Ethical by CO-OP

&lt;Promote SDGs Goal 12: Responsible Production and Consumption&gt; <br />
Japanese Consumers&#39; Co-operative Union (JCCU, the sole national federation of consumer co-ops in Japan and develops Co-op brand products) and its member co-ops promote ethical consumption campaign in collaboration with individual co-op members. Co-ops consider ethical consumption as “what consumers can do for a sustainable society through shopping”, in other words, “purchasing goods and services giving consideration to community, environment, society, and people”. Japanese consumer co-ops, together with individual co-op members, have been aiming to make the society and life of the people better through the production and consumption of Co-op brand products. In 1960s, JCCU launched environmentally friendly detergents in response to river pollution problems nationwide, and since then JCCU has released a large number of environmentally friendly products. In the 1970s, paying special attention to food additive problems, JCCU launched unbleached food products, and have been continuously committing to &quot;food safety&quot;. There are many other social issues JCCU and its members have been working on through their businesses and co-op member activities. &quot;Sanchoku&quot; direct transaction with producers aimed at supporting local agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and livestock industries is one of the representative activities. With regards to this, JCCU thinks that the characteristic of Japanese consumer co-ops’ activities has a close relation with ethical consumption. Since Japanese consumer co-ops have played an important role in proposing alternatives to solve such social problems as environmental issues, food safety, etc., this background idea is indispensable in product development process. To strengthen co-ops’ message and appeal the ethical consumption, JCCU brought together the existing products (mainly food) that were considered as community-conscious and friendly to the environment/society/people and started the &quot;Ethical Consumption&quot; campaign. JCCU is making efforts to develop new products in consideration with this campaign and raise the awareness of individual members through the purchase of products. The retail sales of the “Ethical Consumption” campaign products in 2017 accounted for 92.3 billion Japanese Yen. Nowadays that the number of members has increased and the preference of the consumers has diversified, Japanese consumer co-ops are carrying on activities to disseminate among individual members the information and propaganda on products that contribute to the solution of social problems. In addition to the product development, Japanese consumer co-ops call individual members for the reduction of the use of plastic bags and promotion of recycling activities. These efforts contribute to both “responsible production and consumption” of the SDGs Goal 12.