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Efforts to Achieve the SDGsTDK Group's Approach to the SDGs

The TDK Group's Approach to the SDGs
Building a Setup to Address the SDGs through Business
Enhancing the Objectivity and Accurateness of Disclosed Information

TDK Group's Approach to the SDGs

To make the global environment and people’s lives sustainable, the United Nations General Assembly approved the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in September 2015. This agenda advocates Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), consisting of 17 goals and 169 targets, to be achieved by all countries by 2030.

Under our long-term vision, “TDK Transformation—Accelerating transformation for a sustainable future,” TDK aims to accelerate the evolution of technology and the transformation of society through electronic devices by combining its unique materials, processes, and software, thereby contributing to the realization of a sustainable future. Further, by continuing to transform itself, TDK aims to grow alongside its global customers as their No. 1 partner.
For TDK, the SDGs are the starting point of value creation. We believe that the measurement of how much value we have supplied to society and how much we have contributed to the solution of social issues is a barometer of our business achievements.

Building a Setup to Address the SDGs through Business

The TDK Group is continuing efforts, as explained below, to identify and implement available countermeasures and how TDK’s products and technological strengths can be exploited to tackle the global issues specified in the SDGs.
In the term when measures are started, in addition to general in-house education, in accordance with company policy, we conducted an in-house dialogue with business groups in Japan and overseas regarding the approach to sustainability that the TDK Group should be aiming for and the SDGs. After that, of the issues cited in the SDGs, we summarized the discussions that took place in each business group about what issues and targets could be addressed by their own technologies and solutions in the medium and long term and whether there were any technologies and solutions that could be newly created stemming from social issues. The results are organized and the business groups and the Sustainability Promotion HQ conducted discussions on priority areas and medium- to long-term strategies.
Subsequently, we have been working to continuously improve measures as the creation of mechanisms. In the investigation results of each business group that can be achieved in the short term have been incorporated into business plans since FY March 2021. After organizing the results, we report a summary and review of the results for all business groups to the Board of Directors and also engage in dialogue with each business group for the purpose of reviewing the implementation status in the previous fiscal year and improving activities for the following fiscal year.
Going forward, we will communicate inside and outside the company to share the results of the above activities and promote activities.

Process:

Implementation of employee educational dialogue to deepen understanding of the SDGs (since June 2018)
Discussion by questionnaire or interview of what products or technologies possessed by each business group could contribute to the achievement of goals 3, 7, 9, 11, 12, and 13 of the SDGs (May–November 2019)
Inclusion of discussed ideas into the FY March 2021 business plans of each business group (October 2019 – March 2020)
Promotion of dialogue with business groups and other related parties and consideration of TDK’s priority areas and strategy based on social issues (since April 2020)
Implementation of integrated progress management combining the EX and DX specified in the TDK Group’s materiality with the business areas that TDK focuses on for social value creation and corporate growth (since April 2021–March 2024)
Incorporated the concept of Sustainability Transformation* to formulate TDK’s long-term vision, “TDK Transformation.” Based on this long-term vision, we revised the content of the interview sheets with the aim of visualizing the social impact of TDK’s business activities that contribute to solving social issues. We continue to monitor progress (since April 2024).
Regarding social impact assessment, we collaborated with Waseda University’s Institute for Governance and Sustainability (through regular meetings, steering committee sessions, etc.) to formulate visualization criteria, develop methodologies and models, and enhance reliability through third-party reviews. Furthermore, we filed two domestic patent applications for related visualization methods (Patent Application 2025-188243, Patent Application 2025-188244).

*Sustainability Transformation (SX): Management and business transformation aimed at simultaneously addressing social issues and enhancing corporate value

Contribution to achieving the SDGs

Enhancing the Objectivity and Accurateness of Disclosed Information

Expert Comment

TDK is advancing its Social Impact Assessment (SIA)* framework to better articulate—credibly and transparently—the societal change enabled through the real-world use of our products and technologies. In FY March 2026, TDK launched an initiative to obtain independent expert perspectives, with support from the Governance & Sustainability Research Institute at Waseda University, in order to further refine our methodology and strengthen accountability. The comments shared on this page do not evaluate individual products. Instead, they focus on methodological considerations, structuring and explaining causal pathways from products and technologies to outcomes and impacts, and improving how we communicate these topics to stakeholders. TDK will leverage these insights to enhance our SIA approach and foster ongoing engagement.

有識者3名 — From the left: Professor Nemoto, Associate Professor Malen, Professor Ikegami

Jusuke Ikegami, Ph.D.	Dean, Graduate School of Business Administration, Waseda University Research Fellow, Governance & Sustainability Research Institute Field (as shown in internal materials): Corporate Strategy etc.
Naoko Nemoto, Ph.D.	Graduate School of Business Administration, Waseda University Research Fellow, Governance & Sustainability Research Institute Field (as shown in internal materials): Finance
Joel Malen, Ph.D.	Ph.D., Associate Professor, School of Commerce, Waseda University Director, Governance & Sustainability Research Institute Field (as shown in internal materials): Sustainability (Environment)

External Expert Comment

Joel Malen

Director, Governance & Sustainability Research Institute
Associate Professor, Waseda University

Profile

Professor Malen studies the dynamics and macro-level implications of business strategies for reducing impact on the natural environment. His research has addressed how companies modify business strategy to promote decarbonization as well as the development of environmental technologies. At Waseda University he teaches courses at the undergraduate, MBA and PhD levels on strategic management as well as the relationships between business strategy and the natural environment. He received his PhD from the University of Minnesota (USA).

Since its kickoff in FY March 2026, this initiative has addressed a core challenge faced by diversified B2B companies: how to articulate social impact* across a broad portfolio of businesses and products in a way that is both credible and comprehensible. Initial efforts adopted a technology-focused lens to produce a coarse-grained indicator of overall company direction. However, subsequent discussions identified the need to distinguish between the effects of business scale and technology-society relations in assessing overall social impact. To address this challenge, the project worked to first articulate clear links between products and technologies on the one hand and social applications and outcomes on the other. With these links established, the project was then able to incorporate the effects of business scale on these relationships, thereby providing a solid indicator of social impact created through business activities. The approach used to develop this measure provides a practical method for identifying social impact in B2B companies while remaining aligned with current global discourse around impact investing.

A key strength of the framework lies in the clear demarcation of its boundaries. By clearly acknowledging where supported insights end and assumptions begin, the approach provides transparency and facilitates trust‑based dialogue with investors. Further, being up front about the limits allows for complementary integration with selected representative cases to provide more granular detail where desired.

In the bigger picture, the conceptual model resulting from this initiative represents an important advance, even among leading Japanese companies. The shift from ESG as a defensive tool toward impact as a driver of social change represents a proactive attempt to rethink the corporate value‑creation model itself. Today, B2B enterprises are increasingly interested in providing meaningful insights into their broader social impacts. But the challenge of doing so in a manner that remains comparable, consistent and comprehensible across business sectors and products has been and remains formidable. Nonetheless, the framework developed here provides a potentially promising solution for addressing these challenges.

*Social Impact Assessment (SIA) refers to a framework for organizing and explaining social change (outcomes and impacts) generated through the final use and applications of a company’s products, technologies and business activities. At TDK, an original SIA model has been developed that takes into account its own technological and business characteristics. The model incorporates not only business scale, but also the causal pathways through which products and technologies lead to social change. In so doing, the model provides a transparent account of social impact that remains comprehensible to stakeholders.