On November 24, 2021, Nikkei Inc., a major business publisher in Japan, held its third annual Nikkei SDGs Management Awards ceremony to recognize leading companies that contribute to the achievement of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). At the event SoftBank Corp. (TOKYO: 9434) received the prestigious Social Value Award.
The Social Value Award is presented to companies in recognition for addressing social issues and driving diversity initiatives.
What are the Nikkei SDGs Management Awards?
Recipients of the Nikkei SDGs Management Awards are chosen based on the results of Nikkei SDGs Management Survey conducted by Nikkei Inc. The survey covers all of Japan’s listed companies and leading private companies, and an External Review Committee evaluates how companies align their business activities with the SDGs. For 2021, 784 listed companies and 62 private companies participated in the survey.
The Nikkei SDGs Management Survey consists of questions that cover four elements: SDGs strategy/economic value, social value, environmental value and governance. Seventeen indicators were based on questionnaire responses and publicly available data, and under this criteria SoftBank received the highest rating of 5 stars.
SoftBank was recognized for initiatives supporting online education with smartphones during the COVID-19 pandemic, promoting diversity by eliminating the gender gap for number of years served, and for respecting human rights, not just at the company level but also throughout the supply chain.
At the award ceremony, SoftBank Corp. President & CEO Junichi Miyakawa remarked, "We’re very honored that the SDG awareness of our employees has been recognized. We’ll continue to promote solutions that address various social issues, such as providing alternative means of transportation for the elderly and promoting digitalization in cooperation with local governments. Increased digitalization will require large amounts of data processing and more electricity consumption, but we see this as an issue that can be solved with ingenuity. For example, we can reduce power usage by decentralizing the concentration of data centers in urban areas.”
Miyakawa added that SoftBank will continue to accelerate company-wide efforts to achieve the SDGs.
(Posted on December 15, 2021)
by SoftBank News Editors
