Environmental Management

The Kubota Group has formulated environment-related rules and regulations based on its internal control system, targeting Kubota Corporation, all of its consolidated subsidiaries and a part of its affiliated companies accounted for under the equity method that are highly significant in its environmental management.
The rules and regulations are classified as follows:

These rules and regulations are reviewed every year, according to the business environment and revisions of laws and regulations. The latest version of these rules and regulations are available on the Group portal site, allowing employees around the world to refer to them.

In order to practice environmental conservation activities on a global scale, the Kubota Group utilizes the “KUBOTA Ecology Data E-System” (KEDES) to collect environmental data, which includes information from our business sites on their energy usage, amounts of generated and discharged waste, water usage, and VOC emissions, etc.
“KEDES” is a system that collectively manages environmental data at global business sites. Staffs at each business site register monthly environmental data, which is used for target management of their own site. The Environmental Protection Department aggregates and analyzes the data, and uses it for reporting inside and outside the group. The boundary of the environmental data aggregation covers Kubota Corporation and all (100%) of its consolidated subsidiaries.

Each year, the Environmental Protection Department conducts an environmental audit that incorporates a document audit targeting all production sites, service sites, offices, and construction and maintenance management departments in Japan, as well as overseas group production sites.
Moreover, in addition to the environmental audit by the Environmental Protection Department, annual internal environmental audits are conducted at production sites. Through these means, and by taking the initiative to self-check the status of environmental management, every effort is being made to further improve management levels.

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  Environmental audit
  Kubota Baumaschinen GmbH (Germany)

Environmental risks for facilities are evaluated from the function and management methods, etc. of environment-related equipment, and for facilities that are deemed to require countermeasures, risk reduction activities are promoted to strengthen equipment and management countermeasures until environmental risks are at an acceptable level.
The Kubota Group is proactively working to further reduce environmental risks by conducting environmental audits and environmental risk assessments - two activities with differing perspectives - in parallel.

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  Environmental risk assessment
  Kubota Sakai Plant

At each site, environmental patrols are carried out to meticulously assess the entire site and confirm the absence or presence of conditions that may lead to environmental accidents or violations of environmental laws and regulations. The Kubota Group aims to reduce environmental risks by conducting environmental patrols and finding situations that may cause any abnormalities at an early stage.

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  Environmental patrol
  Kubota Okajima Business Center

The Kubota Group is working to identify and minimize environmental risks associated with its business activities through risk-specific response procedures.
We are also conducting drills each year based on response procedures that assume the outbreak of environmental accidents or situations that could arise in environmental accidents, in order to mitigate the impact on the ambient environment.

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  Emergency response drill simulating the leakage of oil
  Kubota Utsunomiya Plant

In order to promote the proper treatment of waste and other materials including valuable resources at its operating sites in Japan, the Kubota Group is increasingly employing the services of top-rated certified operators. At the same time, the Group is conducting on-site investigations of industrial and other recyclable waste treatment contractors as well as purchasers of valuable resources.
As far as industrial waste where there are large numbers of treatment contractors, the Kubota Group has introduced its own on-site investigation appointing system that is run by its production sites, offices, sales companies, and other companies. In those cases where multiple sites including production sites use the same contractor for the treatment of waste, the officer responsible for the treatment of waste at the production site takes responsibility for the investigation. In this manner, successful steps are being taken to increase the effectiveness of investigations.

The Kubota Group offers environmental education programs to raise awareness among its employees. The education program for employees consists of rank-based training, professional training, and general training. The Group also assists external group’s environmental education programs.

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  Waste management training on site
  Kubota Hanshin Plant Mukogawa Site

During the Environment Month in June every year, the Kubota Group presents the Environmental Achievement Awards to commend individuals and groups that have made notable contributions to environmental conservation, as well as to boost the Group’s employees’ environmental conservation awareness and activate their environmental activities.
In 2019, environmental conservation activities were evaluated targeting the four segments of production sites, non-production sites, product development, and education and awareness raising. As a result, 46 cases were awarded for their achievements in energy saving, waste reduction, VOC reduction, reducing environmental risks, development of environment-friendly products, and so on. Five cases were awarded as the Excellent Prize.
We will continue to award excellent initiatives that contribute to regional or global environmental conservation, and encourage sharing of the details of such initiatives within the Group, with the aim of further activating environmental conservation activities.

LRQA: Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance Limited(U.K.)
DNV: DNV Certification B.V.(Netherlands）
JUSE: Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers ISO Center
ICJ: Intertek Certification Japan Limited
JICQA: JIC Quality Assurance Ltd. (Japan)
JSA: Japanese Standards Association
JQA: Japan Quality Assurance Organization
MSA: Management System Assessment Center (Japan)
BCJ: The Building Center of Japan
JCQA: Japan Chemical Quality Assurance Ltd
MASCI: Management System Certification Institute (Thailand)(Thailand)
SGS(U.S.): Systems & Services Certification，a Division of SGS North America Inc.(U.S.)
TÜV: TÜV Rheinland Cert GmbH(Germany)
SGS: SGS United Kingdom Limited(U.K.)
BSI: BSI Assurance UK Limited(U.K.)
BV: Bureau Veritas Certification Holding SAS - UK Branch(U.K.)
CCSCC: China Classification Society Certification Company(China)
CQC: China Quality Certification Centre(China)
BV(France): Bureau Veritas Certification France(France)

IHK: Industrie- und Handelskammer fur die Pfalz（Germany）