Mitsubishi Electric and Ebara Corporation - People Listening to the Voice of the Environment March 1996

Mitsubishi Electric and Ebara Corporation - People Listening to the Voice of the Environment March 1996

In the mid-1990s, signs of a quiet transition were emerging in Japan's industrial society. In the lingering aftermath of the bursting of the bubble economy, the glow of economic growth was dulling, and a new philosophy of "the environment" was creeping into the heart of business instead. In the past, pollution control was merely a matter of cleaning up after pollution, but after the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, environmental issues were transformed into a management philosophy itself. The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) and the Federation of Economic Organizations of Japan (Keidanren) successively launched "environmental management" and "environmental education" in an attempt to infuse ethics and culture into a corporate structure supported by technology and profit. Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and Ebara Corporation most clearly embodied the spirit of the times.

Mitsubishi Electric established an Environmental Protection Promotion Department in 1999 and began reforming its internal education system under the leadership of Hidetoshi Takeuchi. A system was created whereby everyone from new recruits to executives learned the same principles, and environmental lectures were held by connecting business sites across Japan via satellite broadcasting. In addition to lectures on such topics as product assessment and energy-saving technologies, the company also created opportunities to foster environmental awareness itself. Takeuchi says, "If you are too pessimistic, there is no need to be. Takeuchi says, "You cannot be too pessimistic or indifferent. A proper sense of urgency is the driving force behind problem solving." These words were not just environmental measures, but a call for reform of the human mind. Mitsubishi Electric was known for its technological excellence, but it was at this time that the company began to steer a course towar
d "intellectual and cultural environmental management. Conscious of its credibility in the global marketplace, the company was quick to introduce the ISO 14000 series of international standards and regarded the environment as the future of the company itself.

Meanwhile, another form of change was sprouting at EBARA, building on its long tradition as a machinery manufacturer. Behind the wastewater treatment, incinerator, and other technologies that had supported the pollution era, in the 1990s the company began to realize that it was an "environmental engineering company. Motokazu Umeda, head of the Environmental Management Office, said, "We want to nurture people who can reflect their environmental awareness in their respective fields of knowledge and technology. They had a three-day, two-night nature experience training program in Kiyosato, where young employees and managers talked together while walking in the forest. It was a camp where the generation that lived through the era of anti-pollution measures and the new environmental generation faced each other and confirmed each other's values. EBARA called it an "environmental seminar" and continued it as an attempt to think about the future of the company in the midst of nature.

EBARA also created the "Environmental Contribution Reward System" to evaluate recycling and cleaning activities conducted by employees at home and in the community. No matter how small the act, if it was recorded, it was eligible for a commendation, and the company aimed to create a corporate culture in which "everyone can participate in environmental conservation. In the survey, 88% of employees answered that they were "concerned about the environment," and while the younger generation said they would "change their lives," the older generation tended to choose "donation and cooperation. Umeda quietly stated, "Environmental education is not something that has an immediate effect, but something that finally produces results over a long period of time. In his stance was the belief that education should not be measured by numbers, but rather by the maturation of time to nurture people.

A common spirit flows through the efforts of these two companies. It is a sensitivity to the changes of the times, from technology to ethics, from industry to culture. In the mid-1990s, citizens' movements and NGOs were on the rise, and the Environmental Agency was seeking a new direction for education policy. Companies took this wave into their own operations and began to nurture their employees as "environmental citizens. Mitsubishi Electric's systematic education and EBARA's sensibility education took different paths, but both were heading toward the same conclusion. They realized that the environment is not a matter of technology, but of the human mind.

In March 1996, the words of both companies had a timeless resonance. Beyond the smoke of the factory, they thought of the forests and the sea, and behind the numbers, the children of the future. Such quiet imagination was the starting point of environmental education.