Eco Brand Survey Toyota Ranks Top for Seven Consecutive Years Suntry and Canon Come in Top 10

The survey, conducted via the Internet, aimed to find out how environmental efforts of 544 major Japanese companies were perceived by general consumers.  The valid response from 23,648 respondents was collected.

The results were compiled based on how companies' ecological efforts were received by consumers in terms of the "degree of contact to information",  "image", and "evaluation", to calculate each company's "eco brand power", or the survey's original index "Eco Brand Index".  The ranking was made in the order of the index, accordingly.

Toyota marked the highest score in the Eco Brand Index.  The company has been maintaining the top position for seven consecutive years since 2000, when the survey started.  In terms of auto manufacturers, the last year's number three Honda moved up to second place, while Nissan slumped from last year's second to eighth.

The three auto giants are under fierce competition over environmental technology, such as low emission, fuel efficiency, and recycling.  With the Kyoto Protocol, an international framework to help prevent global warming, taking effect and the national government making various efforts including the "Cool Biz" campaign to raise the public awareness for prevention of global warming last year on one hand, and gasoline prices rising along with skyrocketing oil prices on the other, consumers' interest in fuel efficiency is rising sharply.

This change in consumers' awareness seems to be reflected in the widening gap between Toyota and Honda on one hand, both of whom had gone for increasing production of fuel-efficient hybrid cars, and Nissan on the other, which runs behind in the hybrid technology.

Last year's thirteenth Canon rose up to seventh, making it within the top ten.  The company recovers and recycles ink cartridges for home printers.  As more general consumers come to use printers, their evaluation of the company has shifted upward.

Among electric appliance manufacturers, Matsushita Electric Industrial, which makes energy and water saving features the selling point of its home electronics products, moved up from last year's fourth to third place.  Last year's fifth Sharp stepped down to tenth, on the other hand.  Sharp has been trying to emphasize its eco-friendly image with its low power consumption LCD TVs, but with other manufacturers including Sony putting more efforts into LCD TVs, the company is loosing ground in the market share.  The survey results indicate relative weakening of Sharp's eco-friendly image.

As to beer, Suntory advanced greatly from last year's twelfth to fifth, overtaking Asahi Breweries (ninth) and closing in to Kirin Brewery (fourth).  Suntory uses natural water (groundwater) for beers and soft drinks produced at its factories nationwide.  The company has been setting "living with water" as its corporate message since last year and using commercial messages to appeal to the public while actively getting involved in various community activities including forest conservation to recharge water resources, especially in the vicinity of its factories.  Suntory's corporate brand strategy that emphasizes its relationship with water from both sides of products and environmental activities has resulted in favorable rating by consumers on the company's environmental-friendliness.

Nonalcoholic beverage manufacturers also did well, with Kirin Beverage, Asahi Soft Drinks, and Coca-Cola Japan all moving up and making within the top 30 (15th, 17th, and 29th, respectively) .  Under the circumstances of the controversial revision of the Containers and Packaging Recycling Law, these companies' efforts to lighten plastic bottles and re-design the bottles to make recycling easier seem to have led to high evaluation by consumers.

By specific image, Toyota and Honda stood first and second for the three positive images of "making efforts to cut down resources and energies",  "making efforts to constrain use and emission of pollutants", and "making efforts to curb global warming".

Canon topped the list by the image of "making efforts for recycling and cutting- down of waste".  ÆON, which promotes planting with local residents at its stores nationwide, came in first place by the image of "contributing to nature conservation and supporting community-based environmental conservation activities.

On the other hand, a series of troubles resulted in undermining Japan Airlines' environmental image significantly, letting the company finish in second place by the negative images of "having an aspect of wasting resources and energies", and "accelerating global warming", and in third place by the image of "polluting the air, water, and soill".

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Methodology
The survey was conducted via the Internet, on a total of 544 companies with top-ranking sales in each industry.  Valid response from 23,648 people was collected. 

EcoManagement Forum
Established in 2000 with an aim of supporting conservation of the global environment and sustainable growth of corporate management, EcoManagement Forum organizes a variety of workshops and researches on environmental management, with participation of 170 corporate members (as of the end of May).

Top 30 Companies by Eco Brand Index

[Calculation Method]
Scores are based on the main index of "Eco Brand Index",, the sum of the four indexes that strongly affect corporate brand building.  The four indexes are: 1) "contact to Environmental Information", which shows the degree of contact by respondents to the company's environmental information; 2) "Environmental Communication Index". which counted the sources of information to which respondents accessed to obtain environmental reports and relevant environmental information; 3) "Environmental Image Index", which summed up respondents' perception of the company's image with regard to environment (9 items); and 4) "Environmental Evaluation Index", which summed up respondents' evaluation for the company's environmental activities.  Scores are shown in deviation (mean: 50) to show the relative position of each company.