Japanese Corporations Embrace 'Warm Biz' Climate-Friendly Office Wear

Teikoku Databank Ltd., a major Japanese credit research company, announced in October 2005 the results of an opinion poll on corporate attitudes toward climate-friendly office wear. "Warm Biz" is a government media campaign to encourage a new style of dress for business in autumn and winter, which allows offices to maintain room temperatures lower than usual (at 20 degrees Celsius), with the aim of reducing carbon dioxide emissions from office heating in winter. The campaign follows the success of "Cool Biz," a summertime dress code that encourages more casual fashion in the office, allowing companies to set their air conditioners at 28 degrees Celsius, higher than usual in summer. The "Warm Biz" fashions were announced by the Japanese Ministry of the Environment in August 2005. During the research period, from September 21 to 30, valid responses were received from 10,436 out of 21,342 companies across the nation.

In all, 5.3 percent of respondents said they "plan to implement" Warm Biz this year, and 24.6 percent said they were "still considering," bringing to 29.8 percent the number of respondents with a positive attitude to Warm Biz. Opinions expressed included one that said, "When considering environmental issues, this approach is attractive, as it is something people can relate to directly, and is easy to do."

Meanwhile, 52.8 percent of corporations had "no plans to introduce Warm Biz." One reason presented was that "Work efficiency will suffer, if we reduce office temperatures any further." Many of these corporations gave more positive comments, such as "For now we are watching to see what other companies do," and "Warm Biz might be easier to implement than Cool Biz."

Asked whether or not Warm Biz should be an annual activity as a part of corporate environmental initiatives, 53.6 percent of respondents answered yes, an increase of 9.7 percentage points since Cool Biz was introduced (survey conducted June 2005, with 4,557 respondents out of 10,387 corporations), suggesting that Warm Biz will have a better initial response than Cool Biz did. Many positive opinions were received, such as "We tried the Cool Biz style last summer, and found it quite comfortable."



Posted: 2006/01/18 08:34:23 AM
Japanese version