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| Opinions from Stakeholders |
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Pioneering initiatives to address environmental issues |
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  e-book format (Environmental and Social Report 2009) |
(The interview was published in Environmental and Social Report 2009.)
Eisai invites stakeholders to provide feedback, encouraging them to share their impressions and expectations of the Eisai Group.
Their valuable input is used to help Eisai realize its hhc philosophy, and their opinions and suggestions help shape future initiatives. |
Ken Morishita
President, Eco Management Institute
[Profile]
Ken Morishita first became involved in addressing the issue of used cans as a university student. After working in such positions as head of the Japan Eco-Life Center Secretariat, in 1993 he established the Eco Management Institute, of which he is still president. The Institute focuses on establishing recycling systems, advocating for environmental measures and environmental auditing at companies and other organizations, and conducting research on life cycle assessments. |
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| What do you think of Eisai's environmental activities? |
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| Morishita: |
Let me take this opportunity to share my honest assessment. After reading Eisai's 2008 and 2009 environmental and social reports, I think the company is doing a truly good job in its basic environmental efforts, particularly when it comes to resource recycling. The achievement of zero emissions targets must be evaluated as a significant accomplishment.
However, I would like to see Eisai take further actions and lead the industry in facing the challenge of environmental issues. It may require a huge investment involving top-level decision making, but I believe this is not impossible, since Eisai has already taken foundational initiatives. |
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| What would be some specific examples? |
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| Morishita: |
Well, since Eisai has already taken foundational initiatives in its environmental activities, it must be ready for some next-generation initiatives on the environment. To begin with, the company needs to establish an ambitious medium- to long-term vision of countermeasures to global warming, based on its understanding of the social context. At present, I do not think the execution phase to accomplish that has gone very well.
Countermeasures to global warming are a corporate social responsibility. At the same time, in practice, if full-scale trading of CO2 emissions quotas starts, they will also become a great economic burden for companies. Naturally, investors are sensitive about this. Moreover, the day is not too far off when companies that do not actively consider the environment will not be able to continue their corporate activities, since they are not fulfilling their corporate social responsibility. |
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| How about matters other than countermeasures to global warming? |
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| Morishita: |
This is not limited to Eisai, but I expect pharmaceutical companies to take active steps regarding biodiversity.* I am afraid I am not familiar with pharmaceutical research and development companies, but at the least they need to pay due consideration to biodiversity in raw material procurement and bio-related fields. If the company is already making efforts in this area, those should be disclosed. As there are constraints in terms of page space when printing reports, it would be nice if there were opportunities to learn more about Eisai via the company's website, for example. It would be good to disclose to society information about initiatives the company is making such a great effort to undertake.
Many different stakeholders read these reports, and so they may include information that is not necessary for some people. But, for someone like me who specializes in the environment, I review the information in the report in a good amount of detail. In that sense, I think that having an audit for environmental data performed each year by Deloitte Tohmatsu Evaluation and Certification Organization Ltd. is effective in securing credibility.
Regarding environmental management, I think that the company should assess and report on its initiatives on a consolidated basis for the entire group, including sites outside Japan, to strengthen group-wide initiatives. I get the impression there is room for improvement in this regard. |
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| What is your general impression of Eisai? |
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| Morishita: |
I often see TV commercials for Eisai that say “human health care (hhc).” The hhc corporate philosophy, as far as I can tell from looking over this report, is a wonderful philosophy. However, since the company has earned social recognition for being an “hhc” company, it would have been nice if the report included a bit more detail about what the company thinks when conceiving this philosophy in connection to the environment. I think it would be better to know more about Eisai's unique approach to the environment. How will the company address the environment through its pharmaceuticals business? How will it contribute to society? I would like to see the answers to these questions expressed in specific terms. As Eisai makes a concerted effort to address these universal issues, I expect to see a new expansion of hhc in the future. |
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| * Biodiversity: Diversity of life forms at the genetic, species, and ecosystem levels. The ecosystem destruction resulting from human economic activity and other factors has caused accelerating loss of biodiversity, which has become a major environmental issue today. |
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