We interviewed Haruki Yokoyama, Project Manager of the Overseas Business Department What does GreenCarbon’s youngest 24-year-old have to say? Please read on to find out!
Q.Please briefly introduce yourself, including your career to date.
After joining a major PR agency as a new graduate, I was assigned to the New Business Department, where I worked for about a year in corporate disclosure consulting on ESG matters. I mainly provided consulting services to listed companies and supported the preparation of corporate investor relations publications (shareholder newsletters, integrated reports and sustainability reports). I have been involved in GreenCarbon Corporation since the start-up phase and have been involved in a wide range of work, from overseas business development to satellite data research and system development areas.
Q.What type of work are you involved in? Please tell us about your work
Within the Global Sourcing, as a project manager, I am involved in a wide range of tasks, including the overall design of the project, the preparation of the documents required for carbon credit generation and the procurement of the necessary monitoring partners. In the overall design of the project, I design the work and roles of local cooperating farmers and partner companies, and try to ensure that the project is managed in a reliable manner.
In the procurement of monitoring partners, we design research requests and joint experiments, mainly with universities and other research institutions. Monitoring is essential for the creation of carbon credits, but we have learned through our involvement in the development of project plans that the cost of monitoring is prohibitive when operating projects on a large scale. To solve these problems, we are also in charge of developing efficient monitoring methods using satellite data.
Q.What challenges have you faced so far?
The biggest challenge, after all, was that it was such an unknown area that the challenges could not be identified until it was tackled. Carbon credit projects are becoming more widespread overseas, but in Japan there are still very few, and there are no precedents, so finding the right answer was more difficult than anything else. It is an everyday occurrence that as we start to move forward, we are faced with more and more challenges one after the other.
As we are not in a situation where we can consult with our seniors, supervisors and other experienced members of the company, as is the case in a well established company, there are many days when we wonder if this is the right thing to do. This is part of the appeal of Green Carbon, but we also see these challenges as opportunities. We see these challenges as an opportunity. Green Carbon is constantly looking for answers to each of these challenges, both in Japan and abroad.
Q.Finally, do you have a message for people who want to work for GreenCarbon?
GreenCarbon is an exciting company where we face new challenges every day and work together as a team to solve them. I hope to work with people who are full of challenge to implement solutions that only Green Carbon can provide. Thank you very much for your time.