Konica Minolta Receives the Grand Prix Award
at the Nikkei SDGs Management Grand Prix
Creating New Business through a Backcasting Approach to the SDGs

With an increasing number of people needing nursing care in Japan, the shortage of care workers has become a serious social problem. Konica Minolta therefore developed and provides the Care Support Solutions service that transforms nursing care workflows. This service detects certain resident behaviors using near-infrared cameras mounted on the ceiling along with sensors that detect slight movements and sends a notification to the smartphones of care staff. It helps care staff grasp the situation and determine the best response, and enables staff to share information in real time, thus greatly improving work efficiency. As care facilities often struggle to introduce such ICT equipment, Konica Minolta has also launched the Care Director service to train care staff as professional care directors who can analyze various data and effectively use them.

In Bangladesh, lifestyle-related diseases are skyrocketing, and quickly responding to patient needs is a critical issue in the healthcare field. In rural areas, where 60% and more of the population lives, there is a shortage of medical facilities, equipment, and doctors. In order to receive medical treatment, patients must travel considerable distances to urban areas.
To address this challenge, Konica Minolta devised a remote diagnostic system that allows a rural clinic to take patient X-rays using portable equipment and upload the imaging data to the cloud, allowing doctors in the city to view the X-rays and make the appropriate diagnosis. After conducting a diagnostic pilot in 2017, a paid medical examination trial was begun in September 2018 in the capital of Dacca and the surrounding region, in a project adopted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Going forward, Konica Minolta will increase the number of examination sites and also work to reduce the cost of diagnostic services by analyzing collected data and introducing AI-based screening.

Konica Minolta conducts Green Supplier activities to reduce both environmental impact and operating costs by providing suppliers with environmental technologies and expertise that it has developed via its Green Factory activities. Konica Minolta’s environmental experts visit supplier production sites and propose suggestions for improvement, outlining cost reduction benefits, investment rationale, and other information. They then cooperate with suppliers as they take action to reduce their environmental impact.

Nikkei SDGs Management Survey makes assessment on how companies address societal, economic and environmental challenges and tie their efforts to enhancement of corporate values by integrating SDGs in their management.
The survey reviews the participating companies’ efforts and initiatives through their responses to multi-faceted questionnaires in four categories: SDGs strategy and economic value, Social value, Environmental value and Governance.