In November 2018, Manabu Okubo from the SEKISUI Environmental Management Group attended the Natural Capital Coalition Collaboration Day in Paris as part of Natural Capital Week*. The event was held in Palais Brongniart, an exhibition center in the heart of Paris. Kate Gilmartin from SEKISUI Overseas Management Group was there and gives a short event report:
I had the chance to attend this event and hear from experts in the field of Natural Capital about their efforts in businesses, governments, NGOs and other organisations. This was a new experience for me and while I have always had an interest in environmental and climate change issues, I am not an expert.
When I applied to join SEKISUI in 2015, the approach and commitment to CSR and the environment was one of the things which attracted me. Although at the time, I did not fully understand the business or industries that SEKISUI was in, I did get a sense that this company placed social responsibility and stewardship very highly.
Since I joined, the importance of environmental initiatives and their connection to sustainable business has been constantly growing and I am happy to be part of a company that has such a forward looking view on this topic.
Attending the Collaboration Day event was a great opportunity to see that what SEKISUI does for the environment is internationally recognized as innovative and forward thinking. The discussion where our SEKISUI Environmental Manager was on the panel was called “Integrating with Business”. During this session, companies from different industries and different regions also joined the panel. Some of the companies were Kering (parent brand of Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent etc.), BNP Paribas, Forico (Australian forestry company) and more. Hearing the different approaches companies are taking to achieve a united goal of reducing the impact we have on the environment was really eye opening.
The audience listened closely to Manabu Okubo talking about SEKISUI’s environmental plans.
The audience listened closely to Manabu Okubo talking about SEKISUI’s environmental plans.
It was also great to see how many people were specifically interested in SEKISUI strategy towards integrating natural capital thinking with business. Sometimes, it is easy to focus on the fact that not so many people know SEKISUI and that our products are complicated to explain. Throughout this day, I really got the sense that even though people didn’t know what exactly our products are, they were really interested in our overall strategy and wanted to know more about the Group.
Towards the end of the day, we had a discussion session where we worked in groups to identify what actions can be taken to make progress in environmental and natural capital thinking. My group talked about how to introduce the issue to the next generation by making it part of education curriculums. SEKISUI is already addressing this issue with our Global Children’s Eco Summit and also this year, we launched an educational tool in Japan for children to learn about SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals).
After attending this day of talks, I was actually interested to learn more about the subject of natural capital and more of the details of the SEKISUI sustainability index, which is the tool we use to measure our impact and contribution to natural capital. I hope to build my knowledge on this topic and share it with more people in and outside SEKISUI.
The purpose of this Collaboration Day was for organisations to work together because climate change and preventing the loss of natural capital is not something we can do alone. It was a great experience to attend this kind of conference.
*Natural Capital Week 2018 was held in Paris from 26th to 30th November last year. During this week, leading organisations in the natural capital space met in Paris for a week of events discussions and networking: https://naturalcapitalcoalition.org/natural-capital-week-2018/
The event was organised by Natural Capital Coalition, a collaboration of global initiatives and organisations which aims at harmonizing approaches to conserving and enhancing natural capital. Part of its mission is to promote a shift towards integrating natural capital thinking into all activities and initiatives.
