Championing long-term sustainable action
Mariko Yamada's Story
How Mariko is Embedding ESG in Fujitsu’s Strategy through education through engagement through executive support through education, engagement, and executive support
Mariko Yamada is senior Director at Fujitsu. Her role involves connecting with internal and external stakeholders to build the company’s sustainability strategy. Mariko majored in forestry science and has personal interest in environmental issues, driving her motivation towards sustainability. She sees her role as a way to contribute to society by ensuring that Fujitsu operates in a sustainable manner.
About Fujitsu
Fujitsu Limited is a Japanese multinational information and communications technology equipment and services corporation, established in 1935 and headquartered in Kawasaki, Kanagawa.
Sector: Technology
Geography: Headquarters in Japan, with operations globally
Employees:124,000 employees globally
Website: fujitsu.com
Challenges
faced
Mariko has already conducted materiality analysis and placed ESG into Fujitsu’s corporate strategy. But she needed to go further than that.
Short-term financial results are deemed more important than long-term sustainability in a business environment. But to overcome this, Mariko and her colleagues are changing the mindset of the ‘cost’ of sustainability. They are doing so by visualizing the relationship between financial and non-financial indicators to demonstrate the positive impacts of sustainability on business and society.
Actions
taken
Mariko spearheads the Fujitsu Way Leader initiative. Unit heads are placed in each business function to implement sustainability efforts and ensure that aligns with Fujitsu’s purpose to make the world sustainable by building trust in society through innovation. Mariko helps them do this by offering education on the importance of ESG and how it impacts business across the globe. It also helps to cascade ESG awareness all the way from executive level down to individual employees.
She builds management team level support to ensure that everyone understands how important ESG is, and stakeholders are engaged in helping create the strategy.
Mariko also awards financial benefits to those who make significant contributions towards positive change, enabling them to drive their efforts even further. This is driven by a reporting system, enabling everyone to deepen their understanding of ESG. By transforming that process into a collaborative effort, it ensures that ESG is present throughout business functions and integrated in a truly genuine way.
She has helped to establish the internal Sustainability Management Committee, which is chaired by the CEO and includes executives from the across the business. The committee meets twice a year to share the latest ESG trends, set goals for the Fujitsu ESG initiatives, and discuss approaches to making change.
Resonance
of impact
By analyzing feedback from investors, customers, employees, and stakeholders, Mariko ensures that Fujitsu’s ESG drive is aligned with societal needs and worldwide change.
Analyzing the relationship between ESG data and non-financial indicators, such as environmental impact reduction and employee data, is key to making positive choices.
Her participation in these programs show her commitment not just to the ESG field, but also to her dedication in professional development.
Fujitsu is predominantly a B2B company, and the benefit of measuring is our impact is that we can ensure that our customers, and their customers, are aware of the societal value that our solutions provide.