Question:
We in the developed countries are very aware of environmental issues, but how do you suppose ecodesign concepts can gain a foothold in the developing world?

---

That is a difficult problem. I would suggest that what is important for Japan's foreign policy is to first create environmental awareness groups. Environmental awareness groups can help all constituents in society understand what place they occupy in the world, in what ways are they harming the global ecology, and what they can do to change their behavior. If everyone isn't on the same page with respect to these problems, the problems can never be solved. In addition, we need to create what I would call WEDO (World Environment Development
Organization), which could serve as an international agency to perform global environmental management and administration. For example in China, ecodesign concepts are rapidly being adopted. Books such as "Green Design" and "Introduction to Ecomaterials" are being published there, and they are quickly moving towards spreading this type of knowledge and technology.

Question:
In what respect do you think managers should take the environment into account when running their businesses?

---

Businessmen who think that solving environmental problems is linked to increased costs, or that their companies are doing enough just by complying with government regulations and not offending the public are totally out of date in my opinion. Environmental problems must be confronted together with design, production, and management issues. We're now at a phase where we must rethink everything from an environmental perspective, and approach these issues as one problem. The government has greatly increased its ratio of green purchasing, and now they are going forward with procurement of 101 different green articles. But in addition to goods, they are also starting to look at green services as well, such as distribution, maintenance, insurance, printing, education, and medical services.

There is also the problem of environmental ratings. In Europe and America there are various agencies implementing environmental ratings, and in Japan, the Society for Environmental Management is looking towards establishing a separate environmental ratings agency. Even banks are starting to perform screening to evaluate environmental risk when offering financing, so I believe that this will become a major issue for managers within the coming year.

Question:
What do you think we should do to get consumers to choose environmentally friendly products and services?

---

First, we must educate them about the environment. The Ministry of Education could choose test junior high and high schools and set up ISO14000-like environmental programs in those schools. Right from the beginning the students could learn ways of thinking about the environment, and how to properly use and preserve it.

Secondly, form the environmental awareness groups that I mentioned earlier, and get them on the internet. In other words, we should promote ecocommerce (e-commerce + ecology). Individuals can easily gather all kinds of information from the internet on businesses such as their management practices, environmental reports, environmental vision, environmental management, and management's environmental index. Consumers should use this information to help guide their purchasing decisions. Also, ecotechnology should be made available on the internet. Portal sites such as Ecocity21 and Ecot are providing access to excellent goods and services, and I think it is extremely important to help spread the word about such sites.

The third most important thing is toughening regulations. For example, income taxes should be subject to self-reported numbers on greenhouse gas emissions, and could be reduced for individuals buying an environmentally-friendly house. I think that unless you introduce these close-to-home measures, people won't change their habits. Also, manifest systems (industrial waste management systems) should not only apply to companies but individuals as well. If you don't control how people dispose of products after buying them, and if you don't enforce laws against illegal disposal, it will be impossible to achieve a recycling-based society.

---

For now on we at YOKOGAWA must also strive to achieve a rich ecolife, and develop measuring instruments that are suited to the coming needs of society. Thank you very much.

(Interviewer : Susumu Matsukura, T&M Business Div. Yokogawa Electronic Corp.)