The Sustainability Embed & Passing the Buck in Japan
Talking with a business leader who takes ownership of sustainability as a responsibility of the company mission is a rare and thrilling experience. I’m tentatively hopeful, but bracing myself for the letdown. Too many organizations, business leaders and entrepreneurs seem to focus so much energy on passing the buck.
Unfortunately, that’s not my job… we’re only a small group…we can’t do everything at once… we just don’t have the funds to focus on that now… you should talk with so-and-so… our focus is more on the social impacts.
In 2021, as we face the climate emergency of worst-ever storms, fires, droughts, pollution, and plastic-filled oceans, the status-quo stands.
There’s a pervading misperception that all Japanese people love nature and all businesses in Japan aim to protect people and planet while making profits.
Thankfully, there are examples of business-unusual, like Happo-En, the traditional Japanese gardens and events facility in central Tokyo. My talk with Anastasia Kozlova and Hiroyuki Ichikawa at Happo-En on Seeking Sustainability Live was a celebration of sustainable business strategy as they talked of a commitment to maintaining 500 year old bonsai plants in the gardens, supporting artisans and small businesses across Japan whose products they use, promoting traditional Japanese trades, crafts, farmers, and small businesses as an integrated part of their brand.
The craftspeople who built their innovative portable teahouses are featured in the company’s marketing and the leftover pieces of wood reutilized in coaster-making workshops and delicate detail for beautiful Kumiko lamps.
The Team-Happo-En company website offers clear and transparent information about company initiatives as they relate to SDG targets through fair-trade coffee imports, rice-planting workshops to tackle hunger, and reducing use of plastics to improve health.
In contrast, Beach CleanUp activists in Japan are met with a long line of people blaming the problem on someone or something else for the plastic pollution problems along rivers, beaches and in the waterways.
Takao Fujiwara, an activist in Hiroshima, told me there were 3 groups he had to deal with depending on where the pollution was found– in the sea or on the beach, the prefecture is responsible, but if it’s along the path, it’s the city. But if it’s next to the forest which is a registered national park, that is the responsibility of the national government. So within a space of 10~20 feet there are three groups that can blame each other and little gets done.
After years of this run-around and absence of anyone taking responsibility Takao-san is understandably very skeptical of the area’s new 2050 marine-plastic-zero targets which does not address 80% of the plastic pollution he cleans up every week from the Japanese fishing and oyster industry.
On a consulting trip to the famous pottery village of Bizen, it was a wonderful morning spent talking with local potters, trying to make a piece of clay sourced from the ground below ancient rice paddies, and work on a walking tour route for international visitors. I was buzzing with excitement for the potential for sustainable tourism development in the area when we stopped into a traditional eatery for lunch.
As I started up a lively conversation with the owner about the interesting history of the place and thinking of ways to welcome international visitors, one of the tour managers in our group gave me a strange look and says,
This place has nothing to do with the tour, or the travel plan, it’s just lunch!
I nod and keep quiet, but my mind is racing through various reasons: of course any experience we have in this town IS connected to what we are doing, since we are here why not learn more, especially as the staff are receptive, Mottainai-yo!
The Japanese word Mottainai refers to waste, in this case it applies to not making use of all of our experiences as relevant and a way to positively develop the overall branding, marketing and appeal of this destination.
This type of compartmentalizing of work-tasks kept separate from free-time and off-the-clock engagement seems typical in Japan. When we are talking about developing a more sustainable brand, however, we shouldn’t think of it as only a work-related, or a non-work-related task and turn the targets off.
I was so frustrated, but able to re-boot my inner peace at a Bizen cafe near the station as I drank tea, coffee and then cocoa while I waited for my train– all drinks served in beautiful handmade Bizen-Yaki, by local artisans, at local pottery studios.
I think I shocked quite a few people in a recent Setouchi SDG Talk I gave to tourism industry professionals, guides and travel agents as I pointed out the high level of demand for more sustainable products and services in travel according to the latest research.
Popular Online Travel Booking Company, Booking.com’s latest Data in 2021 is the strongest yet that international travel demand is high for sustainability: 83% think Sustainable Travel is Vital and 61% said they want to travel more sustainably. Also, 49% are disappointed there isn’t more sustainable options. And Finally, 53% are annoyed if they are stopped from being sustainable.
I pointed out that sustainably-minded travelers will want to visit Japan because of the heritage and historical traditions of sustainability such as Shojin-Ryori, Zen, Mottainai, Satoyama and the circular-economy innovations of the Edo-jidai they have read about before coming.
These travelers I argue are excited to come to Japan to see sustainability in action and will want to enjoy slow, meaningful travel experiences over a longer time paying for products and services they value. But I also warned that if they do not see the sustainability they expect, they may be part of the disappointed 49% which will effect how they talk about their trip to friends, family and on social media — affecting Japan’s overall brand negatively.
I encouraged this travel focused audience that it was in their interest to commit to the sustainability-mindset wholeheartedly , and actually a risk if they didn’t look for ways to apply sustainable models.
Try to embed it into your business DNA, apply it 24–7 into home-life as well as work-life, both paid tasks, and free time. A successful sustainable strategy will not only appeal to customers, but also improve the local community, environment and economy.
I could tell that most of them thought I was crazy, who is this lady anyway? But once I gave the example of companies like Happo-En– and how a successful Japanese hospitality business has embedded strategies of sustainability so successfully that I started to see more receptive expressions.
In a Seeking Sustainability Live talk with business expert Takayuki Kokkon, he explained that any long-standing business with over 100 years of history would already have the responsibility to take care of people and planet embedded in their brand. Therefore, many of these legacy businesses feel it unnecessary to comply with new SDG and sustainability government requirements, or even include it in their marketing and PR to the public.
I believe Kokkon-san and Ichikawa-san are right in believing a long-established business in Japan is expected to take care of its community and go to great lengths to provide support along its supply chain as a key tenant of a successful enterprise.
If these stories are not told to the public, however, it is not communicated to the international audience seeking out sustainability in travel destinations, places to study, languages to learn, and jobs to take.
To be honest, I don’t see sustainability embedded in many people’s DNA yet in Japan- I see a lot of compartmentalizing and passing the buck while considering daily unsustainable habits and a willing ignorance on climate change and fossil fuel use as Shoganai, it can’t be helped.
I think it’s vital for all Japanese businesses old and new to be transparent about meeting (or failing to meet) sustainability goals and targets which support people and planet, because the assumption that everyone is already doing it is a damaging inaccuracy affecting positive change.
Thankfully, I see a glimmer of hope on the horizon after finding Happo-En’s example of embedded brand sustainability.
I’m looking to connect with other long-established companies that have also embedded SDG’s and sustainability models into their DNA. These Japanese examples are the key to creating a movement. A sustainable brand that includes public disclosure is also key as it provides a roadmap of best practices for others to emulate.
There is still too much resistance from business leaders who are still wondering if sustainability really can, and should, be something they take full responsibility for in Japan. No one wants to be first, but no one wants to be last either, so having successful examples willing to share their stories and strategy is a key part of the solution.
