Sustainable Development: The UN Millennium Development Goals, the UN Global Compact, and the Common Good

3. Sumitomo Chemical and the Millennium Development Goals

87 3 | Sumitomo Chemical and the Millennium Development Goals Scott Mitchell The Sumitomo chemical Group includes over one hundred subsidiaries and affiliates, operates businesses in five sectors (basic chemicals , petrochemicals, IT-related chemicals, health and crop sciences, and pharmaceuticals), and provides products worldwide that support a wide variety of industries and help improve people’s daily lives. “our business must benefit not only ourselves but also communities and society at large.” This statement is at the heart of the Sumitomo family’s business philosophy, as outlined more than 350 years ago by Masatomo Sumitomo. It forms the core of Sumitomo chemical’s corporate values today. Sumitomo chemical was founded in 1913 as a fertilizer manufacturing company, which produced fertilizers by converting harmful emissions from smelting operations at the Besshi copper Mine in niihama , ehime Prefecture. created to provide solutions to overcome an environmental problem and to help increase agricultural production, the company strives to exemplify the Sumitomo family’s business philosophy . Its conviction that the essence of corporate social responsibility (cSR) is to contribute to the sustainable development of society through business activities is encoded in the company’s DnA. 88 Scott Mitchell one of the central policies of the Sumitomo chemical corporate vision is to help meet global challenges, from improving people’s lives and health to increasing energy and food security, building a lowcarbon society, and contributing to the sustainable development of the global community by taking full advantage of the power of chemistry. ouR coMMITMenT To The FuTuRe oF AFRIcA Mosquito-borne disease transmission poses one of the greatest threats to the tropical world and, with the advent of global warming, is also of increasing concern for temperate countries. of all the mosquitoborne diseases, malaria remains one of the greatest problems in tropical countries, adversely affecting population health and economic development . Malaria kills between one and two million people every year, with 90 percent of the deaths occurring in sub-Saharan Africa. The most vulnerable sections of the population consist of pregnant women and children. Malaria is both preventable and treatable. Given the costs and logistics of rapid diagnosis and treatment in many African countries, the old saying “Prevention is better than cure” remains true. If the infected mosquito can be prevented from biting people, the cycle of disease transmission is broken. This protection can be effected in many ways, from indoor residual spraying of insecticides (IRS) to the use of aerosols and mosquito coils. The olyset® net, an insecticidal mosquito net that helps prevent the spread of malaria, symbolizes the cSR initiatives of Sumitomo chemical. Mosquito nets are not new; they have been around for at least a century. What is relatively new is the addition of insecticide to those nets: the development of insecticide-treated bednets provided a means to protect people throughout the night and at the same time kill mosquitoes. The advent of pyretheroid insecticides made a very effective addition, offering rapid action and good kill of insects with low toxicity to people. The first insecticide formulations marketed for treatment of nets required manual dilution and dipping of nets. These treatments are depleted after consecutive washings and therefore last from only six Sumitomo chemical and the Millennium Development Goals 89 months to one year before losing efficacy. The logistics of regular redipping of nets, especially in remote villages, was so difficult that it was rarely totally successful. It soon became apparent that long-lasting factory treatment was required so that no retreatment of the nets would be needed during their subsequent life in the field. Sumitomo chemical, with over 2,000 employees dedicated to research and development, is a world leader in the discovery of innovative solutions for control of insect pests affecting the health and welfare of mankind. Sumitomo chemical was the first company to develop a long-lasting insecticidal net (LLIn, also referred to as Ln), which changed the face of malaria control programs. Sumitomo’s focused approach led to the development of olyset net—a high density polyethylene net with the insecticide incorporated within the fibers of the net. This innovation allowed the nets to be distributed without the need for teams to return regularly to retreat them. LLIns are designed to survive for several years in the field without further maintenance and to perform for at least twenty washes without losing insecticidal activity. Mosquito nets may seem an obsolete technology, but a great many people worldwide are...