Japanese version of ICA Sustainability Reporting for Co-operatives: A Guidebook published

In response to an invitation by the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) (*1), the Seikatsu Club Consumers’ Co-operative Union (SCCCU) is participating in the Sustainability Advisory Group.

To round off the activities of the 2012 International Year of Cooperatives (*2), the ICA published the Blueprint for a Co-operative Decade (*3), which is an action plan for the next decade of co-operatives. One pillar of this action plan, sustainability, is the subject of the Sustainability Advisory Group, formed by calling on co-operatives that are considered to be leaders in the practice of building a sustainable society in many parts of the world.

After five meetings, including four internet conferences, the Sustainability Advisory Group published the Sustainability Reporting for Co-operatives: A Guidebook in March 2016.

Co-operatives will play a critical role in building sustainable societies. This guidebook explains how co-operatives can put “sustainability reporting” to good use in presenting their contributions to society in an easy-to-understand way. Taking examples from the sustainability reporting frameworks built up by private companies and others, the guidebook encourages co-operatives to conduct sustainability reporting to fit their needs by customizing these frameworks for use by co-operatives in ways that reflect co-operative principles.

A Japanese version of the ICA Sustainability Reporting for Co-operatives: A Guidebook has now been published and can be downloaded as a PDF file from:

★Sustainability Reporting for Co-operatives

（PDF, A4 size, 32 pages, 860kb）

Notes:

(*1) The International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) consists of 284 affiliated co-operative organizations in a wide range of sectors, including consumers’ co-operatives, agricultural co-operatives, forestry co-operatives, workers’ co-operatives, housing co-operatives, and credit unions in 95 countries around the world. These co-operatives represent over one billion members (as of January 2015). Founded in 1895, ICA later became the world’s largest NGO to be registered with the United Nations.
ICA website:http://ica.coop/

(*2) The UN General Assembly of 2009 proclaimed 2012 to be the UN International Year of Cooperatives （IYC）. This was in anticipation of the important role that co-operatives can perform in the resolution of serious issues currently faced by contemporary society, including world poverty, financial and economic crises, food insecurity and climate change.
IYC Japanese national co-operative alliance “Co-operatives Japan” website: http://www.iyc2012japan.coop/ (Japanese)
http://www.iyc2012japan.coop/whatsnew/101217_01.html (English)

(*3) The ten-year plan approved at the ICA Extraordinary General Assembly held in Manchester, UK. in October 2012.
The ambitious plan in this Blueprint - the “2020 Vision” - is for the co-operative form of business by 2020 to become: 1) The acknowledged leader in economic, social and environmental sustainability, 2) The model preferred by people, and 3) The fastest growing form of enterprise. Five strategic interlinked and overlapping themes (participation, sustainability, identity, legal framework and capital) were identified as vital for the achievement of these goals.
IYC Japanese national co-operative alliance “Cooperatives Japan” website: http://www.iyc2012japan.coop/ (Japanese)
http://www.iyc2012japan.coop/whatsnew/101217_01.html (English)

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Published on February 22, 2017