RENGO endorsed the "Activities for 'RENGO Eco Life 21' in the year 2001" at its 17th Central Executive Committee Meeting on December 7. RENGO aims to expand the lifestyle rethinking drive to include the entire nation for the 3rd year's activities.

I. Summary of the 2nd Year's Activities(1999-2000)

1. Affiliated Organizations

(1) The number of affiliate organizations committed to the activities in STEP 1 increased by 4 from 36 organizations last year to 40 this year. Organizations scheduled to participate in STEP 1 also increased by 1 to a total of 5. Consequently, 62% or 45 affiliates of the 73, including scheduled affiliates, are engaged. Notably, the top 23 organizations in the total number of union members have been involved in STEP 1 activities.

(2) 30 organizations (an increase of 5) are working on STEP 2 activities and 7 are set to join, which totals to approximately 50% of all affiliates.

(3) There are clear tendencies in the aggregate for larger membership, participation in activities are on track, yet organizations with less than 25,000 members are less involved in activities.

2. Local RENGO

(1) 35 local RENGO have already been working on STEP 1, increasing their number by one since last year. 5 local RENGO are expected to join. As a result, 85% or 40 local RENGO will be participating.

(2) 3 local RENGO have just joined the activities making a total of 9 local RENGO working on STEP 2 activities. 15 local RENGO (an increase of 1) are planning to join STEP 2 activities. RENGO has high hopes for their efforts in the 3rd year.

(3) By and large, it is hopeful that every local RENGO will work on STEP 1, but prospects for STEP 2 have not been sufficiently pursued due to the vertically divided activities of the affiliates (from industrial federations to enterprise-based unions).

3. General Summary

(1) Affiliate activities have been on the rails. However, the number of enterprise-based unit unions which are engaged in activities remains insufficient at 25 organizations according to survey results. This is a task to be worked on in the 3rd year. Further, of 32 affiliate organizations with a membership of less than 25,000, the number of organizations joining the drive remains at 8 affiliates or 25%. This is also a challenge that must be tackled from the 3rd year.

(2) In local areas, there are only 9 local RENGO are working on STEP 2 and 15 additional organizations are planning to join the drive. These results suggest that STEP 1 activities are for secretariats and workplaces and relatively easy to approach. However, STEP 2 is targeting union members and their families, and furthermore, the working principles for the 2nd year are specified only to the activities at special participating organizations. These issues are expected to affect the lower participation levels of the drive. We are facing a need for drastic revision.

II. Activities for 2001

1. Main Activity Points

(1) Conduct countermeasures on organizations with less than 25,000 members due to insufficient efforts on their part.

(2) Thoroughly focus on activities at unit unions which participate in affiliate organizations.

(3) Strengthen the activities of unit unions in affiliate industrial federations. To do so, local RENGO's activities for the drive, which have so far been limited to special participating unions, will be reshuffled. New activities are combined vertically between 'affiliates - unit unions' as well as horizontally between local RENGO (one in each prefecture) taking into account local characteristics.

(4) Make intensive efforts to stress "RENGO Eco Life 21" by combining every RENGO activity with a sense of environmental problems. To do so, promote cooperation with RENGO's Department of Organizational Affairs, and collaborate on "RENGO's Clean Campaign" and "'Building RENGO's Forest' Drive."

2. Specific Activities

(1) Basic Precepts to Continue the Drive in the 3rd year
RENGO aims for goals that a) develop drives at organizations already involved in activities, b) increase the number of organizations engaged in activities, c) promote local RENGO activities, and d) achieve the national movement of life style rethinking drive.
As already approved last year, clearly identify the lifestyle review as the "RENGO Eco Life 21" drive and work to target union offices and workplaces, union members and their families. Also, promote all the activities in the Labor Bloc (CHUO-ROFUKUKYO [National Association of Worker Welfare], ZENROSAI [National Federation of Workers and Consumers Insurance Cooperatives], ROKIN-KYOKAI [National Labour Bank Association], KINJUKYO [Japan Worker Housing Association]) along with RENGO activities.

(2) Advancement Procedures
Let information flow and promote activities down the line from RENGO to its affiliate organizations to unit unions to union members and finally to their families. Furthermore, put more strength into focusing on unit unions that are members of affiliate organizations, in such places as affiliate environment-member meetings or the RENGO Environment Forum. Local RENGO have so far been pushing ahead with drives locally, mainly with special participating organizations that are only joining local RENGO. Beginning with this fiscal year, local RENGO will move horizontally to propel many more activities. They will emphasize vertical activities around RENGO affiliate organizations, in combination with horizontal activities development while employing local characteristics from the 3rd year of the drive.

(3) Real Activities
Since the drive "RENGO Eco Life 21" is based on an awareness of every union member, activities should basically be developed on a bottom-up principle. Therefore, participants will want to "Start With What is Close—Start With What You Can Do," referring back to examples in the manuals already distributed. The "Clean the Japanese Islands Campaign" and the "'Building RENGO's Forest' Drive" will be developed together with "RENGO Eco Life 21."

(4) Revision of the Activities
The a one-year cycle of "planning-enforcing-inspecting-revising" was endorsed at the 5th Environment Committee Meeting on June 16, 1998 so that this drive will be carried on with revisions. Revision is indispensable to keep the drive fresh. RENGO aims for an abundant supply of examples of activities by collecting them from open drives (January to March, next year) and so forth. Items of inquiry for the next revision will be endorsed at the 3rd Environment Forum in May, the date has been pushed up due to the upper house election planned for July. Data collection will be conducted in September and a report will be issued in October. These environment forums have so far been held in metropolitan areas such as Yokohama and Tokyo, but RENGO maintains that it will emphasize the local activities of "RENGO Eco Life 21" in the 3rd year beginning in 2001. Therefore, from the next forum RENGO will take turns holding forums in its regional blocs, where each will be organized by that bloc and/or local RENGO.

(5) Media for Edification and Publicity
Based on the last two years achievement, RENGO will create and utilize the following media in combination with the further expansion of the drive and the introduction of examples of activities so far.
[Environment Forum for Rethinking Lifestyles, affiliate organizations, local RENGO]

*Making Leaflets—preparing leaflets to expedite togetherness of this along with the foundation of the environmental conference.

*Making videos—to foster activities at unit unions, introducing examples of "RENGO Eco Life 21." Distribute the videos and make them available at the RENGO Net homepage for unit union/union member access.

*Making manuals—primarily in accordance with activity examples which recruited from general public.

*Making inserts—to introduce the drive and its activities to newspapers of each of the affiliates and unions.

*Utilizing RENGO's home page—Look into colorful approaches such as setting up an intensive month.

*Making the RENGO environment badge—to express an understanding of environmental problems and a determination to conserve the environment, create an environment badge (blue ribbon) and mascot characters for the drive. Effectively use them to promote activities for the Environment Forum for Rethinking Lifestyles and "RENGO Eco Life 21."

*Making campaign goods—as examples of "RENGO Eco Life21" activities for union members and their families, as well as materials to offer applicants.

[Media for Union Members/families]

*Using Radio Spots—For 6 months next year, RENGO will air a series of commercials on Tetsuya Takeda's Program (scheduled) at 7:40am -7:50am on JOQR Bunka Hoso (Nippon Cultural Broadcasting). The first month will address environmental topics (scheduled).

*Collecting activity examples from union members and their families—As we did last year, we will continue to collect a variety of examples of activities between January to March of 2001.

III. Time Schedule for Future Activities

1. Hold a "Life Style Rethinking Forum" to launch a National Convention for the Environment (tentative) at Pacifico Yokohama, December 8-9, organizer: Life Style Rethinking Forum Executive Committee).

2. Participate in the 7th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP) as a part of the Japanese delegation.

3. Hold environmental problem meetings with representatives from each affiliate organization (time TBA).

4. Hold the 3rd Environment Forum and the "Rethinking the Global Environment and Lifestyles" symposium in May, to be co-organized with the Environment Forum for Rethinking Lifestyles.