80 Percent of Japanese Businesses Going Green as a Social Responsibility

According to a Japanese government survey on environmentally friendly corporate activities in fiscal 2010, 81.9% of respondents are undertaking environmental efforts to fulfill their corporate social responsibility, while 60.8% of them have set up guidelines and taken initiatives to mitigate global warming. The latter figure showed another increase from the year before. The survey is conducted annually by Japan's Ministry of the Environment. The summary of the fiscal 2010 survey was released on January 27, 2012.

With regard to environmental reports, 36.5% of respondents reported that they publish reports periodically, an increase from the previous year. This accounts for more than 80% of companies with sales of more than 500 billion yen (6.5 billion U.S. dollars), also an increase from the previous year. When asked about green businesses, 60% reported that they are already operating, will be operating businesses dedicated to the environment or will work on them.

In contrast, businesses that were ISO 14001-certified in fiscal 2010 stood at 62.5%, and environmental accounting remains uncommon, with answers "have already adopted (25.0%)" and "considering adopting (7.0%)" both decreasing slightly from the previous year.

In response to questions about biodiversity conservation, 19.7% of respondents agreed that "biodiversity issues are directly linked to the company's operations and thus are particularly important." The survey also revealed an increasing commitment to biodiversity conservation, with 27.3% of businesses carrying out programs, with or without guidelines in place.

Survey Shows Growing Number of Companies in Japan See Environmental Initiatives as an Opportunity (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/030809.html
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Posted: 2012/05/12 06:00:15 AM