Ginza×CSR・CSV Vol.33 BRITA Japan

Aiming for collective impact and enhancing collaboration

• ─ With an aim to reduce single-use plastic waste, we launched the BRITA EcoWater Action 2021 in June 2019.
• In order to address the grand issue of “sustainability,” it is essential that efforts are not limited to our individual organizations but that we reach out and involve concerned groups so that the strengths of each group can be harnessed toward achieving the goal.
  
  Having hosted river cleanups in the Arakawa River and tree planting events in Mt. Fuji, etc. in the past, we decided that we would integrate these individual activities in the context of different settings and social change, and create partnerships transcending individual companies and organizations. We felt that by bringing these activities and actors together we could seek to have “collective impact (*).”
  
  (*) “Collective impact,” first defined in 2011 in a paper published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, refers to approaches that seek to solve social issues through partnerships transcending a diversity of organizations (e.g. companies, administration, NPO, universities).。
  
  Currently, plastic waste has become a global concern. In Japan, all government ministries have prohibited the use of single-use plastics in their cafeterias and shops, as a rule, and more companies are abolishing the use of plastics as well.
  
  For BRITA EcoWater Action 2021, we recruited participants from four categories: companies, administration, NPOs and students. Through 2021, we will campaign to raise awareness of reducing plastic waste by enhancing social impact through interconnection among participants.

• ─ I have been told that you often go to see the projects yourself.
• Yes, I like seeing people at work. Meeting different people offers opportunities to come in contact with diverse stories and points of views. They are often the source of new ideas and I feel increasingly motivated to cause action.
  
  Being involved in the river cleanup in Arakawa River, I have witnessed the deplorable truth that it takes only a week for the river to be filled with plastic waste again. I was also inspired by the various ideas and discussions by the young people participating in the Y20 Summit, formally held concurrently with the G20 Summit meeting.

• ─ Mr. Sakota has also served Will Lab, a program promoted by the Ministry of the Environment that seeks to discover young entrepreneurs as a mentor.
• BRITA was also established from an entrepreneurial spirit. The ideas of leading an ecological life by using water purifiers and taking the water filter outside the home are simple approaches, but in developing the new product, we struggled to achieve the right pricing, size, user-friendliness, and design that would be acceptable by consumers. BRITA is very happy to have been given opportunity to support entrepreneurs under this program.

With Ginza, continuing to communicate cutting-edge values

• ─ Before we close, please share your feelings for Ginza.
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• Ginza is always ahead of the times and is a hub where information gathers and is released. It is also an international town and more customers here are sensitive to sustainability compared to other areas. We moved to Ginza three years ago and we hope to connect with more organizations and people in Ginza to stimulate change.