Environmental measurement and analysis (monitoring) services have been attracting attention due to the legalization of environmental assessment and the tightening of regulations on hazardous substances such as dioxin.

Environmental measurement and analysis (monitoring) services have been attracting attention due to the legalization of environmental assessment and the tightening of regulations on hazardous substances such as dioxin.
Since its establishment in 1972, Green Blue Inc. has been engaged in measurement and analysis as well as other environmental survey services from various angles.
Recently, the company has been shining with its quick response to the rapidly increasing number of dioxin survey operations in Japan.
We interviewed the company's president, Manabu Tani.
The company's foray into monitoring hazardous chemical substances was established in 1972, following the enactment of the Basic Law on Pollution Control in 1967, the enactment of the Pollution Prevention Diet in 1970, and the birth of the Environment Agency in 1971.
Prior to establishing the company, President Tani worked for the Japan Environmental Sanitation Center, an affiliated organization of the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
In the early 1970s, the Air Pollution Control Law and other anti-pollution regulations and laws were coming into effect.
Since there were not many companies involved in environmental measurement at that time, I founded the company with five of my colleagues at that time, anticipating that it would become a business.
(renamed Green Blue in 1992), and we began our sales activities, focusing first on air pollution.
The company's main business was the measurement of exhaust emissions from companies with boiler facilities and the maintenance and management of automatic air pollution measurement equipment for local governments.
In 1974, two years after the company was established, the Measurement Law was revised and the measurement certification business became a licensed business.
This allowed the company to enter the field of environmental measurement in a timely manner.
Since then, the company has broadly focused its business on the prevention of environmental pollution in general.
Currently, 40% of the company's business is environmental surveys, mainly pollution investigations; 35% is maintenance and management of air pollution monitoring systems maintained by local governments; 15% is development of computer software for tabulating, processing, and displaying environmental monitoring data; and 10% is overseas activities.
The ability to measure correctly is first and foremost essential for environmental preservation.
Japan's desperate efforts in the 1970s led the country to be called an advanced country in pollution prevention, and monitoring has played a major role in this, along with the development of pollution prevention technology and the enforcement of environmental laws.
However, Japan's environmental efforts are still far from perfect.
One example is the approach to hazardous chemicals.
Japan lags far behind Europe and the United States in dealing with hazardous chemicals.
As a first step, in January 1997, the company formed a business alliance with Cantera, the No. 1 environmental monitoring company in the U.S. "This alliance has allowed us to develop a new business model that will help us to reduce dioxin emissions and to improve our environmental management system," says Mr. Kato.
As a first step, in January 1997, the company formed a business alliance with Cantera, the No. 1 company in the U.S. for environmental monitoring.
We are in the process of marketing our services to both local governments and the private sector, and we are aiming for sales of 100 million yen this year in dioxin-related services.
One of the company's unique features is its overseas operations.
Monitoring operations to grasp the reality are indispensable for promoting environmental conservation in developing countries.
In our overseas operations, we mainly conduct development surveys for environmental ODA regarding air pollution control.
In the course of our overseas work, we have realized that we need not only specialized knowledge but also management skills in order to provide technology.
For example, it is important not only to provide the technology to measure a certain substance, but also to provide a method that can be used by non-experts if the correct procedures are followed.
From this experience, we felt the need to work in accordance with international standards, and in 1995 we obtained ISO 9002 certification.
We are currently working to obtain ISO 14000 series certification and are in the process of considering a metropolitan inspection and registration organization.
The environmental management and auditing system will create a new monitoring market, and at the same time, monitoring companies will impose strict environmental measures on themselves.
Furthermore, we expect that the Product Liability Law will be applied to "environmental measurement certificates" in the future.
Our environmental monitoring must also comply with stricter regulations.
Another unique feature of the company is that 90% of its approximately 70 employees are engineers.
Another unique feature of the company is that 90% of its approximately 70 employees are technical specialists, so-called monitoring experts, which the company intends to change gradually.
Up to now, 70% of our clients have been local governments, but from now on we need to expand the scope of our clients to include private companies and individuals.
In order to do so, we need to quickly understand the needs of our clients and provide information in a way that is easy to understand for non-specialists.
To this end, in 1995 we established the Corporate Planning Office, whose main task is to plan and launch new businesses.
In addition to the aforementioned partnership with Cantera, the office developed a simplified contamination testing device for personal use.
This simple testing device can be placed in a person's breast pocket for a day to analyze toxic substances such as nitrogen dioxide and aldehydes.
The cost of the analysis is kept to about 1,500 yen per analysis, making it easy for individuals to use.
In the 25 years since the company was founded, we have experienced waves of environmental protection, from the pollution problems of the 1970s to the global environmental problems of the 1990s, and we feel that awareness of the importance of monitoring as a first step toward environmental protection is deepening.
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