Today IGES announced that the “Taiyo Jyuken Sustainable Development Goals Report 2019”, supported by IGES, was presented at a side-event of the High-level Political Forum (HLPF) 2019 in New York. This report is created following the reporting framework of the UN handbook on the “Voluntary National Review” (VNR), originally prepared for the review by national governments on challenges and progress on the SDGs. This report aims to detail efforts by individual companies following the national level framework.
Taiyo Jyuken Co. Ltd is a small-sized company based in Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It offers installation and sales of solar power generation equipment for residential and industrial use and home renovations, and through its core business aims to solve social issues such as employment support for disabled people, and transformation of vacant houses for the local community. In addition, it aligns its business goals and targets not only with the SDGs, but also the “Yokohama City Action Plan for Global Warming Countermeasures”. Taiyo Jyuken is attracting public attention due to its active efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals while simultaneously contributing to the local government’s plan.
Although responsibility for SDGs implementation lies with each national government, actions by non-state actors, including local governments and businesses, are key to achieving the goals. At the HLPF 2018, IGES released a local version of the VNR report called “Voluntary Local Review” (VLR), together with Shimokawa Town of Hokkaido, Toyama City, and Kitakyusyu City. Additionally, at the Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (APSFD) in March 2019, IGES also launched “VLR Lab”, the world’s first information platform on VLR for local governments both in Japan and other countries. The report on Taiyo Jyuken was created based on these experiences, and serves as a small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) version of the VNR or VLR report. Using the same framework with the national and local governments made it easier for each company to, based on their plans and progress related to the SDGs, plan their business, collaboration, and mutually complementary activities.
Since 99.7% of Japanese companies are categorised as SMEs, and they employ about 70% of all employees, SMEs can be considered as a major actor in achieving the SDGs. IGES expects this report will increase momentum on SDGs reporting by SMEs and encourage more action for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
Related Links
Taiyo Jyuken Co. Ltd (Japanese only)
https://www.taiyojyuken.jp/
Taiyo Jyuken Case Study(Japanese Only)
https://www.iges.or.jp/jp/sdgs/sme-case-studies/04.html
IGES SDGs project: “Aspiration to Action”
https://www.iges.or.jp/en/sdgs/index.html
神奈川県の中小企業SDGs活用事例集（Case studies of SDGs utilization by SMEs in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japanese only）
https://www.iges.or.jp/jp/sdgs/sme-case-studies/index.html