JOURNEY TO SUSTAINABILITY

Kian Joo Can Factory Berhad journey in pursuit of sustainable value creation through good corporate governance and commitment to ESG initiatives started in 2017. Commitment came from the highest level when our Board of Directors approved and adopted a Sustainability Policy for Kian Joo Group of Companies.

The Group continues to work at embedding sustainable practices across different facets of its business. Our progress in meeting our sustainable commitments todate is tabled below: –

Sustainability Statement

In the months ahead, we are working to align our reporting with UN Sustainable Development Goals and adopt Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) reporting for greater harmonisation.

As it is currently, the structure and content of our Sustainability Report draws from Bursa Malaysia’s Sustainability Reporting Framework.

OUR SUSTAINABILITY REPORT

SCOPE AND BASIS

Our sustainability report covers Kian Joo Can Factory Berhad significant Malaysia based operating segments namely:-

  • Tin Can
  • Aluminium Can
  • Beverage and milk powder
  • Cartons

Vietnam manufacturing plant being a significant contribution, is also included in tin can and carton segments.

OUR APPROACH

The Group endeavors to conduct its business activities in a responsible and ethical manner by embedding sustainability practices in our business activities to ensure the long-term growth and profitability of the Group.

ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY
Continuously growing business profitability as a value to our shareholders, creating beneficial value to all stakeholders, furnish customers with high quality products, and develop mutually beneficial business relationship with suppliers. Reduce our carbon footprint through sustainable water usage, efficient energy usage, minimising greenhouse emission, minimising waste generation and increase recycling practices. Provide a safe, conducive and facilitative working environment for our people where employees can contribute and grow their career and are treated with respect.

The Group pursues its sustainability approach according to these sustainability principles:

  • Embed sustainability practices in every part of the value chain of our business activities.
  • Consider all stakeholders’ interest during the planning and implementation of sustainability approaches and strategies.
  • Periodically review our sustainability approach and practices to ensure the journey aligns with our business objectives.
GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE

We do not have a separate Sustainability Committee at the Board of Directors (“Board”) Level. The Audit and Risk Management Committee (“ARMC”) takes on the additional role and responsibility of a Sustainability Committee. The ARMC oversees the strategies, policies, initiatives, targets and performance of the Group to ensure that the Group’s businesses are conducted in a sustainable manner.

The Group’s Sustainability governance structure is presented below.

Sustainability Statement
STAKEHOLDERS ENGAGEMENT

Stakeholders are defined as parties that have a vested interest in the Company and can either affect or be affected by the Company’s business activities. We conducted a materiality assessment exercise with our customers and vendors. We have regular customers audits and sustainability assessment which informs us of their area of emphasis. Engagements with our shareholders and investors happen in our annual general meetings conducted each year. With the various government agencies and authorities, these engagements happen each time the authorities call for a site visit, a face-to-face meeting or when we are invited to stakeholders open dialogues. These are usually planned by the Government agencies and authorities and we participate in these engagements. Our community engagement primarily focuses on job and learning opportunities for younger generations.

The table below summarises the engagement process which the Group has adopted.

STAKEHOLDER METHOD OF ENGAGEMENT STAKEHOLDER CONCERNS OUR RESPONSE
Shareholders and Investors
  • Annual General Meeting
  • Higher financial returns
  • Value of investment
  • Dividends
  • Company’s valuation
Employees
  • Employee Survey
  • Employee Engagement Program
  • Town Hall Meetings
  • Safety at workplace
  • Career development
  • Benefits
  • Equal opportunity
  • Career development
  • Rights and Respect
  • Safe environment
Customers
  • Customer Satisfaction Survey
  • Customer feedbacks
  • Face-to-face meetings
  • Pricing
  • Delivery
  • Quality
  • Sustainability
  • Reasonable pricing and reliability
  • Quality and sustainable processes
Suppliers
  • Suppliers survey
  • Supplier meetings
  • Supplier audits
  • Cost efficiencies
  • Compliance to sustainability matters
  • Quality product
  • Reliability and Quality
  • Retention
  • Collaboration opportunities
Government
  • Compliance with government legislative framework
  • Regulatory disclosure
  • Accountability
  • Access to premise and records
  • Certifications
  • Compliance to regulations
  • Transparency
Community
  • Meeting with local communities
  • Provision of jobs and internship to graduates
  • Local employment
  • Environmental impacts
  • Internship
  • Job placement
  • Environmental responsibilities
MATERIALITY ASSESSMENT

The Materiality Assessment is a stakeholder engagement exercise designed to gauge the Group’s most noteworthy economic, environmental and social impacts that are of importance to its stakeholders. This process helped us identify and prioritise key matters according to its impact on business activities and its importance to our stakeholders’ perspectives.

We engaged a broad cross section of our customers, suppliers, employees, community as well as government stakeholders in this exercise to ensure we have a wide range of diverse feedback on sustainability matters that are important to us. This was conducted via a survey. The material matter assessment was completed by end of Quarter 4 FYE 2020.

MATERIALITY ASSESSMENT PROCESS
IDENTIFY POTENTIAL ISSUES
  • Identified and compiled a list of significant areas of the Group’s operations.
  • Materiality assessment process was conducted to gather the feedback from stakeholders through electronic surveys as well as physical survey.
PRIORITISE ISSUES
  • Develop the materiality matrix based on the scores of the survey which help to isolate, rank and prioritise our sustainability key matters.
SENIOR MANAGEMENT VALIDATION
  • The sustainability material matrix was reviewed by the senior management, deliberated and agreed upon.

The materiality matrix below represents the outcome of the Group’s materiality assessment exercise. Sustainability key matters have been rated on a scale of low, medium and high. To prioritize each key matter, we used a scale of 0% to 40% as low priority and 75% to 100% as high priority. There were 18 sustainability matters shown in the materiality matrix according to the ranking provided by our stakeholders. The material matters are selected to emphasize all 3 Sustainability Pillars namely Economic, Environmental and Social Impact.

We have selected 9 key material matters based on the rankings explained above to focus our efforts and to set targets for the year 2021 and beyond.

Sustainability Statement
Order of Significance Ranked by Our Stakeholders
Top 9 Sustainability Materiality Matters Order of Significance Ranked by Our Stakeholders
Other Sustainability Materiality Matters
1 Product Safety 10
Electricity Consumption
2 Business Ethics 11
Water Consumption
3 Safety at Workplace 12
Smart Manufacturing
4 Ethical Sourcing 13 Leadership
5 Waste Management 14
Employee Training Development
6 Air Quality 15
Product Life Cycle
7 Energy & Carbon Emission 16
Succession Plan
8 Employee Engagement 17 Foreign Workers
9 Diversity & Fair Treatment 18
Freedom of Association
SUSTAINABILITY TARGETS

The Board of Directors has approved the following sustainability targets for each of the material matter.

Sustainability Pillar Key Material Matters Sustainability Goals/Targets
Economic
  • Product Safety
  • Business Ethics
  • Ethical Sourcing
  • Zero product recall from packaging material defects
  • Zero bribery and corruption cases reported
  • Procure from suppliers who are ethically compliant
Environmental
  • Waste Management
  • Air Quality
  • Carbon Emission
  • Minimise waste generation. Scheduled waste management compliant with regulatory framework
  • Air emission consistently meet DOE guidelines
  • Adoption of solar energy as renewable source for greenfield sites. For Vietnam plant, substitution of coal energy to gas or fuel oil.
  • Energy efficiency will be given high consideration for future machinery and equipment investment
  • Zero employees and contractor fatality
  • Increase female representation by 10% by 2025
  • Increase staff retention rate by 3% by 2025
  • Improve staff satisfaction rate by 5% by 2025
Social
  • Safety at Workplace
  • Diversity & Fair Treatment
  • Employee Engagement

These targets will be measured against the FYE 2020 baseline and progress of achievement will be reported from year 2021 onwards.

Our Sustainability Report is published annually.