Biodiversity

To fulfill our social responsibility as a corporation, we are required to make efforts to protect the global environment in our business operations. We have identified “consideration for the environment” as one of our key values, and we have been working to protect biodiversity.

Committed to the principle of leaving nature untouched, except for the locations required for our business operations, the Notogawa Plant maintains natural forests that make use of the native vegetation of the local Suzuka Mountain Range, and has even left local streams undisturbed since it was established. Flower seedlings are also grown in a greenhouse inside the plant and used to beautify the local area.

In fiscal 2021, in collaboration with the Shiga prefectural government, we signed the Lake Biwa Carbon Credit Partner Agreement with the Shiga Prefecture Afforestation Public Corporation, a general incorporated association whose director, Taizo Mikazuki, is the governor of Shiga Prefecture. By continuing to purchase J-Credits and volunteering in forest management activities conducted by a local forestry cooperative, we are supporting protection of the forests from which the water of Lake Biwa originates.

For close to half a century, employees at our plants have been taking part in a variety of community activities, such as protecting the ecosystem of Lake Biwa by joining events to preserve riverside forests and exterminate invasive fish species.

Thanks to these efforts, in fiscal 2022 we were able to renew our three-star rating certification, the highest possible, under the Shiga Biodiversity Initiative Certification System, administered by Shiga Prefecture.

These are just some of the many ways we are working to conserve local biodiversity.