CSR Management

Approach to CSR Management and ISO 26000

CSR Management Basic Policies and Promotion Framework

NEC's Seven CSR Initiatives

Main Activities and Results (Fiscal 2012)

Monitoring and Improvement

External Ratings and Reviews

Participation in Activities of External Organizations

Objectives and Achievements

Approach to CSR Management and ISO 26000 -Fulfilling Social Responsibilities Through Stakeholder Engagement-

At NEC, we consider CSR initiatives to be inseparable from corporate activities. We aim to ensure the sustainable development of society and the NEC Group by implementing The NEC Way, with corporate governance as our foundation.

Under this premise, each organization at the NEC Group has established and is working toward medium-term goals, with the aim of realizing an "information society friendly to humans and the earth," as set forth in NEC Group Vision 2017 based on its Corporate Philosophy.
In the course of daily operations, every officer and employee rigorously adheres to corporate ethics and compliance standards, and strives to practice the NEC Group Core Values (what we value and base our behavior on). Our important responsibilities also include ensuring full accountability through the active disclosure of information on the results of our CSR initiatives and related issues, and communicating with stakeholders to improve our corporate activities and build relationships of trust.

In 2010, NEC introduced ISO 26000 as the foundation for these activities, and has worked to expand this standard to the whole organization. The NEC Group has promoted CSR activities based on the following three basic CSR policies: "Strengthen risk management and enforce compliance," "Contribute to solving social issues through business activities," and "Promote communications with stakeholders."
These policies are based on the same approach as that expected by ISO 26000, namely "fulfilling social responsibilities through stakeholder engagement." NEC considers CSR-driven management to be management based on the foregoing approaches.
For the purpose of conducting CSR activities, NEC has selected 7 priority initiatives that are important to both society and NEC and is giving precedence to these initiatives. The relationship between the 7 priority initiatives and ISO 26000 are shown in the diagram below.

CSR Management Basic Policies and Promotion Framework

Basic Policies

1．Strengthen risk management and enforce compliance

NEC is strengthening risk management and compliance within its own organization as well as at Group companies and suppliers, to ensure that NEC products or services, employee actions or other factors do not result in incidents or wrongdoing that cause problems for customers or other stakeholders.

2．Contribute to solving social issues through business activities

NEC seeks to solve issues that affect customers and society through innovation in its business activities and through social contribution programs undertaken as a good corporate citizen.

3．Promote communications with stakeholders

NEC actively discloses everyday activities to stakeholders and society at large in publications such as the CSR Report to fulfill its accountability to them by explaining such activities. Furthermore, by continuously implementing improvement measures through PDCA cycles based on feedback from society, NEC will build relationships of trust with stakeholders.

Promotion Framework

CSR Promotion Committee

Chaired by the executive with responsibility for CSR, this committee has as its principal members the president, senior executive vice president, the heads of each Business Unit (BU) and the executives responsible for NEC Corporation corporate staff divisions. Meeting as a rule twice a year, it is a forum for discussions on important matters relating to the promotion of CSR-driven management.

Risk Control and Compliance Committee

This committee has as its principal members the executives responsible for NEC Corporation corporate staff divisions. Meeting as a rule every month, it is a forum for studying and discussing key matters relating to the promotion of risk management and compliance across the NEC Group.
Important matters discussed by both of these committees are reported to the Executive Committee and to the Board of Directors.

Global development framework

NEC has appointed CSR Promoters to regional management companies (regional headquarters) in five key overseas regions, namely North America, Latin America, Greater China, APAC (Asia Pacific), and EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa).

CSR Functions

The Internal Control Division, the Export Control Division, and the CSR and Environmental Management Promotion Division are responsible for the promotion and coordination of CSR across the entire NEC Group. The CSR and Environmental Management Promotion Division promotes CSR-driven management through close cooperation with each divisional CSR function together with related divisions, departments and offices responsible for business planning, corporate communications, information systems, human resources, business support, materials procurement and other areas.

NEC's Seven CSR Initiatives

Initiatives for Solving Issues Faced by Society and Addressing People’s Needs through Business Activities

Establish a safe and secure society

Global society faces various safety and security issues, including addressing natural disasters, responding to burgeoning healthcare and medical needs, enhancing information security and ensuring human security.
By harnessing cutting-edge IT and network solutions, NEC aims to help establish a society where people can lead safer and more secure lives.

Address climate change and environmental preservation

Human activities are now recognized worldwide as a cause of climate change in the form of global warming. The significant link between economic activities and CO2 emissions has become a particularly serious social issue.
NEC is not only reducing internal CO2 emissions, but also working to supply IT-driven solutions that help to lower CO2 emissions across society. Efforts are also directed at preserving ecosystems and biodiversity, as well as promoting recycling and conservation of resources.

Include everyone in the digital society

The digital society will highlight economic and digital divides that prevent some people from deriving benefits from its realization of convenient, affluent lifestyles.
Through the application of information and network technologies, NEC will remain a good corporate citizen by helping to ensure that the benefits of the digital society enhance the lives of all people irrespective of their circumstances, including seniors, people with disabilities and citizens of developing nations.

Build reliable information and communications infrastructure

NEC aims to solve various social issues, including addressing climate change and environmental preservation, including everyone in the digital society, and establishing a safe and secure society. Highly reliable information and communications infrastructure is essential to achieving this goal.
NEC seeks to apply innovation to develop highly reliable information and communications infrastructure to support an "information society friendly to humans and the earth."

Initiatives for Internal Management in Support of Business Activities

Earn customer trust

NEC considers customer value from a social perspective and seeks to work with customers to find solutions to social issues. Accomplishing this goal requires strong customer relationships built on trust. NEC is continually focused on building customer trust through initiatives targeting increased customer satisfaction (CS), quality and security.

Empower our people

NEC is working to promote quality workplaces that respect diversity, and to cultivate HR on a global basis. Programs to maintain the health and safety of employees are ongoing. NEC also encourages employees to participate in local volunteer activities to promote greater consideration of the relationship with society and sensitivity to social needs.

Strengthen risk management and enforce compliance

NEC must strengthen risk management and compliance practices to ensure that business management is always sound from the standpoint of society. To this end, we will develop more secure internal systems and procedures across the NEC Group, and strengthen supply chain initiatives.

Main Activities and Results (Fiscal 2012)

CSR-driven management initiatives during fiscal 2012 are outlined below under each of the three basic policies.

1．Strengthen Risk Management and Enforce Compliance

The reinforcement of risk management and compliance have been high-priority issues within NEC's CSR-driven management approach since April 2004, when NEC took steps to strengthen the CSR promotion framework (such as by establishing the CSR Promotion Unit and the CSR Promotion Committee). In April 2007, NEC revised the promotion framework to upgrade risk management and compliance across the NEC Group. These measures included establishing the Risk Control and Compliance Committee and the Risk Control and Compliance Division as a dedicated division. NEC Corporation selects priority risks that may significantly impact the NEC Group's continuity, and implements countermeasures focused on these risk factors.

Please refer to the following links for information about main activities during fiscal 2012.

Internal Control (Compliance and Risk Management)

Business Continuity

Information Security

Partnering with Suppliers

2．Contribute to Solving Social Issues Through Business Activities

To ensure the sustainable development of customers, society and the NEC Group, it is important for operating divisions within the NEC Group to help actively solve issues　faced by society and customers through their respective business activities, while harnessing these activities to sharpen NEC's competitive edge.

Please refer to the following links for information about main activities during fiscal 2012.

Address climate change and environmental preservation

Establish a safe and secure society

Include everyone in the digital society

To promote business activities that help to solve the foregoing social issues, NEC is pressing ahead with the following activities.

CSR Promotion Committee

・Meetings held in October and December; Theme: Earn Customer Trust

CSR Convention 2011

・Held in the NEC Headquarters auditorium on July 25, 2011. Attended by approx. 400 individuals, including 15 NEC officers and employee-award recipients.

・Speech titled "CSR and Corporate Value at Kuroneko (a black cat, which symbolizes YAMATO HOLDINGS) " by Mr. Keiji Aritomi, Advisor, Yamato Holdings Co., Ltd., and Keynote speech by Mr. Endo, NEC President along with NEC CSR AWARDS 2011 presentation ceremony.

Presentation of NEC CSR AWARDS Grand Awards

Customer Satisfaction Category:
Establishing Trust With a Customer Through the "Quality Technology Training Seminar " for NTT DOCOMO and Helping NEC Become No.1 in Mobile Phone Customer Satisfaction through VOC Activities

• NEC Saitama, Ltd.

Environment Category:
Development of space-saving ATM (3rd Generation ATM) in pursuit of environmental performance
(Space-saving ATM development project)

• Application Appliance Division, ATM Group (Representative)
• 1st Financial Solutions Division
• NEC System Technologies, Ltd.
• NEC Computertechno, Ltd.
• Nagano Branch Division, NEC Soft, Ltd.

Social Contributions:
＜Overseas＞
  Community-based Integrated Waste Conversion Providing Biogas as an Alternative Energy Source-Livestock Waste Conversion

• PT. NEC Indonesia

＜Japan＞
  NEC Tohoku’s Forest

• NEC Network Products, Ltd. — Ichinoseki Plant

3．Promote Communications With Stakeholders

Activities by stakeholder group

Individual divisions within NEC use a variety of methods to communicate on a daily basis with a range of stakeholders, including customers, shareholders and other investors, suppliers, NPOs and NGOs, local communities, and employees. For details on communications with each targeted stakeholder group, please visit the web pages listed below.

Customers

Shareholders and other investors

Suppliers

Local communities and NGOs/NPOs

Employees

The environment

Activities for all stakeholder groups

Information disclosure via the CSR Report

NEC has published a CSR Report on an annual basis since fiscal 2005. The report helps NEC to fulfill its accountability to explain CSR-related activities to all stakeholders while at the same time boosting transparency. Since fiscal 2008, NEC has separated the CSR Report into web and print editions with the aim of supplying information to two targeted sets of readers.

• CSR Report (Web Version) The CSR Report emphasizes detailed coverage of information to ensure conformance with international reporting initiatives such as GRI, while taking into account the needs of CSR professionals such as SRI research institutes, the news media, universities and NPOs/NGOs.
• CSR Report Digest (Booklet / PDF Versions) As the digest version of the Web-based report, the CSR Report Digest emphasizes ease of reading, targeting readers such as customers, suppliers, employees and the general public.

Response to evaluation by SRI research, media and other organizations

Each year NEC receives questionnaires from numerous SRI research, media and other organizations to assess CSR-related activities. We treat these as important requests for CSR-related information from society as a whole. After completing the questionnaires, we present issues to the relevant divisions and encourage them to make improvements in order to make ongoing internal improvements and enhance the results of external evaluations of NEC.
Please see the following "External Ratings and Reviews" section for details on external rating and reviews in fiscal 2012.

Response to customer requests to address CSR-related issues

As a supplier, NEC receives various requests from customers (companies and government agencies, etc.) to address CSR-related issues relating to supply chain management, including human rights, occupational health and safety, the environment, and corruption prevention measures, through such means as questionnaires as well as demands to observe customer codes of conduct that apply to suppliers. NEC believes that it is important to respond properly and promptly to such requests, particularly from the perspective of customer satisfaction. In fiscal 2012, NEC actively responded to such requests from customers based in Japan and overseas, and in the process convinced these customers that NEC is a trustworthy partner.

Disclosure of CSR-related information to employees

Monitoring and Improvement

We regard the NEC CSR Report as a useful tool for promoting improvements in internal CSR-related activities.
NEC lists in the CSR Report the objectives, achievements and progress, degrees of completion, and other elements for overall CSR management and each CSR-related policy initiative (compliance, risk management, business continuity, information security, the environment, human rights, diversity, human resources development, occupational health and safety, customer satisfaction, quality, universal design, and social contributions, etc.) in the previous year, and clarifies issues, leading to new objectives for next year. In line with this approach, we believe that ensuring the steady execution of the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) management cycle is vital to enhancing CSR management.

It is equally important to incorporate the viewpoints of a diverse array of stakeholders, not only the corporate perspective, in this process to identify CSR management issues and effectively achieve improvements through PDCA cycles. NEC has adopted the approach of ISO 26000 (guidance on social responsibility), which was published in November 2010.
Based on this approach, NEC has introduced stakeholder reviews in partnership with the CSR Review Forum (CRF) made up of specialized NGOs in each field, in order to reinforce monitoring.

This is one of the actions required in the "C" (Check) part of the PDCA cycle. The CSR Promotion Division and divisions in charge of activities for each CSR-related policy initiative conduct lively discussions with the specialized NGOs from CRF based on the ISO 26000 approach. These discussions help NEC to take notice of issues and improvements that will lead to the sustainable development of society and the NEC Group. What is learned from the discussions is used to promote improvements in activities in the following fiscal year.

Please follow this link to view the stakeholder review webpage.

External Ratings and Reviews

The main results of external ratings and reviews of NEC's CSR-related activities for fiscal 2012 are listed below.
Please refer to this page for details of NEC's inclusion in SRI (Socially Responsible Investment) indices and SRI funds (mutual fund, etc.).

Participation in Activities of External Organizations

United Nations Global Compact

In 2005, NEC became a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact. The Global Compact commits enterprises to uphold ten principles of business activities relating to human rights, labor, the environment and anti-corruption.
NEC frequently participates in activities as a member of the Global Compact Network Japan, the local UNGC network in Japan. In fiscal 2012, NEC took part in subcommittees related to CSR reports, SRI, the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), BOP business and social business.
Furthermore, NEC participated as a panelist in a panel discussion of the China-Japan-Korea Roundtable held in Tokyo on November 24-25, 2011, taking part in global CSR discussions. For details, please follow this link.

JEITA Responsible Minerals Trade Working Group

NEC has participated as a leading corporate member in the Responsible Minerals Trade Working Group organized by the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA), and is promoting activities to address the conflict minerals issue in concert with the industry. For details, please follow this link.

Objectives and Achievements

Objectives for the Medium Term (From Fiscal 2011 to Fiscal 2013) and Fiscal 2012, Achievements and Progress, and Degree of Completion

(Degree of completion: achieved/mostly achieved/some progress/no progress)

Fiscal 2013 Objectives

Objectives and Achievements of CSR Promotion Activities (A list of progress with CSR promotion activities)

A list of progress with CSR promotion activities　PDF（346KB）

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