Advisory & Co-Creation
For partners ready to build something together.
We help companies, foundations, local governments and purpose-led organisations turn social and environmental ambitions into clearer strategies, stronger partnerships, compelling stories and practical initiatives.
From shaping an early idea to testing something in the real world, we bring strategy together with the realities of implementation.
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From ambition to something that works.
We usually get involved when an organisation knows the direction it wants to move in, but needs help making the next step clearer, stronger or more practical.
Impact Strategy & Business Integration
Identify where your organisation can create meaningful social or environmental value and connect that impact more closely to the core business.
Concept & Program Development
Turn a broad ambition or challenge into a clearer initiative, campaign, program or pilot that can actually be tested.
Partnerships & Ecosystem Building
Identify and bring together the companies, communities, governments, entrepreneurs and other partners needed to make an idea work.
Communications & Positioning
Clarify what you do, why it matters and how to communicate your impact in a way people can understand, support and act on.
Practitioners, not consultants only.
We have built social innovations ourselves.
Through SIJ and initiatives such as mymizu, we have experienced what it takes to start with an imperfect idea, understand the people affected, build a workable model, create partnerships, communicate something new and keep adapting when reality gets in the way.
That experience shapes how we work with partners.
We are interested in strategies that can leave the slide deck and survive in the real world.
Understand the landscape before deciding what to build.
We support organisations exploring social impact, sustainability or collaboration in Japan through landscape research, stakeholder mapping, case studies, opportunity identification and local context. We can also help bridge language, networks and ways of working between Japanese and international partners.
LIXIL Community Day × mymizu
LIXIL wanted an engaging way for employees around the world to participate in sustainability, even while conventional activities were restricted during the pandemic.
Together, we turned plastic reduction into a month-long team challenge, making individual action visible, social and measurable.
Case Study: LIXIL
In 2020, LIXIL Global joined forces with Social Innovation Japan’s “mymizu” initiative to tackle single-use plastic through the ‘LIXIL Community Day mymizu Challenge’. More than 2,600 people across the company’s global workforce formed teams and battled it out in a friendly competition to see who could save the most plastic bottles during a month-long campaign.
In a short space of time, the company was able to save 34,000 bottles - the equivalent of the height of two Mount Fujis of PET bottles in a fun, engaging and meaningful way.
“For this year’s LIXIL Community Day, we wanted the teams to be able to participate in an eye-opening experience and one that would be engaging despite the restrictions caused by the coronavirus health crisis. Taking part in the mymizu Challenge was just that: an innovative and enjoyable way to strengthen our employees understanding of and engagement with sustainability and the SDGs. As LIXIL is strengthening its commitment to tackling plastic reduction in our own operations, the campaign has contributed to bolstering awareness and a mindset shift within the company”
- John Short, Leader, Communications & Corporate Responsibility, LIXIL
Making social impact part of the business
We have supported organisations looking to move beyond standalone CSR activity and think more strategically about how social impact can connect with their core business.
Our role has included identifying where existing capabilities, products, relationships and business activities can create social value, and translating that into clearer strategic direction.
Making good work easier to understand
Strong impact does not automatically translate into a strong story.
We have supported impact-focused organisations with communications strategy and positioning, helping them clarify their audiences, message and the value they create.
Co-creation; beyond surface-level collaborations
The strongest partnerships are not built around adding a logo to an existing activity. They start with a shared challenge, make use of what each partner brings, and agree from the beginning what meaningful progress should look like.
From idea to implementation
We can join at different stages. The exact process depends on the challenge, but most projects involve some combination of these three steps.
Understand what is really happening, who is affected and where the opportunity lies.
Develop the strategy, concept, story or partnerships needed to move forward.
Turn the thinking into a practical program, pilot, campaign or next step and learn from what happens.
You do not need to arrive with a finished brief.
You might have a sustainability, regenerative or circular goal that is struggling to translate into action. A business that could create more social value. A strong impact story that people are not quite understanding. A partnership you want to build. Or simply a problem worth exploring.
That is often where the most interesting work starts.
Have something you want to make real?
Tell us what you are exploring, where you are stuck and what you hope could be different. We can work out together whether SIJ is the right fit.
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