Sustainability Activities (ESG)
Creating Environment and Programs Conducive to Open Innovation
Programs to Encourage Open Innovation
Creating Environment and Programs Conducive to Open Innovation
Programs to Encourage Open Innovation
In order to promote business in a social and economic environment that is changing at an increasingly rapid speed, Mitsubishi Estate is engaging in business model innovation. In October 2019, Mitsubishi Estate established new personnel programs for the purpose of encouraging open innovation and expanding further the possibilities for independent career choices by individuals.
New Business Proposal Program
New Business Proposal System—Mitsubishi Estate Group Innovation Challenge (MEIC)
Through the New Business Proposal System, launched in 2009, we have extensively sought business proposals and ideas from employees. With more than 130 applications received to date, the system has realized new initiatives that have helped diversify the Group’s sources of earnings and strengthen its core business, such as GYMM, a pay-as-you-go gym, and Ecorfurni, a business reselling used office furniture.
In 2021, we launched the Mitsubishi Estate Group Innovation Challenge (MEIC) program to expand the scope of this system to encompass Group companies. We will continue striving to strengthen systems for encouraging employees to take on challenges with the aim of spurring Groupwide innovation.
Borderless! x Socializing! Initiative
On April 1, 2017, we established the Work Style Reform Promotion Committee, chaired by the president & chief executive officer, with the aim of strongly promoting the top-down reform of our corporate culture, the streamlining of business processes, and the creation of new value through increased productivity. In August 2018, the committee was renamed the BxS (Borderless and Socializing) Committee. The BxS Committee’s promotion secretariat plays a central role in developing a variety of activities aimed at Companywide workstyle reforms and improving operational efficiency. Every year, the secretariat conducts a survey on the status of the Mitsubishi Estate’s operational efficiency, workstyles, and corporate culture and reports the results of the survey Companywide. Any issues that become apparent from the results of the survey become a theme for discussions centered on the secretariat from the following year onward.
Secondary Job Program (from January 2020)
Secondary Job Program
Mitsubishi Estate has established a secondary job program* based on a permit system to help employees maximize their own potential through diverse experience and encourage them to accept various challenges that lead to their growth or career advancement. In so doing, the company aims not just to help the knowledge and connections obtained through a secondary job be returned into the core business, but also to create an environment for employees to work with more satisfaction through self-actualization.
- Excludes businesses that involve a conflict of interest with Mitsubishi Estate, such as competitors. Working hours up to 50 hours in any single month.
Open Recruitment of Human Resources with Secondary Jobs and Dual Employment in Some Businesses
In some of its businesses, primarily new ones, Mitsubishi Estate has begun accepting human resources with secondary jobs and dual employment* through open recruitment to hire a broad range of human resources that possess knowledge not present in its existing businesses. As the first step, in the meditation studio operation business, which was established in April 2019 through the new business proposal program, Mitsubishi Estate recruited and employed* human resources with responsibility for planning brand and marketing strategy from among human resources with secondary jobs and dual employment.
- Assumes once weekly employment based on an individual outsourcing agreement with Mitsubishi Estate.
Creating an Office Environment that Leads to Value Creation>Initiatives at Mitsubishi Estate Head Office
Creating an Office Environment that Leads to Value Creation
Initiatives at Mitsubishi Estate Head Office
Mitsubishi Estate upholds the concept of "Borderless! × Socializing!" for its head office and has implemented a range of initiatives to create a venue for generating new value through spaces where people can connect with one another without borders and fully demonstrate their strengths. The company put this aspiration into practice as part of our work style reforms for productivity and employee health advancement.
While continuously implementing reform of the office environment and systems, Mitsubishi Estate is also implementing a range of verification testing at the head office in such areas as biometric security and the use of robots for tasks such as cleaning and serving tea. The achievements, knowledge, and expertise obtained through these initiatives are being utilized in proposals to customers, planning for new office buildings, and urban development.
Mitsubishi Estate is also promoting SDGs awareness and initiatives of employees at the head office as part of its efforts to help realize a sustainable society. These include the holding of events for employees to familiarize themselves with social issues through food at the in-house cafeteria, the establishment of a display area where they can experience sustainable products from around the world, and enhancing the effective sorting of waste (into 15 types).
In addition to the Otemachi Park Building head office, which is already available to Group companies, Mitsubishi Estate opened satellite offices in Marunouchi and Yurakucho for the use of Group companies in response to such needs as promoting efficient and flexible workstyles, strengthening BCPs, creating bases for information sharing and events, and deepening communication throughout the Group. These offices have been named “MIX,” expressing the hope that they will be places where diverse people from the Group and sometimes from outside the Group will mix together and create new value.
Free-address work environment
Employees can choose locations on any given day from a host of different seating options, including low tables, high tables, large and individual desks, to match their workstyle preferences. Efforts are also made to reduce paper and digitalize documents, eliminating more than 70% of document storage cabinets compared with pre-relocation.
Internal staircase to eliminate borders between floors
Private stairways have been installed so that employees can move freely between floors, bypassing the building's common areas. This encourages spontaneous communication, promotes health and mitigates the risks posed by loss or theft of confidential materials.
SPARKLE Cafeteria
The cafeteria can also be used as a workspace to facilitate the creation of new ideas and insights. It also serves as place for communicating through food and is used as a space for sharing information on subjects of interest to the company such as health management, the SDGs, and project introductions.
One-third allocated to common area
One-third of the head office is allocated to a common area. This helps to create inspiration through casual communication and to increase motivation and productivity.
MIX MARUNOUCHI
Also available for use as an event space.
Initiatives at Mitsubishi Jisho Property Management Head Office
Mitsubishi Jisho Property Management received the New Office Promotion Award as part of the 35th Nikkei New Office Award program, sponsored by Nikkei Inc. and the New Office Promotion Association (NOPA). The company’s head office is located on the second floors of the Marunouchi 2-chome Building and the Marunouchi-Nakadori Building, straddling the street of Marunouchi Nakadori. The renovation of the head office was based on the concept of “Open the Blinds” to open up the blinds both visually and psychologically, and treats the offices which are spread across two buildings as one floor, with Marunouchi Nakadori viewed as a courtyard. The renovation was designed to offer a variety of venues for people to meet to co-create new value while feeling in every sense connected with the city. Besides the reception area and a collaboration area where customers and partner companies are welcomed, the renovated head office has created various spaces for enhancing communication, including MIX Marunouchi, a group office available to employees of the Mitsubishi Estate Group.
Offices located on the second floors of buildings straddling Marunouchi Nakadori
Reception area in the Marunouchi 2-chome Building
Office interior
Initiatives at Mitsubishi Estate Home Headquarters
In line with relocating its headquarters from the Kokusai Shin Akasaka Building to Shinjuku Eastside Square in June 2022, Mitsubishi Estate Home has launched Tokyo Base. This future co-creation office packed with various new features aims to provide employees with an environment allowing them to work with greater freedom and energy, to increase the value we provide to customers, and to help solve social issues.
This is the first location at the Mitsubishi Estate Group to adopt activity-based working (ABW) with the goal of creating a vibrant atmosphere where employees can enjoy working. ABW offers employees the freedom to select from various types of work points (seats) depending on their current tasks, which help maximize the performance of all employees.
There are recharge spaces in the open café and work area where employees can relax, replete with furnishings made from Japan-grown timber, something we focus on as a core value. Touching and feeling the logs and saplings on display helps raise employee awareness of the issues the Japanese forestry industry faces, inspiring them. Interacting with our core values in the possibilities of wood and experiencing first-hand our product values helps trigger the emergence of innovation that has true value as they work with their customers and partners.
Japan-grown structural materials normally used in our custom-made detached housing projects are repurposed in the café space
Initiatives at the MEC Design International Head Office
MEC Design International*, which engages in interior design for offices and other spaces, refurbished its head office in Chuo-ku, Tokyo in February 2022 embracing diversification in values and changes in lifestyle and the way people work in its own offices.
Incorporating numerous opinions and requests from employees through in-house questionnaires and workshops, the company established “Act More, More Real” as a grand concept for a refurbishment to express employees’ styles of working. Drawing inspiration from the walkways alongside canals, the seamless connection of a WALK zone where employees actively mingle and a WORK zone that realizes flexible work styles creates an office bringing together diverse human resources and allowing a full sense of their passion to be expressed while achieving a balance between life and work.
In an office that adopts activity based working (ABW) and provides a variety of work environments, employees can freely choose where to work according to their individual needs and requirements. This means they can act more like themselves, inspiring one another, and create a place that communicates MEC Design International’s passion as a design firm to the world. In the refurbishment, with contributing to the SDGs in mind, the company also made efforts to reduce building material waste and effectively utilize surplus and recycled products. Instead of conventional furniture and fixtures, long-lasting and health-conscious products were selected.
Interact and Share (Work Lounge/Café Counter)
The lounge, which has a versatile layout and can be used for a variety of purposes, is located directly next to the reception area to encourage internal and external interactions.
Experience, Experiment, and Combine (Gallery, Atelier)
Located in the center of the space is a work area that includes manufacturers’ sample displays and work counters with various usage scenarios in mind where people can experiment and combine various materials to create new spaces. It’s a work space where the process of space creation can be communicated and felt in a realistic way.
Learn and Concentrate (Book Library)
The library area connected to the atelier is a place for reading and sharing the latest information on trends in Japan and overseas.
- MEC Design International Corporation: As a comprehensive interior design firm in the Mitsubishi Estate Group, it is involved in design for offices, residential interiors, hotels, commercial spaces, and others. With its team of professionals conversant in interior design, the company provides a wide range of services from consulting, conceptualization, planning, design, and construction through to procurement of furniture, fixtures, and equipment (FF&E).
