Spreading the SDGs Inside the Company Through the Joy of “Thank You” and Friendly Competition
T&D Holdings, Inc. is the holding company of the T&D Insurance Group, a group centered on life insurance. Its companies include Taiyo Life, Daido Life and T&D Financial Life. Under its management vision, "Through insurance, we create happiness in society, starting with each and every person. A group that faces people with care and makes bold changes," each life insurance company runs its own distinct business. The group wanted to turn the cleanups that each company had been doing into one group-wide effort. So it adopted the Pirika App and the Pirika for Businesses and Organizations visualization page (the "visualization page").
We spoke with Kobayashi (General Manager), Muramatsu (Deputy Manager) and Ito of the company's Sustainability Promotion Department about why they adopted the service and how they spread its use inside the company.
The Sustainability Promotion Department, T&D Holdings
(From left) Muramatsu, Deputy Manager; Ito; Kobayashi, General Manager
1. Building a sense of unity by making the group's cleanups visible
How did you first learn about Pirika?
To support companies that take on social issues, our group sponsors the Nikkei Social Business Contest, held by Nikkei Inc. Pirika won the Grand Prize at the 6th contest in FY2022. Pirika scored highly on the contest's criteria: social value, innovation and growth. We were also moved by CEO Kojima's passion to "do something about the litter problem." This made us interested in Pirika and its services.
Please tell us about the cleanups the T&D Insurance Group has done so far.
Each group company has long done cleanups as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR), at head offices and branches across Japan, each in its own way. Since each company was doing great work, we thought the Pirika App could make these efforts visible and give the group's activities a sense of unity.
Cleanup near the office
2. Helping employees act on their own by bringing sustainability closer to them
You planned the "T&D Clean Project" using the Pirika litter-picking app. We heard one aim was to spread sustainability activities within the company. Was that a challenge before?
Yes. I think many companies, not just ours, find it hard to promote sustainability and spread it inside the company. Such work tends to stay within the sustainability department. So for several years we have tried many ways to make it a company-wide activity. First, we provided e-learning so people could learn the basics. Next, we held sustainability workshops for each job level across the group, so that every officer and employee could take an active view. This year, to further encourage people to act on their own, we ran a trial called the "T&D Clean Project" using the Pirika App, which officers and employees could join themselves.
What exactly is the "T&D Clean Project"?
The campaign ran for four months, from July to October. Each department posted its litter picking on the Pirika App. Two of these months (July and September) were focus months, when the visualization page showed a ranking of departments by the number of pieces of litter picked up. We put up the ranking in the office and emailed the progress to participants every week.
Our group has about 20,000 officers and employees. Before rolling it out to the whole group, we first ran the campaign as a trial for about 150 people: the officers and employees of T&D Holdings and the sustainability staff of each group company.
How did participants respond?
To be honest, at first we worried that no one would use the Pirika App. But the number of people posting grew little by little. I think the app is easy to use, and many people were simply happy to get many "thank yous" (*) and comments for each post. Posts used usernames, so people could stay anonymous. I think this also made the app easier to use.
* A "thank you" is like a "like." Users can send it to each other for litter-picking posts on the Pirika App.
The "Pirika Set" of litter-picking goods placed in the office
In the July campaign, you doubled the previous top record (*) for participants among companies using the visualization page. That is a remarkable result. What did you do to get more people involved?
Departments that contributed most were given awards
For example, we put litter-picking goods such as bags and work gloves at the office entrance as a "Pirika Set," so people could pick up litter on the way to and from work. At first we provided large bags and work gloves. But users told us these were hard to use on the way home, so we added small bags and disposable gloves.
We also posted each department's ranking in the office and emailed it to participants every week. This created friendly competition between departments, and I think that made a big difference. Some people picked up litter on their own, and some formed groups to pick up litter together. Unity and communication within departments also grew.
Based on a survey after the July campaign, in September we added "the number of thank yous received" to the ranking. At first we counted only the litter picked up. We changed this to also recognize people who post often even if they pick up only a little, and people who are too busy to pick up litter but cheer on others by sending "thank yous." This made it easier for anyone to join.
* Ranking by the average total monthly participants per company or site using the Pirika visualization page
Posts by staff who joined the trial
3. Aiming for an even greater impact on the 20th anniversary of T&D Holdings
What are your plans with the Pirika App and the visualization page?
Anyone can start litter picking alone, and it can also be done by tens of thousands of people or on a global scale. Companies of any size can take part. On the other hand, it has been hard to share the results of social contribution such as litter picking in numbers.
In the future, companies may be able to report such activities in numbers, for example "We picked up tens of thousands of pieces of litter" or "By reducing this much waste, we helped cut this much CO2." Then it could become one of a company's non-financial indicators. We hope to work with Pirika from this point of view as well.
2024 marks the 20th anniversary of T&D Holdings. By working on cleanups as one group with the Pirika App, we will try to create an even bigger impact and contribute, even a little, to "happiness in society."
More about Pirika for Businesses and Organizations: here
Organization: T&D Holdings, Inc. Industry: Insurance Service: Pirika for Businesses and Organizations