Conservation of Natural Environment

Basic Concept

Properly ascertaining the impact its business activities have on natural ecosystems, the Group regards it as important to work on the conservation of the natural environment by giving appropriate consideration and taking appropriate measures. Following this way of thinking, we will allocate part of earnings to tree planting activities while striving to conserve water resources and biodiversity through forest conservation. Our primary solutions efficiently convert analog information, primarily paper-based media in business workflows, into data and promote its utilization. This contributes to the progress of DX for user companies. Our solutions include features that enable the modernization of business practices and establishment of new operational workflows by using digital information from the start and without the need for paper media. Therefore, we believe increased adoption of our solutions̶ in other words, our business activities themselves̶ will help reduce environmental impact and,consequently, conserve the natural environment.

Major Initiatives

Supporting paperless business operations through our solutions

Our primary solutions enable the exchange of business data in the cloud without using paper media. In this way, they support the realization of paperless operations.

The sales DX solution “Sansan” includes a Virtual Card (digital business card) feature that allows online business card exchange without paper cards, between Sansan users and with non-users through QR codes*1 or URLs. The Eight: business card app includes similar functionality and a one-touch business card exchange feature that lets users exchange information simply by holding their smartphones near each other. Cloud-based invoice management solution “Bill One” encourages issuance and receipt of invoices in non-paper formats, with PDFs being the majority of invoices handled.

In promoting these initiatives, we have set an ambitious quantitative goal of, by FY2029, having 120 million transactions using paperless functions on our solutions. In FY2023, owing to the steady expansion of our primary solutions and the addition of new features, the actual number reached 10 million (a 44.0% year-on-year increase), showing steady progress toward our goal.

“Scan for Trees” tree-planting activities

Paper documents, such as business cards, invoices, and contracts handled by our main solutionsｰSansan, Bill One, and Contract Oneｰoften start from wood. Focusing on this point, every time the number of documents digitized through these solutions equals the paper produced from one tree, we plant a tree in an area needing reforestation.

We have planted trees in Miyako City, Iwate Prefecture, and Osaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, which were affected by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, and in Yamato Town, Kumamoto Prefecture, which was affected by the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes. To further promote this project, we have now expanded the definition of digitized documents to include not only paper but also digital business cards and PDF invoices. Since the project began in June 2016, we have planted more than 17,606 trees (as of August 2024). We will continue striving to maintain and improve water resources and biodiversity through forest regeneration.