How to engage our people & customers in driving sustainability (Sustainabili-Tea Talks Session 3)

Following Day 1’s exploration of the potential of SMEs in shaping a sustainable society, participants learned why businesses should shift towards sustainability. But what are the next steps? The guest speakers, Harumi Komura from UDS Ltd., which runs hotels including Hotel Edit Yokohama, and founder Tomoko Hitomi from Sisam Fair Trade + design, shared how they introduced sustainability into their organizations.

Staff at the core of a sustainable business

And as it turns out, their staff were important catalysts for their first steps towards sustainability.

Hitomi: There was a high level of awareness among our staff of 60. Most were already interested in environmental issues, and were pondering them on the global level. And it just happens that one of the key criteria from World Fair Trade Organization was that company activities must be environmentally friendly. It helped, too, that the founding staff were Kyotonites who like ‘old stuff’ for their inherent historical value, and thus concepts like reusing and refurbishing were appealing.

Sisam is one of the pioneers of fair trade in Japan, and was founded with a very strong mission, which is one of the reasons why like-minded employees were drawn to Hitomi’s vision. However, although Sisam started with a group striving for the same cause, we cannot say the same with all organizations. How can an organization begin rallying the troops to march against unsustainable practices within the company? Komura shared how, and why now is the perfect opportunity to move.

Komura: Before the pandemic, we didn’t have the capacity to evaluate our activities in terms of sustainability. But the hotel business is a heavy burden on the environment, for example, providing additional services and amenities that were expected of Japanese hospitality. When we first announced within the company that we wanted to make Hotel Edit Yokohama a more sustainable organization, staff in their twenties were raising their hands to participate voluntarily in changing the organization. These were staff who had a high awareness of the SDGs.

Creating a space for staff to learn and build a work culture of sustainability

The speakers also shared how learning about sustainability from each other is important. Both UDS hotels and Sisam are located at multiple places, but they arranged periodic meetings between them for staff to exchange ideas and learnings to advance sustainability.

Ichihara, manager from the first apparel store in Japan to receive the Zero Waste Apparel Accreditation, Patagonia Yokohama, was invited to join in the conversation. Patagonia’s sustainability actions were also staff-driven, including learning, sharing and implementing action.

Ichihara: Six years ago, the staff began looking at our own lifestyles. We then realized that we needed to change ourselves. We started with the Big Four of ocean plastic wastes (straw, bottles, shopping bags and plastic cups) and tried to cut them from our lives. We introduced sustainable systems like removing the garbage bin in our office. We’d also have sessions to announce our goals to each other while sharing the difficulties at meetings. Subsequently, we upped the ante. Other Patagonia stores began taking an interest in what our staff was doing, and a zero waste team was formed. Since then, Patagonia Japan has continued striving towards zero waste activities.

Continuous dialogue with customers also contributes

Hitomi also shared that the organization’s learning comes from their customers too. Having been in the fair trade scene since 1999, Sisam has learned to listen to their feedback and needs.

Hitomi: Having been in business for so long, dialogue with our customers has increased. And it’s these feedback from them that steered us to be more sustainable. We’ve experimented and customers agreed that some aspects were unnecessary. Sisam has shifted from paper to digital newsletters. We’ve started charging for shopping bags. Even for online shopping, our customers are fine with plastic-free, receipt-free deliveries.

Next session: Creating an ecosystem in implementing sustainability at coworking offices