CSV as a management strategy for the forest industry: Common regional value created by forest resources
Updated by Masaya Nakano on March 11, 2026, 8:19 PM JST
Masaya NAKANO
Global Business Development Institute, Inc.
After graduating from Waseda University in 1981 with a degree in Applied Chemistry, he joined Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc. where he was in charge of energy policy, management consulting, and overseas business. In 2012, he left Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc. and established Global Business Development Institute, Inc. in the same year, where he was appointed as Representative Director. In 2015, he became a director of World Business Associates, Inc. and in 2024, he became its executive vice president. He is the author of "How to Create New Businesses to Increase Success Rates.
Creating Shared Value (CSV) is a term that has been coined by Michael Porter and Mark Kramer in 2011. This is a new management strategy concept proposed by Michael Porter and Mark Kramer in 2011. The first article was published in the June 2011 issue of the DIAMOND Harvard Business Review as "Creating Shared Value: A Strategy for Simultaneously Realizing Economic and Social Value. Since then, the concept of CSV has been adopted by many companies. The innovation of the forest industry and its expansion into biomass chemistry using forest resources, as advocated by the Platinum Initiative Network, are activities that are exactly in line with this concept of CSV.
CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) is often discussed in comparison to CSV, which is the concept of taking responsible actions toward employees, business partners, local communities, the environment, and other stakeholders in parallel with a company's original profit-making activities. Specifically, CSR includes the following Specifically, it is a voluntary effort to improve the working environment, make social contributions, and engage in environmental protection activities. In other words, it can be said that a company separates its commercial activities from its CSR activities and carries out both.
CSV, on the other hand, is the concept that companies should pursue businesses that simultaneously realize economic value and solutions to social issues (i.e., social value).
The concept of CSV has already spread to many global companies in Europe and the United States, including GE, Nestlé, and Danone. In Japan, for example, Ito En has clearly stated CSV in its "Group Code of Conduct" and "Policies" and conducts business activities in line with them. In its "Tea Production Area Development Project," ITO EN provides support to tea growers in cultivation and business management techniques, while pursuing economic value by securing stable tea leaf materials. In this way, we seek to create social value by eliminating abandoned farmland, creating local employment, and reducing environmental impact.
Ajinomoto has also adopted ASV (Ajinomoto Group Creating Shared Value) as its "basic management policy," stating that it will "grow through efforts to co-create social value and economic value through its business. Many other companies in various industries are also working to make CSV a fundamental part of their corporate management. In addition to this, research on CSV has been expanding recently, with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries conducting research on CSV and the Japanese Society of Agricultural Business Management making it the theme of its research conference.
What about the forest industry? I don't think the term CSV has been heard much yet.
However, when we look at it from a different perspective, it can be said that cultivating and utilizing trees while properly managing forests can simultaneously realize various social values through its business activities, such as gaining economic value through the sale of its wood products, contributing to the forest's CO2 absorption capacity and ecosystem maintenance, and creating employment in the local community. In other words, it can be said that the company realizes a variety of social values through its business activities at the same time.
Furthermore, in recent years, efforts have begun to utilize Japan's abundant woody resources as raw materials to produce fuels such as SAF (Sustainable Aviation Fuel) and ethanol for blending with gasoline, as well as chemicals such as plastics, through biomass chemistry. The project has been started to produce chemicals such as plastics. If fuels and chemicals, which used to be made from imported fossil resources such as crude oil, can be made from woody resources obtained domestically, we can increase self-sufficiency in energy resources and make a significant contribution to CO2 emissions reduction. If this is combined with resource recycling through waste plastic recycling, it is even possible to build a sustainable chemical value chain from domestic wood resources in the future.
Through the production and distribution of wood and wood-derived fuels and chemicals, these activities create economic value while at the same time contributing to solving social issues and realizing a sustainable society. This is the very essence of CSV activities.
However, there are still challenges for these activities.
Japan's forestry industry is still unproductive and costly due to its steep terrain and inadequate management. Producing fuels and chemicals from these woody resources will inevitably result in higher costs for fuels and chemicals compared to existing crude oil-derived products for the time being. In response to this, we believe that it would be a good idea to reevaluate the social value of the two CSV values in terms of their economic value, and take measures to introduce and promote the use of wood-based fuels and chemicals.
The forest industry is a regional industry that operates within each region in cooperation with local communities and various industries within the region. How about envisioning the future of regional industries that produce not only timber and wood products but also fuels and chemicals from the forest resources that exist in the region, and having the people involved in the region work together to realize this vision?
We hope that all companies involved in the forest industry will make the concept of CSV the cornerstone of their management strategies and contribute to solving social issues while developing sustainably through business activities that simultaneously realize economic value and social value. (Masaya Nakano, President, Global Business Development Institute, Inc.)
