Possibility for Continuity
ACCJ leaders share what sustainability means to them
By C Bryan Jones
What is sustainability? The term means different things to different people. For many, the first thing that comes to mind is the environment. But sustainability encompasses numerous areas of society, as evidenced by the wide spectrum covered by the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Not only does sustainability involve the environment, but also economic and societal matters as well as environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG).
To capture the range of issues that fall under the sustainability umbrella, _The ACCJ Journal_ asked leaders and members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) to share what sustainability means to them.
Eriko Asai
President, GE Japan
ACCJ chair
I am delighted to bring you this special edition on sustainability. The word encompasses many areas but, needless to say, climate change is one of urgent global priority. It cannot be solved without advancements in technology, where the private sector plays a key role, and takes cross-industry collaboration to engage with governments to introduce adequate policy and regulations.
For 2021, the ACCJ has decided to focus on sustainable society as one of our four key advocacy priorities. We have established the Sustainable Society Advocacy Coordination Group, led by ACCJ Governors Andrew J. Conrad and Frank Packard, along with me as ACCJ chair, to ensure that we take a holistic approach in covering topics such as energy transition and ESG.
In April, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and US President Joe Biden agreed on the Japan–U.S. Clean Energy Partnership, which includes cooperation on implementation of the Paris Agreement, cooperation on clean energy technology, and accelerating decarbonization in the Indo-Pacific region.
As an example of pioneering such US–Japan cooperation, GE and Toshiba have recently concluded a strategic partnership agreement on offshore wind power to jointly support the Japanese government’s Green Growth Strategy and its effort to install 30–45 gigawatts of offshore wind generation by 2040.
I am excited to be part of a great team of professionals at the ACCJ and look forward to our journey ahead.
Jenifer Rogers
General counsel Asia, Asurion Japan Holdings G.K.
Non-executive director, Mitsui & Co., Ltd.; Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd.; Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
ACCJ president
I am very pleased that we are producing a special edition of The ACCJ Journal\ focused on sustainability. One of the key things I wanted to do when I became ACCJ president was to reconsider the areas on which the ACCJ should focus its advocacy—especially in light of Covid-19.
With the ongoing pandemic, it has become clear to me that sustainability-related issues are finally getting the attention they deserve, that they are growing as a focus area and becoming even more critical, especially with respect to issues around climate change.
Serving as a non-executive director on corporate boards, I have been very aware of the increased focus on sustainability, over the past few years, as an area that stakeholders are concerned about. But it became even more critical to business management, and a greater priority, as the pandemic highlighted the importance of this focus.
In addition, with the change in the Japanese and US administrations—with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and US President Joe Biden taking office—it became clear that both governments were also prioritizing the issues related to sustainability. That is why we formed the Sustainable Society Advocacy Coordination Group.
The topic of sustainability is so broad, but what it means to me is creating a balance between economic growth and harmony with nature, so that we leave the planet in good shape for future generations. I believe a focus on sustainability for advocacy allows the ACCJ to lead the discussion on so many important topics regarding which Japan needs to improve, including social aspects such as diversity and inclusion, as well as corporate governance and climate change aspects such as carbon neutrality.
I personally believe that the ACCJ and its members are dedicated to ensuring a more sustainable future and that the chamber can contribute to that dialogue in Japan in a meaningful way.
Heather McLeish
Director, EY Japan Co., Ltd.
Co-chair, Sustainability Committee
Sustainability is a great big umbrella of a term that means so many different things to different people. That is part of the reason it can be an overwhelming term! I like to keep things simple when trying to define sustainability.
From a business perspective, I like to think that sustainability is at the crossroads of purpose and strategy. It is the place we stop and consider our direction and choose the best way we can at the time. It is the starting point for averting risks and uncovering new opportunities.
From a personal perspective, I feel sustainability means having “enough,” focusing on quality over quantity for the choices I make and the activities I pursue. Sustainability is, above all, a life choice and a journey—one I choose to take.
My experience is that individuals who try to incorporate sustainability as a pillar of their life journey have an increased sense of integrity and purpose. Above all, they have a joyful foundation for living well and feeling connected to their surroundings.
As co-chair of the ACCJ Sustainability Committee, I want to help bring feasible sustainability actions, best practices, and inspiration to others in our community.
Manabu Yamanaka
Engineering manager, Building Construction, Products Division, Caterpillar Japan LLC
Co-chair, Sustainability Committee
Sustainability has many meanings and includes various aspects of life. But for me, it means to preserve a beautiful world for my children and grandchildren, so they can enjoy the same—or even more wonderful—experiences than those with which I am blessed.
My company, the construction equipment manufacturer Caterpillar, has been focusing on sustainability for the past 20 years as the top priority for our customers working with the infrastructure, energy, and resource needs of tomorrow. Without the sustainable perspective of customers, our company would not be successful. Without the sustainable development of the world’s energy resources and infrastructure, our customers, in turn, would not be successful. So, these are closely connected. There is no winner or loser in this ecosystem. We must work, strive, and enjoy prosperity together with customers and the world.
Many of our customers are private companies that have been in business for multiple generations. The owners are working hard for their company’s sustainable future, so that they can pass the business along to their children. I see the similarity between my personal thoughts and corporate policy, and learn a lot from our corporate approach that I can carry over to my personal life. As co-chair of the ACCJ Sustainability Committee, I would like to listen to, and learn from, fellow chamber members to refine, improve, and grow sustainability-related thinking for both my private and corporate perspectives.
Mike Benner
Co-chair, Information, Communications, and Technology Committee
Vice-chair, Energy Committee
Sustainability is core to my business focus of bringing new distributed energy technology solutions to Japan, and assisting Japanese energy players to accelerate wide-scale adoption of renewables and distributed energy.
This includes innovative models for rapid deployment of battery storage and software platforms, to optimize how and when grid-edge resources (e.g., water heaters/chillers, heat pumps, HVAC systems, electric vehicles) are used to match supply and demand.
Technologies at work in these solutions combine hardware, software, the Internet of Things, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence (AI). Adoption of these new models will result in companies and residents operating more efficiently and having lower energy costs, often turning unused assets into revenue streams. It also lessens the reliance on the central generation of electricity using fossil fuel-powered plants.
Additionally, as president of Tokyo American Club, I launched a broad-based sustainability initiative to measure the club’s total carbon footprint and implement ways to reduce it. Beyond acting on energy efficiency, the club is also aggressively looking at the reduction of plastics use and food waste.
As stewards of our planet, it is beholden on all of us to act decisively—and now—on the major sustainability challenges which will impact not just future generations but our own lives. These challenges are not only existential threats but business megatrends and opportunities to rethink society as we know it.
Hannah Perry
Director, Finsbury Glover Hering
Vice-chair, Sustainability Committee
Sustainability as a concept still conveys diverse meanings to both individuals and businesses, and is highly sensitive to context. I see great value in that flexibility, such that it remains open to interpretation, with the concept continuing to evolve while we evolve as a society.
I find the term interesting to analyze in its Japanese construction: 持続可能性 (_jizoku kanosei_). If you separate the component characters, 持続 (continuity) and 可能性 (possibility), the literal translation becomes “the possibility for continuity.” This notion of continuity echoes the idea of creating a future informed by resilience, growth, and long-term success.
A sustainable business is now closely associated with the concept of the 3Ps: people, planet, and profit. For me, sustainability is at the core of this matrix and, when correctly interpreted, is what holds the three elements together.
Being respectful of the 3Ps, as representing the possibility for transformation, has the potential of ensuring that environmental and societal factors are core considerations in business decisions to produce the continuity required for the creation and maintenance of a sustainable society.
Ken Haig
Chair, Energy Committee
The UN group that oversees the now ubiquitous SDGs defines sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” I like this definition, as it is pretty close to how I think about sustainability, which is: What do we need to be doing now to pass on a habitable planet—and all of the benefits that we’ve enjoyed from a vibrant economy and society—for our children to be able to pass on to their children and beyond.
As I recently learned (from my own children’s investigations into the SDGs for school, no less), the goals that I am most directly focused on these days—both personally and professionally—are:
- 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
- 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all
But there are so many other worthy goals that need to be met, and I take heart from the fact that many ACCJ colleagues are working on these from many angles as well.
Frank Packard
ACCJ governor
Chair, Alternative Investment Committee
This is a great time to be in my line of work in finance and investment. Increasing awareness of climate information is driving new deals in ways unimaginable even five or 10 years ago. This moment is exciting, as the creativity of technology solutions and financial structures meet new disclosure requirements.
Sustainability for me is personal. I grew up in the northeastern United States with lots of outdoor activities, including hiking, rock climbing, winter mountaineering, and sports such as collegiate rowing. The outdoor environment was an integral part of growing up.
These days, “sustainability” seems to be increasingly in vogue, perhaps due to our growing awareness of its absence in our lives.
To date, we have often measured economic and investment activities only by the benefits to owners, and have avoided measuring their true costs. To me, sustainability means addressing this tragedy of the commons with verifiable and comprehensive disclosures according to widely accepted standards.
Two ACCJ leaders, Chris Wells and Debbie Reilly, recently framed the issue succinctly: transparency drives action. I believe that when we have developed sensible disclosure requirements, common sense and financial markets will make educated and sustainable choices.
To be sure, sustainable investing goes far beyond transparency itself. ESG disclosures are quickly becoming requirements for key industry participants, such as institutional investors and listed companies. At the same time, these disclosure requirements concerning climate-change information should be viewed as a design opportunity rather than a burden.
Beyond transparency, sustainability means bringing to the table all our best human resources to pursue all possible sources of solutions, including the 50 percent of us who are women.
And sustainability remains personal for me. For 32 years, we have celebrated our wedding anniversary on Earth Day.
Keith Kirkham
Senior commercial officer
Embassy of the United States, Tokyo
It’s common—and correct—to think of sustainability in terms of the environment; whether our world’s resources will continue to support some human activity indefinitely.
Some cases are clear. We can consider the pressure of population growth, assume a rate of consumption, and forecast how long a resource such as codfish or cobalt might last. Other questions are more difficult. How far into the future can we sustain our business models, our ability to innovate, and our path to deliver solutions into a competitive market? Will these mechanisms all be eclipsed by a catastrophic shock, an abrupt change in geopolitics, or will they improve and flourish?
Assessing the risk of unsustainability is different from the risks of natural disasters or political risk. And today, when we seem to turn on a hinge of history, it is hard to know if tomorrow opens to progress or just disruption. Greater computing power and AI have accelerated our entry into a new age of discovery, but understanding social psychology may be as important to sustainability as resource availability.
Ironically, to reach our goals for environmental sustainability, we need a sustainable system—one that creates accurate incentives for behaviors—by which consumers, stakeholders, and government can make decisions and set policy. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry credits its feed-in-tariff (FIT) policy for renewable energy as the incentive that successfully reduced the cost of renewable energy in Japan. FIT was then replaced (as fiscally unsustainable) by an auction system. This is an example of how sustainability is both the destination and the steps along the way.
Eddie Guillemette
CEO, Midori no Ki K.K.
For us, sustainability is about giving more than you take, caring for the environment, and treating everyone with respect. We incorporate these ideas into our real estate and hospitality businesses.
Our EdVenture kids camp focuses on outdoor education, so we spend time on farms, in the forest, and on the water around Niseko, Hokkaido. The kids plant trees to offset their carbon footprint and we encourage all guests to use our compost center to improve the soil and reduce waste.
Our real estate business uses timber construction, orients properties facing south, uses double- and triple-glazed windows, and ensures there is cross ventilation (to avoid the need to use air conditioners). Our goal is to build properties with more sustainable materials and renewable energy sources—although the additional cost of these products in Japan is generally unacceptable to many customers.
Our hospitality business is partnering with Goyoh, a local company, to measure the total impact from a guest stay and the properties we manage. The goal is to share this data and allow guests to offset their carbon footprint via tree planting, forest restoration, and land preservation.
To have a sustainable business and society, we believe that it is critical to promote awareness of the issues and provide simple, cost-effective solutions.
THE JOURNAL
A flagship publication of The American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ), The ACCJ Journal is a business magazine with a 58-year history.
Christopher Bryan Jones, Publisher & Editor
