Management Philosophy Preserved across the Gunze GroupThe Gunze Group’s founding philosophy underscores a people-oriented approach, a commitment to quality, and harmonious coexistence. These three elements of Gunze’s DNA have remained central to our business activities, and have been preserved within our management philosophy over the past 120+ years.

Gunze was founded in 1896 by Tsurukichi Hatano in the district of Ikaruga (now Ayabe City), Kyoto to promote the local silkworm industry. The founder believed that each district should pursue its own policy, and wanted to achieve a harmonious coexistence and coprosperity with all stakeholders, so as to enrich the lives of local people. Thus, he adopted the name Gunze Silk Manufacturing Co., Ltd., with “Gunze” meaning the “policy of the district” in Japanese.

The Gunze Group Environmental Charter was established to promote healthy and sustainable development in harmony with the Earth and society.

The Gunze Group Action Guidelines stipulate the conduct and behavior expected of Gunze as a corporate citizen.

Chapter 1.

The role Gunze should assume

Chapter 2.

Rules that Gunze should observe in conducting its corporate activities

Chapter 3.

Matters that members of Gunze should keep in mind when conducting their work

• For customers
• For suppliers and business partners
• For local communities
• For employees
• For the global environment
• For shareholders and investors

Ensuring appropriate Sustainable procurement across our entire supply chain.

• Provide all suppliers with fair and equal trade opportunities
• Select suppliers in a fair and ethical manner
• Procure from suppliers in the most appropriate locations
• Preserve the global environment and lessen environmental impact
• Comply with all applicable laws, regulations, and social norms
• Appropriately control and strictly protect information

Gunze Group Sustainable Procurement Guidelines

GUNZE proactively implements the “3Rs + Renewable*” initiative for plastics, to reduce the amount of plastic waste and help build a society that promotes plastic resource circulation.

• Reduce the volume of plastics and promote the reuse and recycling of plastic items.
• Help implement effective and efficient plastic resource circulation through easy-to-classify and easy-to-recycle product design, and by aggressively using renewable raw materials.
• Help reduce the use of petrochemical raw materials by developing products using bio-based materials.
• Conduct appropriate management of waste and ensure that production activities have a smaller impact on the environment, so as to fulfill our responsibility as a manufacturer.

※3R＋Renewable
The 3Rs stands for Reduce (using fewer resources for production and reducing waste), Reuse (using products and parts repeatedly), and Recycle (effectively using waste as raw materials or energy sources). “3Rs + Renewable” means adding the use of renewable resources to the 3Rs initiative.

Global Environment

• We endorse the UN Global Compact, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and other international principles relating to human rights.
• In our business activities, we respect the human rights, individuality, and diversity, and do not discriminate against people because of their race, nationality, gender, or other factors.
  We strictly prohibit any child labor, forced labor and inhuman treatment including cruel disciplinary punishments.
• We implement the initiatives as stipulated in our in-house "Sustainability Promotion Rules" to respect the human rights of all employees, identify the negative impacts on human rights and endeavor to remediate them ,through appropriate processes such as whistleblower system.
• We require our supplier to comply with " Gunze Group Supplier Code of Conduct" in accordance with the " Gunze Group Sustainable Procurement Guidelines", , gather information on any risks that could cause negative impacts on human rights, and work to prevent and mitigate the identified negative impacts.
• We continue to provide necessary training for all employees to respect for human rights and deepen the understanding of employees on human rights issues.