We consider that initiatives to ensure sustainability are essential for a company with continuous business activities, and that a company cannot fulfil its social responsibility without dealing with sustainability issues. Since its foundation, StemRIM has pursued development of “Regeneration-Inducing Medicine^™”, with the aim of delivering groundbreaking new medicines to patients around the world. To achieve this, we consider that, at the same time as taking on further challenges, work on sustainability initiatives is also indispensable. StemRIM will identify social problems in its medium-to-long-term business areas, and pursue initiatives to create a sustainable society, from environmental, social and governance perspectives.

Environmental management

In our everyday lives, we consume large amounts of energy. This energy consumption provides us with a convenient and comfortable lifestyle, but at the same time it produces an extremely large quantity of CO2, exacerbating global warming, which is becoming a threat to our ecosystem. At StemRIM, we are pursuing activities to help achieve a globally sustainable society by utilizing all of our business assets with maximal effectiveness. Through strict separation of categories of waste materials and saving electricity, we are reducing CO²output to contribute to the building of a better society.

Initiatives to reduce CO² output

All employees at StemRIM recognize the problems relating to environmental and social sustainability and are working on initiatives to reduce CO2 output. We use our limited resources to the maximum extent to contribute to building a low-carbon-output society. Specifically, we are working on the following initiatives.

• Encouraging saving of electricity in rooms that are not in use
• Switching off some of the indoor lighting in internal corridors to save electricity
• Placing plants in rooms that people use to contribute to the reduction of CO²
• Placing blinds on windows to increase the efficiency of air cooling systems

Initiatives to preserve biodiversity

We will strive to comply with the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity with regard to the use of materials such as genetically modified organisms, and ensure that they are handled appropriately.

Waste output

We are striving to create a recycling-oriented society through the separation of waste and increasing the ratio of recycled waste. We review the consumption of unnecessary goods, and take initiatives to achieve a recycling-oriented society.Specifically, we are working on the following initiatives.

• Using monitors for meetings, to create a paperless working environment
• Using the reverse side of paper documents and reducing the amount of paper copies
• Encouraging the use of reusable containers

Social Initiatives

Consideration for human rights

Basic philosophy

Human rights are the rights of each individual person based on human dignity, and it is considered that a society that respects human rights is a society where humans retain their dignity and can fulfil their potential, regardless of differences such as nationality, sex or age. All companies are members of society, and are required to value people and to respect human rights. StemRIM contributes to achieving a sustainable society by pursuing business management practices that respect human rights. All employees have the awareness that they are members of society and aim to create an environment where individuals can fulfil their maximum potential.

Diversity

Basic philosophy

StemRIM pursues activities with the aim of providing a workplace environment where personnel affirm each other regardless of difference in sex, age, nationality, educational history, working history, employment status or the like, and where individuals can realize their potential to the full.

Providing opportunities for women

In Japan, the speed of the decline in birth rate is of the highest level even among developed countries, and with the continuing increase in the elderly population and decrease in birth rate, leading to the decline in the population of productive age, providing opportunities for women is considered a pressing issue, and is positioned as one of the government’s strategies for growth. At StemRIM, the percentage of female employees is 57.9%, much higher than the mean figure of 23.6% for the top 10 major pharmaceutical companies, we aim to empower our female employees, both in order to respond to the expectations of society and from the perspective of corporate competitiveness through diversity.

Work-life balance

At StemRIM, to improve the work-life balance of employees and enable flexible work styles, we have introduced a system with staggered work hours and a system of shortened working hours for employees raising children. We also work to support flexible time management, for example by allowing each employee to take lunch breaks freely, to suit their own working needs.

Employment of disabled people

At StemRIM, we strive to create a workplace environment where both people with disabilities and people without disabilities can work, without any distinction between them. We are strengthening our employment of personnel with a high degree of ability and suitability, regardless of whether or not they have disabilities.

A healthy and safe workplace environment

Basic philosophy

Major changes are a characteristic of the modern corporate environment, and the “health of employees and their families” is a factor that can have a major impact on a company’s business. The continuing rise in national healthcare costs makes increase health insurance fees, which threatens to result in an increased burden for companies.

At StemRIM, we consider “health” to be not merely the absence of illness or injury. Rather, we consider true “health” to be a state where a person is of sound mind and body and able to perform work. We recognize that each employee is a valuable business resource that enables the company to survive, and endeavor to create a healthy and safe workplace environment. We strive to create a workplace environment where all employees can fulfil their maximum potential, continuing to further the development of the company and enjoying a good work-life balance.

Corporate health policy

At StemRIM, we consider that in all work, the health and safety of employees is of the highest priority. We strive to ensure that employees are in good mental and physical health and to create a workplace environment where they can fulfil their maximum potential.

Work safety and hygiene

At StemRIM, in our day-to-day research and work, we put the health and safety of employees first. We plan to continue to enhance work safety and hygiene initiatives, to build a workplace environment that is free of accidents.

Disaster prevention training

We perform fire-fighting training twice per year, to increase employees’ awareness of disaster prevention.

Ethical considerations in research and development

Basic philosophy

In the research and development process for drug discovery, there is an increased need for thorough ethical consideration, for example with the increasing need for research using human-derived materials. At StemRIM, we make efforts to comply with the relevant regulations, including the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Act (formerly the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law), with the aim of respecting human rights, protecting personal information and ensuring the reliability of our research results.

Maintaining animal rearing facilities world-class standards of consideration for animal welfare and proper management of experiments

Experiments using animals are essential to examine the efficacy and safety of medicines. At StemRIM, we strive to ensure the proper management of rearing of animals used in experiments and the appropriate conduct of animal experiments from a scientific perspective, while also bearing in mind the perspective of animal welfare.

Initiatives to prevent misconduct in research activities

At StemRIM, through weekly research meetings between directors and research managers, we confirm the progress made in our work and make efforts to perform mutual checks that there is no misconduct in our research activities.

Contributing to local communities

StemRIM makes contributions to the “NPO Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa Research Association of Japan (DebRA Japan)” and the “Social Welfare Corporation Fukusei Asebi-kai (Foundation for Patients of Rare Intractable Diseases)”. We contribute to activities supporting patients with rare intractable diseases.