The results of the examination for the contest

• Introduction
• General Comments
• Award
• Criteria for judgment
• Judges

• soumu@toyokeizai.co.jp

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Introduction

This year, the number of companies competing for the Green Reporting Award Contest reached 100. This is the first time so many companies have submitted entries since the contest began, two years ago. Companies publishing environmental reports range from trading companies to end-user product, material, chemical manufacturers. Another noticeable trend is the increasing number of environmental reports compiled on a subsidiary or branch basis.

Generally speaking, entries are of a considerably higher quality than in former years, making it difficult to compare and rate them simply in terms of the variety of disclosed information. In this sense, it is more and more important to make qualitative evaluations. In this year's contest, the Working Group, composed of sponsors' representatives, carefully examined the 100 entries and selected 28 candidates, from which the Examining Committee finally selected one First Prize winner, two Second Prize winners and ten Third Prize winners. There were no special prize winners this year.

General Comments

In the screening process of the third Green Reporting Award contest, we attached importance to corporate attitudes toward environmental preservation activities and paid special attention to how information is sufficiently covered and presented systematically, according to more specific judgment criteria than in the past (mentioned separately).

The final First Prize candidates were the Ricoh Group and the Sony Group. Deciding which is the winner was an extremely difficult task. The disclosure in Recoh's report is systematic and clear, and shows clearly its relations with an environmental management system including ecological balance and environmental accounting information. On the other hand, Sony's report was rated highly for its appropriate disclosure of information on products and overseas activities and the inclusion of extensive qualitative and quantitative information.

However, since the number of votes in favor of Ricoh exceeded that in favor of Sony by a narrow margin, Ricoh has won the First Prize and Sony the Second Prize. This does not indicate a decisive difference in the ratings of these two corporations, but it seems that the final examination result reflects the difference in views among the judges due to the difference in the characteristics of the two reports.

As another Second Prize winner, Takara Shuzo was selected in consideration of its business category and scale. Takara Shuzo's report was appraised for comprehensiveness of performance information and introduction of a unique environmental accounting system including statements of accounts in the green.

To reflect the increasing number of entries, ten corporations received Third Prizes. For reasons of space, general comments are given next on a category-by-category basis. However, it should be noted that in the final discussion, while judges took into account the business categories of various corporations, they had no intention of assigning a specific number of winners to any single category.

In the field of electronics, the NEC Group, Canon Inc., IBM Japan, Fujitsu Ltd. and the Matsushita Electric Group were awarded Third Prizes. NEC's report was highly evaluated for the clarity of its disclosure and the availability of detailed information on its management system. Canon's report was recognized as a reader-friendly report with ample disclosed information. IBM Japan, Fujitsu and Matsushita, which received prizes for consecutive years, presented high quality reports as in past years.

In the distribution industry, Ito-Yokado Co., Ltd., The Seiyu Ltd. and Coop Miyagi were chosen as Third Prize winners. The judges highly evaluated Ito-Yokado's report for reader-friendliness in information disclosure and Seiyu's report for new approaches including self-evaluation of environmental preservation activities and round-table talks. Coop Miyagi's report received support among the judges because it not only disclosed detailed information, as can be said of the reports of many other cooperatives, but also presented information in the form of a reader-friendly digest.

As an entry from the automobile industry, the report by Toyota Motor Corp was awarded a Third Prize. Some judges believed that this report should be commended as a benchmark for other companies in the industry because of the great detail in which the information was disclosed. A food industry corporation, Kirin Brewery Co., Ltd. won prizes for three consecutive years for the qualitative and quantitative excellence of its report. Some judges particularly supported its inclusion of third party opinions.

Although entries from the construction and energy industries have not taken prizes, they bear comparison with prize winning reports and some came up just short of winning themselves. We must make special mention of environmental reports from the chemical industry. In the past, most reports from the industry emphasized adherence to the Responsible Care principles but this year there were many reports characterized by a wealth of disclosed information, some of which were also within reach of taking prizes.

In addition, well-organized site reports should not be forgotten. In this year's contest, each site report was treated basically as a company report. There were no prize winning site reports; however, the fact that some are carefully structured and have various original aspects seems to suggest great possibilities of green reporting in the future.

Lastly it was pointed out that the disclosure of information on the safety of food products, and on sideline activities, for example, in the medical and pharmaceutical fields was not satisfactory.

Award

• The First Prize:
  Ricoh Group
• The Second Prizes:
  Takara Shuzo Co., Ltd.
  Sony Group
• The Third Prizes:
  ITO YOKADO CO., LTD.
  NEC Group
  CANON INC
  Kirin Brewery Co., Ltd.
  SEIYU, LTD.,
  Toyota Motor Corp.
  IBM Japan Ltd.
  Fujitsu Ltd.
  Matsushita Electric Group
  Co-op Miyagi

Criteria for judgment

The corporate environmental reports were examined and judged in a comprehensive manner according to the following criteria:

• [1] The company's principles concerning environmental information disclosure and environmental preservation activities should be clearly defined.
• [2] The report should be systematically compiled and relations and priorities among various environmental factors should be clearly shown.
• [3] The report should disclose corporate environmental performance in a comprehensive, clear-cut manner.
• [4] The report should include self-evaluation and self-analysis of corporate environmental performance.
• [5] The information contained in the report should be reliable and serve as a good communication tool.

Judges

• -Hajime Ota
  Executive Counselor, Keidanren (Japan Federation of Economic Organizations)
• -Mariko Kawaguchi
  Chartered Member, Security Analysts Association of Japan
• -Tomoko Kurasaka
  Co-Chair, Environmental Auditing Research Group; certified public accountant
• -Katsuhiko Kokubu
  Assistant Professor, School of Business Administration, Kobe University
• -Toshihiko Goto
  Co-Chair, Environmental Auditing Research Group
• -Masaatsu Takada
  Professor, Kyoto Gakuen University; Chairman, Japan Accounting Association
• -Koji Tajika
  Chairman, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
• -Kimie Tsunoda
  Consumer specialist; freelance editor
• -Makoto Hoshino
  Chief Executive Director, World Wide Fund Japan
• -Takeshi Mizuguchi
  Steering Committee Member, The Valdez Society
• -Junji Asano
  President, TOYO KEIZAI INC.

Sponsored by: TOYO KEIZAI INC.
Green Reporting Forum