Background

Keeping employees stay on top of SDG trends

The rapidly evolving landscape around the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provides a massive flow of new information, which can be overwhelming for employees who are tied up with day-to-day tasks.

The client was looking to build an internal information hub that would help its employees stay tuned to trends in society and SDG practices.

Our Approach

Curated news from around the world

We at EcoNetworks have a track record of conducting research using our global and multilingual network. We offer a curated collection of case studies of SDG-related initiatives from around the world that can be effectively used by the client in its internal education efforts.

Outcome

Delivering content that captures the audience’s attention

What types of information do people find interesting and relevant? How could we encourage people to click and read the articles in the course of their daily job duties?

When we curate content, we do not merely collect information online but always seek to reach the target audience.

Photo: Hurights Osaka

On June 15, 2018 in Tokyo, Amnesty International Japan and Asia-Pacific Human Rights Information Center (Hurights Osaka) co-sponsored the “Seminar for instilling more awareness on business and human rights in your company.” Twenty three people who were responsible for corporate social responsibility and human rights joined the seminar. Takeshi Nozawa, our CEO and Managing Director, facilitated the workshop for participants from companies to share their own issues with their participants and categorize them for finding solutions.

The goals of this seminar were as follows:

· Share issues in their own companies with others to categorize them;
· Create visions on how to solve their issues while discussing with others from different companies, participants;
· Learn from the practices of Casio Computer Co. about how to raise and instill awareness on human rights in the company and their human rights training program;
· Have clearer perspectives on business and human rights and on how to implement human rights due diligence in their daily work.

The questionnaire after the seminar received positive answers, including “It was straightforward and helpful,” and “I could get some hints from in-depth workshop and presentation on what other companies are doing. I think we will be able to start actions quickly.” We are delighted to know that the workshop also gave an opportunity for participants to get concrete tips from the cases and real circumstances of other companies.

Background: Assisting a project launch in a developing country

The client wanted to launch a new community project on renewable energy in a developing country.

Which NGOs would be good partners?
Are existing frameworks appropriate?
What are the local conditions?

To prepare for the project we needed to get to the local area and gather information on the ground.

Our approach: Using our global network to get local

The target country was Myanmar.

With the help of a local partner in Yangon, we made several local trips to gather information and conduct interviews.

Outcomes: Visits to nine organizations produced valuable information

We ultimately visited nine organizations, including local NGOs, social enterprises, and universities.

Our final report to the client provided a compilation of local information and recommendations on partnerships, plus suggestions for future project deployment.

Background: Bringing life to CSR seminars

One client holds annual seminars to raise employee awareness about corporate social responsibility (CSR) topics.

It came to EcoNetworks for help, and raised two issues:
– The seminar was voluntary but participation was dropping. What could be done to boost participation?
– The client wanted to talk about the UN Sustainable Development Goals. What be done to make the SDGs meaningful personally and help employees understand the concepts?

Our approach: Making social issues your own

We decided to offer a seminar during the regular lunch hour. Using lunchboxes provided to participants, we introduced tasks that would make them think personally about social issues.

Before talking about the SDGs, we got them interested by making them a little more aware that people are suffering with issues in society.

To help them understand the SDGs, we used display cards. People would read the SDG goals, and then think about how they are connected with their company.

With 17 SDG goals and 169 targets, it is a challenge for a group to read them all with conviction. And if we tried to explain everything in detail, participants would probably forget a lot of it.

So we created an environment that made it fun to read out the goals, and we designed the materials to be easy to read.

Outcomes: Creating opportunities for every participant go home more aware

The power of lunchbox as a teaching tool is big. In the follow-up survey, all the participants indicated high satisfaction levels, and said they had learned something new.

We believe that in return for using their valuable lunch time, participants were able to gain a lot of value from the seminar. And we hope that they will be able to make connections between what they learned and their future actions at work.

Background: Seeking to discuss ESG initiatives driven by Japanese companies

Trillium Asset Management is a US-based investment management firm established in 1982 and focuses on ESG investment, an approach that values environment, society and governance. The company’s Portfolio 21 Global Equity Fund Team visited Japan to have interviews with Japanese companies, and EcoNetworks coordinated the meetings.

See Interview: ESG investment in Japan and the world

Our approach: Coordinating an ESG dialogue tour, leveraging our network and language expertise

We offered full support during their one-week stay in Japan, including assisting in listing target companies, coordinating meetings and attending to and interpreting for them.

We also suggested insights on how to facilitate dialogue, considering the situations and culture of Japanese society and the target companies. By bringing perspectives of both the US and Japan, we supported them to have more meaningful dialogue.

Outcomes: Visiting ten companies in Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto over five days

We visited ten companies in three cities over five days to discuss with ESG personnel of the companies.

Most companies told us that they had had few chances to have direct dialogue with non-Japanese investors before. The meetings provided meaningful time for both our client and the interviewees.

We will continue our commitment to create dialogue opportunities like this.

Panasonic Corporation, a Japanese electronics company, is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2018. To commemorate that, the company launched 100 Thousand Solar Lanterns Project in 2009, which aimed to give 100,000 solar lanterns to off-grid communities by 2018.

To call public attention to the reality of people in developing countries living without electricity, and to raise awareness of potential solutions to this issue, EcoNetworks has been supporting the project with its external communications since 2013.

We are specifically involved in creating attractive content for their website and Facebook page to update on project progress, and serving as a contact point for the recipient organizations of solar lanterns. We are working for the smooth operation of the project from the standpoints of off-grid communities, partner NGOs, and the company.

To get as many people as possible involved in this movement, to assist the self-reliance of local people beyond a mere donation, and to advance the resolution of many issues in communities without electricity, we are doing our best to make the project beneficial to both the donor and the recipients.