Basic Concept and approach to SOMPO's Community Contribution
Basic concept
We are proactively taking initiatives to contribute to community as a corporate citizen while working to develop a corporate culture and systems that encourage each employee to voluntarily take part in various contributions for the communities in which we live and work. We also emphasize collaboration with specialist NPOs to promote our activities.
Approach to community contribution
Under our group’s Community Contribution is based on two perspectives: the company’s perspective and the perspective of each employee.
As a company, we promote our contributions for future generations mainly through our foundations with focus on the following three areas: fine arts, welfare, and the environment. We also support and encourage individual employees to proactively take part in community outreach activities mainly through the Sompo Chikyu (Earth) Club, a volunteer organization of which all employees are members.
Programs to support and encourage employee efforts
At Sompo Japan, employees are entitled to take short-term volunteer leave (up to 10 days per year) and long-term volunteer leave (from six to 18 months) in addition to annual paid leave.
Volunteer organization: Sompo Chikyu (Earth) Club
Sompo Chikyu (Earth) Club
The members of the Sompo Chikyu (Earth) Club – a volunteer organization – consist of the Group’s executives and employees. They voluntarily and proactively undertake social contribution for the purpose of cultivating a heightened sensitivity to social issues and contributing to the building of a resilient and sustainable society.
Since its establishment in 1993, the Club has undertaken various volunteer in collaboration with agencies and the like, including forest conservation, food banks, and visiting welfare facilities to repair and clean wheelchairs. For more than thirty years, each project has been tailored according to the needs and characteristics of the local communities nationwide.
Operation structure
The Sompo Chikyu (Earth) Club has a Steering Committee and a Selection Committee, each comprising representatives of the Club’s members.
The chair of both these committees is the general manager of the Sustainable Management Office at Sompo Holdings. The secretariat is also located within the Sustainable Management Office.
Sompo Chikyu (Earth) Club Community Contribution Fund
Group executives and employees voluntarily donate money to this fund through salary deductions. The funds are then put towards community contribution carried out by the Sompo Chikyu (Earth) Club. The funds raised are used primarily for community outreach activities, such as the payment of expenses of volunteer activities performed across Japan, support for disaster relief and donations to NPOs and other organizations supported by the Club’s members.
