伊藤園が世界で18位にランクイン

雑誌Fortuneが昨年から始めたランキング「世界を変える」企業50社に日本からは伊藤園とパナソニックがランクインしていました。

How Fortune’s 'Change the World' Companies Profit From Doing Good
by Clifton Leaf @CliftonLeaf AUGUST 18, 2016, 6:30 AM EDT

グローバル企業というとThe social responsibility of business is to increase its profits.という経済学者フリードマンの言葉にあるような新自由主義的態度を想像しやすいですが、世の中をよくしようとする試みをしている企業を評価しようというのがこのランキングの目的です。

Why Milton Friedman Was Wrong
by Alan Murray AUGUST 18, 2016, 6:30 AM

In an interview this summer, Microsoft MSFT 0.03% CEO Satya Nadella was asked whether he thought companies creating technology had a responsibility to consider the effects of that technology on social equity.

The late Milton Friedman had a ready answer. “The social responsibility of business,” the economist often said, “is to increase its profits.” Period.

But Nadella took a different approach: “I think we don’t have a long-term business if we don’t address the inequities.”

伊藤園はTea-Producing Region Development Projectの取り組みが評価されてのランクインとなりました。

18 Ito En Japan

Growing new jobs in Japan’s struggling farming sector.
Green tea is the drink of choice for many Japanese, but going green has been the mantra of cool for Ito En, the largest green-tea beverage manufacturer in the country. Since 2001, the $3.9 billion soft drink maker has been driving the Tea-Producing Region Development Project, an enterprise that attempts to put Japan’s 400,000 hectares of abandoned farmland and its unemployed workers to use. Partnering with regional farmers and governments, Ito En has earmarked nearly 1,000 hectares for tea plantations, procuring raw tea leaves and bringing technological assistance to revitalize dormant farms. This has led to an annual production capacity of around 3,300 tons, roughly 40% of the raw tea leaves that the company uses annually in its beverage production. The company has also found a way to transform 49,000 tons of used tea leaves into 50 million cardboard boxes for its own products annually.

Tea-Producing Region Development Projectというのは「茶産地育成事業」のことで伊藤園のサイトで日本語、英語の説明を読み比べることができます。

茶産地育成事業

Tea-Producing Region Development Project

まあ、低賃金で有名なWalmartやNikeなどがランクインしていたりするので単なるお飾りの取り組みと批判できるかもしれませんが、新規にいろいろやってみることで新たなやり方を育むことができるかもしれないのでYutaとしては評価したいです。