GBC-Education Welcomes New Member, Sumitomo Chemical!

Photos by Sumitomo Chemical.

GBC-Education is thrilled to announce the addition of our newest member, Sumitomo Chemical. After witnessing the positive impact education investments have on both their business and the communities in which they operate, Sumitomo Chemical is joining GBC-Education as a Silver Member.

As the first Japanese GBC-Education member, Sumitomo Chemical’s global operations boast education investments both at home in Japan and in Africa. Their early childhood education program in Japan boosted their female workplace representation so effectively that the company replicated the program in Tanzania. Their efforts earned them recognition in The Smartest Investment, a joint initiative by UNESCO, UNICEF, the UN Global Compact, and the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Global Education, as a private sector leader in addressing education through business.

Sumitomo Chemical also works to encourage Africa’s economic potential by improving access to educational opportunities by building schools. In 2015, Sumitomo Chemical launched two new projects in Kenya and Ghana, promoting math and science education and offered an employee engagement program that used funds to equip the schools they built in the past with textbooks, desks, and chairs. They also reinvest a portion of their revenue of their Olyset®net business, the world’s first WHO-recommended, long-lasting insecticide-treated nets (LLINs) designed to prevent malaria, in their education initiatives.

To date, Sumitomo Chemical has impacted more than 10,000 children in 11 countries, bolstering school enrollment and decreasing dropout numbers.

“With our new partnership in joining the Global Business Coalition for Education, we look forward to further strengthening our efforts to improve access to education for boys and girls around the world who will not only be the next inventors and scientists but our future leaders,” says Sumitomo Chemical CSR Office General Manager Kanako Fukuda.

For more information, visit their website.

Photo by Sumitomo Chemical.