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“The Valuable 500” Marks Milestone of Having 500 Global CEOs Committed to Disability Business Inclusion [2021年06月01日(Tue)]
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The Valuable 500 logo


“The Valuable 500” business network, which is supported by The Nippon Foundation, has reached a milestone of having CEOs of 500 companies from 36 countries committed to including persons with disabilities in business through access to jobs, products and services.

The global initiative will now move on to the next phase of its campaign, in which the 500 firms will work together to promote product development backed by surveys on the needs of consumers with disabilities, the creation of metrics for measuring the degree of inclusion of persons with disabilities at companies, and the creation of an easily accessible portal site for hiring. It also aims to hold symposiums and other events to facilitate collaboration among international institutions and participating companies.

Ms. Caroline Casey, an Irish social entrepreneur and founder of The Valuable 500, said it was wonderful to have “hit our goal of having 500 global companies on board and committed to tackling disability inclusion on their board agendas.”

Commenting on this milestone, I said: “I hope that by bringing the new perspective of business to issues related to persons with disabilities, this initiative by a network of 500 global companies will move us closer to an inclusive society for everyone.”

In January this year, The Nippon Foundation announced its decision to join The Valuable 500 as a “Global Impact Partner” by providing support totaling $5 million over three years from 2021−the biggest-ever single investment into disability business inclusion.

Launched by Ms. Casey in January 2019 at the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the platform is a network of CEOs now representing 500 global companies created to promote reforms that will enable persons with disabilities to demonstrate their potential social, business and economic value. The initiative is chaired by former Unilever CEO Paul Polman and is being supported by noted global business leaders including Virgin Group founder Richard Branson and Accenture CEO Julie Sweet.

The Valuable 500 membership includes 44 Fortune 500 companies, and 44 included in the FTSE 100, the blue-chip index on the London Stock Exchange. Well-known names include Apple, Google, Coca-Cola, BBC, BP, Daimler, Intel, Mastercard, Microsoft and P&G.

Among 50 member companies from Japan are ANA, Japan Airlines, Fast Retailing, NEC, Sega Sammy Holdings, Softbank, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Sompo Group, Sony, Dentsu, Hitachi and Seiko.

The number of persons with disabilities around the globe is estimated at 1 billion, accounting for about 15% of the world’s total population, according to the United Nations and the World Bank.

The purchasing power of these persons, their families and friends is said to total $13 trillion, a market bigger than China, said the 2020 Global Economics of Disability report by the Return on Disability Group. However, the report also said the percentage of companies offering products that take persons with disabilities into account is extremely low at only 3.6%.

According to a statement released by the Valuable 500, there are no executives or senior managers who have disclosed a disability in company reporting by the FTSE 100, while only 12% report on the total number of their employees who are disclosed as having a disability.

In Japan, companies are legally required to hire a certain percentage of employees with disabilities (2.3% for companies with a workforce of 43.5 or more, with each part-timer counted as 0.5) and progress is being made toward disclosing information on their employment.

Nevertheless, there are no frameworks under which companies can share this information and knowledge, and progress still needs to be made in creating an environment that allows employees with disabilities to demonstrate their full potential.

The statistics shown above indicate that only a small minority of business entities worldwide are actively tackling and addressing disability inclusion. No doubt there is plenty of room for improvement. I sincerely hope that the 500 global companies will work together to lead by example and transform the business system for disability inclusion to better serve the 1 billion persons with disabilities and lead us toward a truly inclusive world.


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Ms. Caroline Casey, founder of The Valuable 500


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In my message to mark the 500-company milestone, I said: “This initiative by a network of 500 global companies will move us closer to an inclusive society for everyone.”