Promote SDGs business model from the local region to all over Japan
Description
SUNSHOW GROUP is a small and medium-sized enterprise in the construction industry in Japan. We contribute to the acquisition of housing for people having difficulty in securing a good living environment, and support the creation of good local communities and town development with a high awareness of disaster prevention. We aim to make a satisfying workplace and build a sustainable corporate foundation spreading the idea of diversity within the enterprise. We promote women 's activeness in the workplace so as conduct working-way reform. We share our practical examples to companies and organizations throughout Japan through lectures and consulting
Due to the declining birthrate, aging population and the increase in irregular employment, income disparity has become a problem in Japan. In the low-income group, people have few funds to put for education and others, and there are many cases where they fall into a spiral of poverty without receiving satisfactory education. Therefore, by developing "SUNSHOW Yume House" low price and high quality order house, people can now acquire their own home with leeway to invest in education and each dream without putting pressure on living expenses by expensive housing loan. Starting from improving the quality of life, we help people escape the poverty spiral. <br />
In December 2017, we opened "SUNSHOW Global Office". It is a specialized housing consultation window for foreign nationals. We have Employed interpreters in English and Portuguese so that foreign residents can proceed at ease with complicated procedures for acquiring housing in a foreign country, as well as to be a bridge between the local Japanese community, and foreign customers. We are creating a new regional community exceeding nationalities. <br />
In recent years in Japan, it is essential to take measures against powerful natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods and etc. Therefore, from disaster prevention reliant on the administration, we think that it is necessary to switch to disaster prevention actively involving each household, so we offer "Garden where we can camp." We add outdoor elements to each house and aim to create a housing that will be a base for disaster prevention in emergency situations. <br />
In SUNSHOW GROUP promoting women's activeness in the workplace reforming work style, we are working comprehensively including employees, family members, and related companies. We have set up a diversity promotion group called "Team Yumeko", a group of working moms attending work with their small children. We have also established kids’ space, which is a new corporal culture reform. We are striving to disseminate our success stories in various regions through lecture activities in cooperation with related government agencies. <br />
For the first time as a medium-sized enterprise located in the rural areas of Japan, we opened "SUNSHOW.BASE" which is a transmission base for achieving SDGs. Here, in addition to creating educational opportunities by holding workshops etc., we make opportunities to make SDGs feel familiar, and establish a framework for the residents to achieve SDGs throughout the region by thinking about SDGs and respectively doing so. Local small and medium enterprises collaborate with various partners, aiming at achieving SDGs through business and creating a new value.
"SUNSHOW Yume House" : By providing low-priced and high-quality order houses, we did not put pressure on living expenses on housing loans, made it possible for people to acquire their own home and achieved the improvement of living environment without leaving economically weak people behind. Furthermore, by investing in dreams and education, we have achieved a break away from the spiral of poverty, contributing to the achievement of 【GOAL 1】.
In Kani City, Gifu Prefecture, we opened a residential acquisition window offering full-scale support for foreign nationals. We hired an interpreter that corresponds to each language, and it deals widely from borrowing to housing acquisition and life consultation. We help to increase the participation rate of foreign communities and to build good relationships with the acquisition of housing.
"Garden where you can camp": By incorporating outdoor elements into residential garden, we propose outdoor products useful for emergency situations and the creation of opportunities to interact with that knowledge in ordinary life without any doubt. Also, to secure an emergency reserve space outdoors, even when suffering a disaster, we first propose homes that each house can respond to, spreading disaster-resistant town development from every household to the entire town. As a result, it contributes to the achievement of 【GOAL 11】.
"Team Yumeko" : We have organized a diversity promotion group including family members of stakeholders, established a work reform where child raising moms can attend work with their children, and installed kids space. We have made reforms such as improvement of holidays, employee award system and etc. In cooperating companies, we began solving the problem of workers who are unstable being a single parent, and the activities such as the launch proposal of the construction group will be diverse. In year 2017, we have been recognized as an excellent company in child rearing support by Gifu Prefecture. In collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation, our practical cases were announced to about 2,000 companies across 40 places. Furthermore, in cooperation with JCI-Japan, we are providing and exchanging know-how for 35,000 companies in 695 branches nationwide.
"SUNSHOW.BASE": In March, 2018, we opened the originating base of SDGs in Gifu city, and the number of visitors already exceeded 5,000 people. Small and medium-sized enterprises in rural areas proactively worked on achieving SDGs and show advanced examples leading to corporate growth. We also organize citizen participation events and create opportunities for SDGs to be familiar to people through experiences. We are discussing towards the realization of comprehensive development including local governments. In addition, all the employees and stakeholder as a whole make efforts and think of what each of us can do to achieve SDGs. We are doing activities to make each person commit by using SNS. As a result, it contributed to the achievement of 【GOAL 17
1) "SUNSHOW Yume house" realizes acquisition of 50 home owners annually by offering low-priced and high-quality order houses and supports the break away from low-income stricken poverty spiral
2)"SUNSHOW Global Office" supports the acquisition of homes for foreign nationals. The number of foreign nationals who acquired housing were 28% before the opening of the office and it increased to 46%.
3) "Camping garden" collaborates with the local outdoor brand "CAMP MANIA PRODUCTS", contributing to improving disaster prevention awareness.
4)"Team Yumeko" practiced a positive way of employing female managers, employing mothers raising children and performed a working way reform based on the idea of diversity. The proportion of females in the company as a whole also increased from 14% in 2011 to 39% in 2018. In addition, the group as a whole has 50%, which is well over the construction industry average percentage of 13%.
5)"SUNSHOW.BASE" is a transmission base to disseminate activities working on SDG's to companies and local residents. We improved over 100 SDGs cognition through events. By actively conducting efforts to achieve SDGs, it is also an opportunity for corporate growth and act as an advanced case role model for local small and medium enterprises to sustainably work on.
These activities were recognized by the Japanese government and we were able to receive a special award at the "Second Japan SDG's Award" hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Therefore, we worked on reform of corporal climate where employees can feel the most familiar benefits. We organized the group "Team Yumeko" to promote company diversity and implemented women's work and reformed our working style. We have also created a ground that contributes to all our stakeholders including our customers by setting up a good environment in which we work.
Next, we converted all of the 6 business brands of SUNSHOW GROUP into action to achieve SDGs and disseminated information inside and outside the company. At first, the keyword SDGs was not familiar among the employees, but we made employees to set up one goal a day achieving SDG at every morning in our morning assembly. We have set up an opportunity for each employee to speak their thoughts about that goal, and how they would act concretely. All employees also wear the SDGs wheel badge in their chests so that they can always work with awareness. Also, at the general conference once a month, we set up a study time on SDGs and we are learning how SUNSHOW GROUP's business is contributing.
These individual actions have led to the penetration of SDGs within the company, and the SUNSHOW GROUP has been able to accelerate its efforts as a whole.
Our goal is to contribute to the solution of various social problems through our corporate activities, with three themes "Female activeness in the workplace", "Youth education" and "Region" through innovation in the future to the sustainable society. We will also step up activities so that not only SUNSHOW GROUP but the entire region can create a cycle of sustainable efforts. First of all, we will periodically evaluate initiatives undertaken at SUNSHOW GROUP through the transmission at "SUNSHOW.BASE" and will cycle the PDCA cycle. In addition, we will clarify progress towards achievement targets as a quantitative outcome. By doing this, we will accumulate practical examples that can be utilized as role models of other companies and organizations not only in SUNSHOW GROUP. Next, we will establish partnership with our stakeholders, including related partner associations, and build a stronger network for achieving SDGs. We will promote collaboration with local governments and related ministries and agencies from private sectors, create an environment to involve municipalities, businesses and local residents, work toward the achievement of SDGs throughout the region, and we will disseminate the movement from the ground of Gifu prefecture.
What we learned through past activities is that gradual efforts are important to achieve SDGs. We gathered the points for each stage.<br />
It is human resources to think and implement practices to achieve SDGs. We are a local small and medium enterprises. As many SMEs do, SUNSHOW GROUP is also easy to catch the thoughts of management, and the influence on the form that it wants to organize and the policies of the business is very large. However, in order to achieve SDGs, it is important for each and every person to get involved and expand that circle. So we started with making a ground where employees can work satisfactorily. We believe that human resources will grow as the ground develops and that the human resources raised there will expand efforts to achieve SDGs. <br />
The keyword SDGs is not yet common in Japan, and there are many employees who do not know the contents. Therefore, we made time for each person to know SDGs. In our morning meetings, we think about small efforts about SDGs and we practice in the day. The accumulation of such small behaviors is very important to let the keyword SDGs sink in. The SUNSHOW GROUP five businesses and six brands’ activities changed to achieve SDGs respectively and created opportunities for new value creation. The creation of new value has become a new business opportunity and has become a major driving force for business expansion. <br />
We also focused on PR activities to disseminate efforts towards achieving SDGs. By sending out to the outside, we can objectively evaluate whether our activities are really worthwhile. By committing to the goal, as well as sending it to the society, a sense of responsibility was born and it also became a driving force for our activities. As a result we were able to receive the award at the "2nd Japan SDGs Awards", which led to the confidence of the efforts that we are doing towards achieving SDGs. <br />
To accelerate efforts to achieve SDGs, the presence of partners is important. We established "SUNSHOW.BASE" as a base station for achieving SDGs and created opportunities for ordinary citizens, government, companies, and organizations to get familiar with SDGs. Here, there are various visitors from all over the country that we do not meet in our usual corporate activities. We are promoting the spread of SDGs and creating new business. <br />
By sustaining our efforts to achieve SDGs step by step, we can solve social issues through business and create new value through partnership.
https://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/gaiko/oda/sdgs/pdf/award2_10_sunshowgroup…
-"SUNSHOW Industry"
http://www.sunshow.jp/
-"SUNSHOW.BASE"
http://base.sunshow.jp/
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- Asia and Pacific
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Sumiyo Kanda, Chief