Sustainable society led by companies
Lockdown temporarily improved environmental pollution globally. As an example, the Himalaya Mountains could be seen in some towns in India for the first time in decades. People reaffirmed the impact on the natural environment and reflected on the convenience and pleasures of life we as consumers demand from companies. People have gained a new awareness and positive view of eco-friendly activities, such as the use of reusable shopping bags, which has become an unconscious habit for many people following social trends.
Through the experiences of a collapse of the balance of supply and demand for daily necessities, the city government and the citizens come to expect companies to play a role as coordinators for local resilience (the capacity of adaptation). While many people are forced to work or study from home, companies make their unused facilities available to people who have difficulty in securing their own working/learning environment. The companies are required to conduct local activities in an emergency situation, including additional production to compensate for the insufficient daily necessities, but people also pay attention to the clean “ways of leaving such a situation” without getting into commercialism when the situation is brought under control. Since the companies expand into the fields of public policy, the higher the coordination ability the area is, the more blurred the boundary between the products/services provided by the companies for commercial purposes and the public services. Therefore, in many cases, one business owner provides both commercial services and public services in one place.
Private companies become more involved in the fields of public service, but a disparity in quality of their services gradually begins to come out depending on the population of the region. In order to make their coordination ability (social value) used for the region more visible, the companies grasp the attribute information of the citizens which are the users, including family composition and occupation, and at the same time they analyze the frequency of use and usage trend of the services. People want services that match their own status, and companies will be graded by their ability to respond to emergency situations, similar to personal insurance companies. Disparity has emerged in things such as the quality of rationed goods and the location of evacuation shelters, and the equity that once characterized public services has been significantly compromised. In light of this situation, some people have lost hope in the unchanging commercialism and choose to invest in public services with the aim of improving the entire community in a fair manner.
The product traceability shifts from mere information disclosure to an entry point for people to actively participate in the entire product life cycle. If consumers can cooperate in the activities to protect the global environment, such as reducing waste materials and greenhouse gases, they are willing to suffer inconvenience of paying for a plastic bag or bringing an eco-bag. Furthermore, they expect that the companies give them opportunities to be involved in the environmental activities. Companies present initiatives to change society in a sustainable manner, such as job creation for workers in industries that are in decline. Branding that promotes the image as an excellent company transforms to company branding that gives people opportunities to be involved in the environmental activities.
Every day, companies send out information both disclosing negative impact on the environment and presenting their unique recovery measures—almost like TV commercials. It is established as one form of two-way communication between the companies and people. Also, the eco-native generation, who have highly environmentally awareness since birth, come to play a central role within their company. Tackling environmental issues simply by taking them into consideration is a thing of the past, and activities to protect the environment have become an axis that drives the economy. People investigate how the ecosystem in which each company is involved affects the protection of the global environment, and build relationships with reliable companies. Regarding grand visions that cannot be achieved by any single company and complex issues that cannot be solve by any single company, companies must convey the magnitude of such visions and the complexity of such issues, and ask for cooperation from both other companies and individuals. Consumers become more aware and practice what they can do, and play an important role in the ecosystem.
