Sustainability

Social Contribution

Examples of Social Contribution Activities

Sustainability

  • 4 QUALITY EDUCATION
  • 8 DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
  • 11 SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES
  • 13 CLIMATE ACTION

Brother Supports Young Entrepreneurs Who Address Social Issues and Community Revitalization as a Business

Brother participates in the launch of Tokai Young Entrepreneur Seminar and provides continued support to entrepreneurs

Brother Industries, Ltd. (BIL) participated in the launch of the "Tokai Young Entrepreneur Seminar" to assist young social entrepreneurs who address social issues and community revitalization through their businesses in the Tokai area, where BIL's headquarters are located, and started cosponsoring the activity in 2008.

In the Seminar, Brother works to place businesses on a trajectory for growth, such as by supporting entrepreneurs to formulate business strategies and develop services. As of 2021, it had supported a total of 59 entrepreneurs engaged in nursing care and welfare work, multicultural coexistence, the creation of learning spaces for children, childcare support, town development, and so forth.

In FY2022, four entrepreneurs, who were addressing social issues through projects such as providing support by midwife for women in their pre- and post-natal period, and providing students with learning opportunities outside of school, joined as members of the fifteenth seminar.

Brother establishes a system in which employees can address social issues as pro bono workers

Since 2012, Brother has been recruiting pro bono workers who support students at the Tokai Young Entrepreneur Seminar from among BIL's employees and assisting entrepreneurs by using their skills and experience gained from work, and also has been providing opportunities to learn about solutions to social issues through business and launching a new business.
The employees who involved in the seminar as pro bono workers are allowed to spend a total of 50 working hours in six months on the activity. While using time outside of working hours as well, they taught these entrepreneurs how to formulate strategies to enhance the value of the services they provide, narrow down their targets, perform market studies, and develop sales plans by utilizing their skills and experience.

In FY2022, in which COVID-19 restrictions were eased compared to the previous year, items such as prior training, final selection of entrepreneurs, training, and final presentation were conducted face to face while also online. Employees who want to be involved in solving social issues, be involved in new businesses, or launch a new business can participate as pro bono workers to learn about entrepreneurship themselves* while supporting the entrepreneurs, being a good inspiration to advance their own work.

In FY2023, BIL will build an in-house network of experienced pro bono workers and strengthen the explanation and reporting of pro bono activities to employees, further clarifying the value gained from participating in these activities and further revitalizing them.

Kick-off workshop Kick-off workshop Final presentation Final presentation

BIL will continue to cosponsor this seminar, which aims to support young entrepreneurs who tackle social issues and community revitalization through their businesses. In addition, we will contribute to society through pro bono work by employees, and at the same time, increase opportunities for employees to learn and grow further to encourage the solving of social issues through business.

  • The attitude of creating new business and tackling risks

Brother Helps Disadvantaged Youth Find Employment in the Republic of South Africa

Brother sponsors the Youth Employment Service program and provides job training

Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) is one of the affirmative actions* in South Africa. The policy aims to strengthen the economic power of historically disadvantaged South Africans, and scores the initiatives and contributions of companies by different factors and grades them accordingly in an effort towards eliminating inequality.

Brother International S.A. (PTY) Ltd. (BI S.A.), the sales facility in South Africa, has been a proud supporter of B-BBEE through the Youth Employment Service (Y.E.S) program. We provide disadvantaged youth in the labor market, aged 18 to 35, with job training opportunities for 12 months at BI S.A. offices, and various other institutions. In addition, the company employs some of the youths as full-time employees and they continue their training and development. In FY2023, the company accepted 14 youths and provided them with work experience and training opportunities in areas such as finance and business administration, and hired five of them as full-time employees. A study has shown that a minimum of 12 consecutive months of work experience raises a candidate’s chances of finding employment in their field of expertise to 80%, and BI S.A. has therefore been helping the country develop socially and economically through transferring skills to underprivileged young people and exposing them to work.

BI S.A. has also been actively promoting historically disadvantaged South Africans in management positions. The Black Executive Management percentage on the B-BBEE scorecard is 33% against the set target of 60%.

The Brother Group will continue to contribute to solving social issues by improving the employment opportunities of historically disadvantaged South Africans.

  • An active effort to improve employment or educational opportunities for members of minority groups and for women.

Brother Organizes Environmental Event "Brother Earth Kids Academy" for Children Attending After-School Clubs during Summer Vacation

Environmental Event "Brother Earth Kids Academy" Held for After-school Clubs Since FY2018 ~Providing learning opportunities to children attending after-school clubs during summer vacation~

Brother Earth Kids Academy is an event that has been held since FY2018 for children attending after-school clubs during summer vacation, providing them with opportunities to learn about environmental issues through crafts. At the event, through the creation of an "endangered animals picture book," the program gives the children an opportunity to study the causes of the increase in endangered species and allows them to learn about the mechanism of global warming, which is one of the causes, and efforts to prevent it.

The event was held at Brother Museum in FY2018 and FY2019, then as online events in FY2020 and FY2021 due to the impact of the COVID-19. In FY2022, some regulations were eased, so in addition to online events, BIL has been holding on-site events where they visit after-school clubs. These events have been held over 50 times with approximately 2,500 participants.

Brother Earth Kids Academy in FY2023

In FY2023, summer vacation was free of movement restrictions for children due to the reclassification of COVID-19 as a Category V Infectious Diseases in May of the same year. As a result, all events during the period from July 26 to August 25, 2023, were held in person. In addition to the on-site events held in the previous year, events were also held at Brother Museum for the first time in four years, with a total of 14 events and approximately 500 children participating.

Environmental Event "Brother Earth Kids Academy" held at Brother Museum Environmental Event "Brother Earth Kids Academy" held at Brother Museum

In addition to the production of the "endangered animals picture book," which has been carried out in the past, the event at Brother Museum featured new programs only possible at in-person events, such as the "environmental declaration poster" and "Brother crossword quiz."
For the "environmental declaration poster" program, children were tasked with choosing one activity they thought they could practice from four options: saving energy, saving water, recycling, and reducing food waste. Then, they completed an "environmental declaration tree" by pasting the icons created by Brothers Scan Cut* onto a tree illustration. The completed posters were brought back to be displayed at the after-school clubs so they would try not to forget the declarations they made.
For the "Brother crossword quiz." program, children explored the Brother Museum while completing a crossword quiz so that they could enjoy learning about Brother’s history and products. Through these programs, children not only learned about the global environment, but also created fun summer vacation memories.

Environmental declaration poster Environmental declaration poster Brother crossword quiz Brother crossword quiz

The children who have participated in the event have said that they would try to save electricity, reduce food waste, and recycle from now on. In addition, instructors at the after-school clubs have commented that "the children are taking the initiative seriously and we, the instructors, also learned a lot ourselves," and "it is great that we were able to create an opportunity for the instructors and the children to learn about global warming and endangered species together."

In recognition of these activities, BIL has received the Aichi Biodiversity Company Certification from Aichi Prefecture as a company that is making excellent efforts in biodiversity conservation.

Aichi Biodiversity Company Certification

Going forward, toward achieving a sustainable society, Brother will continue to contribute toward Goal 4 "Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all," Goal 13 "Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts," and Goal 15 "Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss" of the Sustainable Development Goals by conducting educational support activities in regions and initiatives leading to global environmental conservation.

  • A product that allows you to cut paper, cloth, thin plastic sheets, stickers, etc. using a touch panel (without using scissors or a cutter).

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