by Sustainable Brands Japan
Along with the main theme of the conference, "Redesigning the Good
Life,” participants discussed topics including “How to achieve a good life from
the consumers’ point of view?” and “The role of brands in facilitating that good
life.”
This year was the third consecutive year the conference has been held in Japan. The event aims to create and provide a platform
for cross-border exchanges with companies and organizations to help them achieve
the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and generate future innovations together,
something that has been traditionally difficult to accomplish individually.
At the opening of the conference, Sustainable Brands CEO Koann Vikoren
Skrzyniarz, who presides over the SB International Conference, stated:
"It is
necessary to change oneself, and change leadership and organizations in the
process. A brand is the way one talks to the world; each act as a consumer and a
citizen is an important part of building our global community.”
For the plenary session, a large number of companies, agencies, organizations,
and top-runners — including Takaaki Nishii, President of
Ajinomoto;
David Rachelson, VP of Sustainability at Rubicon
Global;
Asako Hoshino, SVP of Nissan Motor Co.; Marc Pritchard, Chief Brand
Officer at Procter & Gamble; and Jan Jones Blackhurst, former mayor of Las
Vegas and now VP at Caesars
Entertainment
— shared insights on the main stage.
Interest in sustainability has pervaded business units
A post-event survey of participant satisfaction with the breakout sessions
showed the highest satisfaction for the session titled, “The financial system
that will transform the world and the region,” followed by "The challenge for
the circular economy: the plastic issue.”
The makeup of the participants also changed from the previous year. Among the
participants from companies, the percentage of “CSR/sustainability personnel”
(33 percent in the previous two years) decreased to 25 percent. On the other
hand, the number of business divisions, such as "Technology/Engineering" and
"Sales representatives/Shop clerks,” increased twofold — from 7 percent last
year to 15 percent. From these numbers, it appears that interest in
sustainability is gradually trickling down to the field level.
The next SB International Conference in Japan will take place in
Yokohama, Kanagawa
prefecture — which was also selected as an “SDG Future City” — on
February 19-20, 2020.
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Published Mar 10, 2019 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 12pm GMT / 1pm CET