Home > About Us > Corporate Social Responsibility > Sustainability Report > Sustainability Report 2006 > Third-Party Comment Editorial and Postscript

Environmental Management
Sustainability Report 2006
 
Third-Party Comment
Comments Upon Reading the Kobe Steel Group's Sustainability Report
Katsuhiko Kokubu
Professor, Graduate School of Business Administration, Kobe University


Profile
Professor Katsuhiko Kokubu received his doctorate in business administration in 1990 from the Graduate School of Business Administration at Osaka City University. He served as an assistant professor at Osaka City University and Kobe University before assuming his present post. Specializing in social environmental accounting and environmental administration, he founded the Institute for Environmental Management Accounting, which utilizes his research results. He has also participated in various groups, including the Study Group for the Reform of Environmental Accounting Guidelines. Currently, he serves as the chairperson of the Working Committee on the Development and Dissemination of Material Flow Cost Accounting commissioned by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
This year's report begins with the air emission problem discovered at Kobe Steel's steelworks. For corporations that publish environmental reports, the inappropriate handling of data is a serious problem that requires those involved not only to thoroughly clarify the cause of the problem and ensure it doesn't happen again, but also work very earnestly to recover lost public trust. In this sense, I believe that the response Kobe Steel has shown since the incident can be positively evaluated in quantitative terms. What's important, however, is how the company actually improves the quality of its environmental management to a higher point than its previous level through its efforts to regain public trust. This will require even greater effort on an ongoing basis.

This year's report has more content about environmental protection activities than last year's. Although the Group has made progress in areas other than management systems and monitoring, they still have a number of issues that must be addressed. For example, I'd like to know what kind of action plan they have in place to meet the 2010 targets for combating global warming. Concerning the building of a recycling-oriented society, emphasis is placed on reusing resources, but I think they still have room for improvement with regard to reducing the amount of total waste generated. Also, although the report details individual examples of environmental performance, I believe material balance information should be disclosed concerning the impact that the Kobe Steel Group as a whole has on the environment.

This year's report includes social as well as environmental information, a change that can be positively viewed as a reflection of the Group's new stance on CSR management. Detailed information is offered concerning societal issues from a variety of perspectives. In the future, however, the Group will be expected to formulate policies and adopt targets keyed to management cycles in both environmental and social areas. The key to this will be how the opinions of stakeholders are reflected in CSR management.

The air emissions incident was truly regrettable, but there are many corporations that have taken incidents such as this as the starting point for the thorough reform of their environmental management systems. To achieve this, the corporate culture must be reformed along with the management system that supports it. It's my profound hope that Kobe Steel will become an example of success.
Editorial Postscript

The Fiscal 2006 Sustainability Report contains more social information than the Fiscal 2005 Environmental Report. To encourage a deeper understanding of the Kobe Steel Group's corporate activities among our stakeholders, we have strived to make the report easy to understand and visually attractive. We have also included the air emissions incident that occurred at our Kakogawa Works and Kobe Works in May 2006, with explanations of the background to the problem, Kobe Steel's response, and the measures that have been taken to prevent recurrence. Despite our best efforts, this report no doubt still has shortcomings. We hope readers will not hesitate to share their opinions with us so that we can make further improvements in the years to come.

Secretariat and Publicity Department, Kobe Steel, Ltd.