Ever since our founding in 1954, Advantest has continued to polish our electronic measurement technologies and has continued to grow with the development of electronics. Currently, our core semiconductor test systems contributes toward achieving a safe, secure, comfortable, and sustainable society through indirectly guaranteeing the safety and reliability of semiconductors, which create the base of social infrastructure.
In recent years, a series of issues that have been throwing a shadow over society's sustainability have come to light, such as climate change, human rights and the depletion of resources. With this, in 2015, the United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which organized common goals for global issues to be resolved by 2030. Furthermore, the Paris Agreement on climate change went into effect as a new international rule in 2016. In this way, various initiatives toward a sustainable society are spreading across the world.
Advantest has taken a proactive approach toward sustainability issues, joining the world largest sustainability initiative United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) in 2019, and making efforts to apply the ten principles in four categories of Human Rights, Labor, Environment and Anti-Corruption.
Furthermore, we have also expressed support for the TCFD recommendations in 2020, along with other concrete activities such as joining RE100 and establishing targets for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2016, Advantest configured performance reviews and important challenges (materiality) to tackle, such as achieving sustainable performance, establishing a compliance structure, reducing the impact on the environment and preventing corruption; and the entire company worked toward these targets for three years up to 2018.
In 2019, we looked back on these three years and established materiality and sustainability targets with the impact our business has and our relationship with social issues in mind, and launched activities with a new structure in 2020.
The ADVANTEST Way, which was renewed in 2019, newly defined ESG for Sustainability and also set ethical standards on how we should come eye-to-eye with society. By doing so, we have created a foundation shared with all employees throughout the world, on connections between our business and society, the impact we have on society, and what actions we need to take.
Advantest believes that our business can offer diverse value to society. In our core business, which is semiconductor testing, we ensure the reliability of semiconductors used throughout various aspects in the world, aiming to achieve safety, secure and comfort while making efforts to meet Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to contribute toward a sustainable society.
In closing, we wish to express our deep appreciation for your continued support and encouragement.