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Conserving Biodiversity

Our corporate activities rely on various ecosystem services, which are provided by natural capital comprising soil, air, water, animals and plants, and other elements. Meanwhile, biodiversity is facing various crises in different locations worldwide, therefore corporations are required to do their part in protecting biodiversity and making sustainable use of ecosystem services.
The Kubota Group sees conserving biodiversity as one of its materiality issues. In its corporate activities, provision of products and services, and social contribution initiatives, in view of an impact on natural capital, the Group is endeavoring to ensure that care is taken to conserve biodiversity and protect the natural environment.
Taking this into account and beginning with our Medium-Term Environmental Conservation Targets 2025, we have started establishing targets for biodiversity conservation activities in accordance with the characteristics and business operations of each site. We are currently monitoring the progress of these activities.

Activities towards achieving SDGs

Related SDGs and targets
14.LIFE BELOW WATER,14.1,15.LIFE ON LAND,15.1,15.2,15.4,15.9,15.a2.ZERO HUNGER,2.4,6.CLEAN WATER AND SANITATION,6.3,7.AFFORDABLE AND CLEAN ENERGY,7.a9.INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE,9.4,12.RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION & PRODUCTION,12.2,12.8,12.a,13.CLIMATE ACTION,13.1,13.3
Major Activity Content
  • Promotion of activities to preserve biodiversity
    • Reintroduction of young fish into bodies of water, volunteer activities for coral restoration, tree planting activities, protection of wild birds and animals
    • Greening and beautification activities on business office premises or in surrounding areas
    • Social contribution activities (KUBOTA e-Project)
  • Conservation of the natural environment through appropriate management and reduction of wastewater, emission gases, and waste materials, etc.
2025 Activity Targets (KPIs)
  • Medium-Term Environmental Conservation Targets 2025:
    • Promote the protection of the natural environment by greening our establishments and creating biotopes
    • Promote conservation of the local natural environment and biodiversity as social contribution activities

Approach to Conserving Biodiversity

The Kubota Group has set Conserving Biodiversity as one of the five basic items for environmental conservation. In December 2009, we incorporated corporate activities that consider biodiversity into the Kubota Group Environmental Action Guidelines. Then, in our Eco-First Commitment which was renewed in 2021, we also included a commitment to promoting activities for conserving biodiversity.

Approach to Conserving Biodiversity

The Kubota Group has included Conserving Biodiversity as one of the five basic items for environmental conservation. In its corporate activities, provision of products and services, and social contribution initiatives, in view of its impact on natural capital, the Group will endeavor to ensure that care is taken to conserve biodiversity and protect the natural environment.

[Major Initiatives]
  1. Corporate activities
    1. At the design and development stage, we conduct product environmental assessments to evaluate the impact on natural capital.
    2. At the procurement stage, we present our Green Procurement Guidelines to our suppliers and require them to give consideration for biodiversity.
    3. At the production and logistics stages, we strive to reduce the environmental loads and environmental risks associated with operations at our sites and transport of materials.
    4. As part of our environmental management, we conduct environmental education and awareness-raising for employees to foster their recognition of the value of biodiversity and the importance of conservation activities.
    5. Our environmental communication initiatives include efforts to disseminate information about our biodiversity conservation activities.
  2. Provision of products and services
    • By providing products and services with less environmental loads through fuel efficiency and exhaust gas purification, for example, we are striving to lessen our impact on biodiversity.
    • By providing water environment solutions such as wastewater treatment and waste treatment, we contribute to improving the ecosystems and nurturing environment for plants and animals.
    • By providing products and services that contribute to urban infrastructure development that considers smart agriculture and the environment, we contribute to sustainable use of ecosystem services.
  3. Social contribution activities
    • Through our social contribution activity the Kubota e-Project supporting reclamation of abandoned farmland and conservation activities in rural and forest areas, we are promoting protection of the natural environment.
    • We are promoting the beautification and greening of business sites and neighborhoods as well as protection of plants and animals.

Relationship with Biodiversity

According to the World Economic Forum, the loss of biodiversity currently ranks alongside climate change-related risks as one of the most severe global risks. Corporations are being urged to take action to mitigate and reverse the loss of biodiversity, or in other words, transition to a “nature-positive” approach to their business activities. In these circumstances, a number of international initiatives and frameworks are being developed, one of which is the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD).
The TNFD proposes that companies identify the scope of their corporate activities, evaluate what kind of biodiversity and natural capital their business activities are dependent upon in each region, as well as the impacts of their activities, and analyze the risks and opportunities the results pose to a company's initiatives. This assessment methodology is called the LEAP approach.
The chart below shows an overall picture of how the Kubota Group's corporate and social contribution activities are related to biodiversity. The assessment results for agriculture and water environment—the two fields thought to be important in terms of the relationship with biodiversity—are shown on the following LEAP Approach Assessment Results.

LEAP Approach
The TNFD has developed an integrated assessment process for nature-related risk and opportunity management called LEAP. An assessment with the LEAP approach comprises four steps: (1) “locate” your interface with nature; (2) “evaluate” your dependencies and impacts; (3) “assess” your risks and opportunities; and (4) “prepare” to respond to nature-related risks and opportunities and report.

The four steps of the LEAP approach

    • Locate
    • Evaluate
    • Assess
    • Prepare
  • Please visit the website below for more information about the TNFD.
    tnfd.global/

LEAP Approach Assessment Results

Impact on Biodiversity in the Agricultural Field and Kubota's Contributions

By the year 2050 the world's population will be close to 10 billion, a large percentage of which will be in developing countries. Accordingly, demand for food is expected to increase. Guaranteeing agricultural crop yields will be key to solving this food crisis. However, the clearing of new farming land and the excessive use of pesticides and fertilizer to ensure sufficient crop yields have an adverse impact on biodiversity. Also, the relocation of suitable farming land owing to droughts, warmer temperatures, fluctuations in rainfall, and other weather events caused by climate change is leading to the clearing of new farming land and may encroach on the habitats of animals and plants. We therefore conducted an assessment based on the LEAP framework to take stock of the relationship between the Kubota Group's business activities and biodiversity in the field of agriculture.

  • Assessment of business in rice farming regions


    Locate Rice farming is prevalent in Japan and other parts of Asia and agricultural machinery and related products and services are widely used.
    Evaluate Pesticides and fertilizer:
    Pesticides and chemical fertilizers are used to boost yields.
    Excessive use leads to soil contamination and deterioration in water quality.
    Land:
    Clearing and deforestation could be carried out to expand farm land.
    Assess We operate a business in rice farming regions to provide agricultural machinery and related products and services.
    Risks:
    The possibility of farmers quitting the industry because of unsustainable agriculture and customer attrition owing to the provision of products with a low environmental performance.
    Opportunities:
    Expectations on Kubota to help protect biodiversity and drive revenue higher by providing machinery that contributes to productivity improvements in agriculture and solutions that realize sustainable farming practices.
    Prepare Minimize the negative impacts on ecosystems and habitats by providing products that contribute to greater crop yields and more appropriate rates of fertilizer application.
    Examples of our initiatives:
    • Our KSAS, smart agricultural machinery, and other products can contribute to improved farming productivity by way of precision agriculture and boost yields per unit area.
  • Assessment of business in dry farming and orcharding regions


    Locate Agricultural machinery and farm work implements are widely used in dry farming and fruit growing regions of Europe.
    Evaluate Pesticides and fertilizer:
    Excessive use leads to soil contamination and deterioration in water quality. Also, more stringent regulations on limiting the use of agrochemicals are currently being debated in the EU.
    Assess We operate a business in dry farming and orcharding regions to provide agricultural machinery and farm work implements.
    Risks:
    The possibility of farmers quitting the industry because of unsustainable agriculture and customer attrition owing to the provision of products with a low environmental performance.
    Opportunities:
    Expectations on Kubota to help protect biodiversity and drive revenue higher by providing machinery that contributes to productivity improvements in agriculture and solutions that realize sustainable farming practices.
    Prepare Minimize the negative impacts on ecosystems by providing products that restrict excessive pesticides and fertilizer application rates.
    Examples of our initiatives:
    • Kubota's sprayers and drones can prevent excessive use and promote more appropriate application rates of pesticides and fertilizer.

Impact on Biodiversity in the Water Environment Field and Kubota's Contributions

Torrential rainfall and other weather disasters seen around the world in recent years are expected to grow more frequent in the future. Extremely abnormal weather events not only have an impact on human society, but they also deprive living things of their habitat and significantly affect ecosystems. When there is a drought, both humans and living creatures have a hard time getting the water they need to ensure their survival. In addition, the destruction of nature and pollution of the environment caused by the mining of natural resources can also have a negative impact on ecosystems. We therefore conducted an assessment based on the LEAP framework to take stock of the, relationship between the Kubota Group's business activities and biodiversity in the water environment field.

  • Assessment of water-related business


    Locate In Asia there are regions that lack access to safe drinking water and regions without infrastructure to treat contaminated water.
    Evaluate There are many regions where water stress occurs locally, threatening the habitats of living things mainly as a result of a deterioration in water quality or lakes drying up.
    Assess We operate a business that contributes to the development, maintenance, and management of water infrastructure.
    Opportunities:
    Demand will increase for infrastructure and facilities to purify and effectively utilize water resources and contaminated water.
    Prepare Contribute to water infrastructure development and water recycling primarily by providing water supply and sewerage pipes and engineering for water treatment plants. This can help protect waterway environments and biodiversity.
    Examples of our initiatives:
    • By providing submerged membrane units, we can enable the removal of suspended solids or organic matter and the reuse of treated water for non-potable applications.
  • Assessment of resources-related business


    Locate Japan is dependent on overseas imports of phosphorus, metals, and other natural resources for use in fertilizers.
    Evaluate The mining of resources destroys much of the natural environment, deprives living things of their habitat, and can also lead to biodiversity loss.
    Assess We operate a business that promotes the recycling of resources.
    Opportunities:
    Demand for the recovery and recycling of resources will grow stronger because of the limitations placed on the mining of resources that adversely impact the natural environment.
    Prepare Help bring about a circular economy by providing recycling plants, such as facilities that pulverize and sort waste to recover metals, plastics, and other resources, and melting furnaces to extract materials that can be used as the source of chemical fertilizer from sewage sludge.
    Examples of our initiatives:
    • By providing crushing machines, we can help realize a recycling oriented society by crushing waste to "produce" useful metals.
    • Through the use of sludge melting process technology, we can reduce the volume of waste and enable the sophisticated recovery of resources.

Conservation of Biodiversity around Business Sites

In FY2022, we undertook social contribution activities through biotope conservation inside our business sites and clean-up and greening of areas around sites. We also maintained environments for various living organisms and promoted protection of the natural environment and conservation of biodiversity.

  • Installation of Insect Hotels


    We installed insect hotels on the grounds of Kubota Farm Machinery Europe S.A.S (France) in an effort to protect biodiversity.

  • Installation of Biotopes


    At Siam Kubota Corporation Co., Ltd. (Thailand), we installed a biotope on site to conserve biodiversity.

  • Mangrove Planting


    At Kubota Engine (Thailand) Co., Ltd., we worked together with the local government to plant mangroves along the coast.
    Mangroves help protect biodiversity by preventing coastal erosion.

  • Beekeeping


    At Kverneland Group Nieuw-Vennep BV (Netherlands), we installed beehives within the factory grounds. More hives were added with the help of an expert beekeeper, so there are now four hives in total.

  • Releasing Young Fish


    At Siam Kubota Metal Technology Co., Ltd. (Thailand), we collaborated with the local government and companies to release juvenile fish.

  • Rooftop Greening of Bicycle Parking Area


    At the Kubota Hirakata Plant (Japan), we established a green space on the rooftop of the enclosed bicycle parking area as a way of greening the premises.

Promoting Social Contribution Activities

The Kubota Group conducts annual beautification activities in areas around its sites to pick up litter, which may become a source of marine plastic pollution.

  • Clean-Up Activities around Sites


    At the Kubota Utsunomiya Plant (Japan), an assigned team conducts beautification activities around the plant on a bimonthly basis.

  •  


    At Kyushu Kubota Kasei Co., Ltd. (Japan), an assigned team conducts beautification activities around the plant every second month.

  • At Kubota Industrial Equipment Corporation (USA), we undertook cleanup activities on the public roads and car parks around the factory.

  • At Siam Kubota Corporation Co., Ltd. (Thailand), instead of the usual cleanups that were cancelled because of COVID-19, we made donations to an NPO that supports the activities of Buddhist temples.

Promoting Continuous Conservation Activities

Our Medium-Term Environmental Conservation Targets 2025 include conservation of biodiversity. Our initiatives for this include continuously promoting greening of the inside of our business sites and social contribution activities. Furthermore, the Kubota Group has wide-ranging involvement with biodiversity, from the environmental impacts of its production activities at business sites to the impact of products and services used by customers.
We report to the Executive Officers' Meeting on energy consumption and emissions of CO2, waste, water, and chemicals, etc. at our production sites, as well as the status of progress on reduction measures at each site. The impact of climate change and its potential for causing biodiversity loss has also been pointed out, and we have now revised our target values for CO2 emission reductions in 2030 to achieve even greater reductions.
As an initiative to reduce the use of chemical fertilizers on farms, we are working to promote the spread of farm management using the Kubota Smart Agri System (KSAS) along with agriculture drones and combine harvesters fitted with sensors. Through efficient use and distribution of agrochemicals and fertilizer, we will reduce the impact of chemicals on the environment and contribute to conservation of biodiversity.