Japan’s Nikkei Research ranked BCtA member Itochu Corporation as No 1 among over 500 companies for its contribution to society. In its annual NICES ranking announced on 27 November of last year, the Nikkei newspaper recognized Itochu for their organic cotton farming initiative in India.
NICES is a comprehensive ranking that evaluates Japanese companies across five areas: investors, which is based on the assessment of financial data; consumers and corporate clients, which is based on the volume of sales, branding; employees, which is based on talent development, empowerment of women, and diversity of employees; society, which is based on contribution to society by creating working opportunities, environmental protection; and growth potential. NICES covers 538 companies and publishes a general ranking that reflects results from all five areas as well as five category-specific rankings.
Itochu, Japan’s leading trading company, is supporting cotton farmers in India to adopt organic farming practices to reduce environmental and health risks from the use of agrochemicals and economic burden of purchasing them. The company’s Pre Organic Cotton Program is being implemented with kurkku, a lifestyle company, and it aims to comprehensively address the challenges from conventional cotton farming. The project consists of the following components: providing purchase guarantee for farmers at a subsidized rate to compensate for the yield drop that happens during the process of adopting organic farming; providing technical assistance to farmers; supporting farmers to receive organic certification; and providing non-genetically modified seeds.
BCtA members were well represented in the 2014 NICES ranking. Unicharm ranked No 16 in the general ranking and No 9 in the growth potential ranking. Itochu ranked No 25 in the general ranking and No 1 in the society ranking. Ajinomoto ranked No 29 in the general ranking. Panasonic ranked No 56 in the general ranking and Muji ranked No 74 in the general ranking and No 7 in the investors ranking.
“The Pre Organic Cotton Program connects Indian farmers with consumers in developed markets, including the United States, Europe and Japan,” said Mr Ryoma Omuro, manager of textile material section at Itochu. “As a company with many years of experience and a well-established platform in textile business, we believe that it is our responsibility to raise awareness on global poverty among our consumers through Itochu’s products.
“We hope that our initiative plays a catalytic role in creating positive social change.”
Tomohiro Nagasaki is the impact measurement consultant at Business Call to Action, and Ai Ohara is the outreach consultant for Business Call to Action.
Launched at the United Nations, the Business Call to Action (BCtA) is a global alliance hosted by the United Nations Development Programme headquarters in New York. Follow: @BCtAInitiative
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