How EKO Instruments plan to support the next generation of scientists, students and engineers; young people, working to imagine, invent and create solutions to seemingly impossible challenges.

While ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ (CSR) can still feel like a relatively new concept, popularised in the 1990s and 2000s, spurred on more recently by the growth of social media, it is, for many Japanese companies, a deeply ingrained part of their business culture and practice.

The idea that a business has a duty or a responsibility to better the world around it and contribute to the greater good of the wider community grew during the rapid post-war industrialisation of Japan, in part, as a response to the environmental damage it caused. Far from resisting new rules and regulations imposed by the government, Japanese companies raced to mitigate or offset their impact through voluntary initiatives that went further than simple compliance.

Beyond business and industry, ‘Shinto’, often regarded as Japan’s indigenous religion, encourages people to learn and adapt to nature, with ceremonies, festivals, and ubiquitous shrines and symbols, even in inner-city Tokyo, venerating the natural world, a part of everyday life.

In this respect, CSR, particularly regarding environmental issues, is both personal and professional, traditional and new.

EKO Instruments was founded in 1927 and, over ninety years later, remains a family-owned business. This history, and continuity, helps to affirm our commitment to our customers, our community, and more recently to initiatives such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in turn leading to our pledge in 2019 to phase out all single-use and non-recyclable plastics from product packaging by the end of 2022.

Our history also provides stability. Stability, combined with a Japanese obsession with quality and craftsmanship, has helped EKO lead the industry with the highest quality solar energy sensors. But history and stability also confer on us a responsibility to do more, to find new ways to help build a better, more sustainable future. This led us to create ‘EMPOWER’.