |||
| Diversity and work-style reform | Health and welfare |   |
Globalization of human resources Nadeshiko Brand Improving employee satisfaction (ES) |
| Diversity, work-styles | |||
| Promote responsible business | Human rights |   |
Human Rights Policies, Systems, and Training Initiatives to Prevent Corruption |
| Bribery | |||