Conserving Water Resources

In FY2022, water withdrawal was 5.12 million m³, an increase of 11.1% compared to the previous year. On the other hand, water withdrawal per unit of sales improved by 8.9% compared to the previous year. Even though water withdrawal decreased at cast iron production sites, it increased overall in FY2022 mainly due to an increase in new machinery production sites overseas. Water withdrawal per unit of sales improved as consolidated net sales increased (up 21.9% from the previous year), while the Group made progress on measures such as switching to the use of drying booths in the painting process, making greater use of recycled water, and increasing control precision over the amount of cooling water used.

• Trends in Total Water Consumption and Consumption per Unit of Sales

  
  1. *1.Increase (0.47 million m³) due to FY2022 acquisition of overseas companies
  2. *2.Water consumption per unit of consolidated net sales. The Kubota Group adopted International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) instead of accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America from FY2018.

The Kubota Group has established the Medium-Term Environmental Conservation Targets and is working to reduce water withdrawal at production sites. Our production sites, such as those in China, Thailand, Indonesia and the United States, have introduced wastewater treatment facilities or wastewater recycling systems utilizing technologies of the Kubota Group.
In FY2022, in addition to routine activities such as raising employee awareness of water conservation and conducting patrols to check for water leakage, the Kubota Group improved watering methods for green areas, etc. We reduced water usage in the production process by more accurately controlling the amount of cooling water used. As a result of the efforts toward achieving the Medium-Term Environmental Conservation Targets 2025 for water withdrawal reduction, global production sites achieved a reduction of approximately 9,800 m³ in FY2022 compared to the case where countermeasures were not implemented from the previous year. The economic effects of these measures reached 1.5 million yen compared to the previous year. Water withdrawal per unit of production in FY2022 improved by 31.6% compared to the base year (FY2014).
We will continue to promote the reduction of water consumption through initiatives to promote the 3Rs of water, such as conducting water-saving activities and promoting water recycling by using the Kubota Group’s technologies.

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  Kubota Engine (Thailand) Co., Ltd. has added additional capacity to its wastewater treatment system with the use of a membrane bioreactor (MBR). Recycled water is being used to water the gardens around the plant and as household wastewater.

• Water Consumption by Region

  

• Water Consumption by Business

  

• Water Consumption by Type

  • Japan

    

  • Overseas

    

The Kubota Group has set its own control values that are stricter than the emission standards of relevant laws and regulations. To ensure that the standard values are not exceeded, the Kubota Group carries out regular measurement of designated monitoring items. Under the Medium-Term Environmental Conservation Targets 2025, the Group has established a new target of managing water discharge appropriately in line with standards for the areas where wastewater is released by operating wastewater treatment and water recycling facilities.
The amount of water discharge^* in FY2022 was 5.01 million m³ (1.10 million m³ into surface water, 1.93 million m³ into seawater, and 1.98 million m³ into sewage) due to mainly an increase in water withdrawal, an increase of 2.6% from the previous year. At each site, we will promote the reduction of water withdrawal by taking measures to reduce the amount of water discharge.We will continue to reduce load on the local water environment through activities to manage water discharge and reduce water withdrawal.

• The amount of wastewater discharge includes rain and spring water at some business sites.

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  At the Kubota Sakai Rinkai Plant, we expanded our installation of submerged type FRP johkasou, decentralized wastewater treatment plants. These are able to handle high-level treatment of household wastewater and can process up to 110 m³ of wastewater per day. Furthermore, as a BCP measure, we have raised the concrete foundations of the wastewater treatment facility. We introduced a water management solution using IoT, “KSIS,” to realize proper management of plant wastewater.

In order to identify the risks related to the use of water resources and find effective responses to such water risks, the Kubota Group conducts surveys concerning water stress^* for all of its production sites.
The results of a survey on water stress level of a total of 66 sites in 17 countries using Aqueduct (water risk assessment tool developed by the World Resource Institute (WRI)) are as follows:

• Water stress refers to the state where the annual water availability per capita is less than 1,700 tons and people feel inconvenience in their daily life. Water stress in this survey is the water stress for each river basin, which is calculated based on the ratio of water intake to the amount of available water resources. (World Resources Institute (WRI))

• Results of the Survey on Water Stress of Production Sites (FY2022)

  Region, country		Water withdrawal by water stress level (thousand m3) <number of sites>
  		High	High-Middle	Middle	Middle-Low	Low
  Asia	Japan	0	0	1,726〈8〉	1,533〈13〉	20〈2〉
  	China	0	79〈1〉	0	0	20〈2〉
  	Indonesia	0	0	10〈1〉	0	0
  	Thailand	232〈3〉	27〈1〉	7〈1〉	0	0
  	Saudi Arabia	17〈1〉	0	0	0	0
  	India	437〈7〉	0	0	0	0
  Europe	Russia	０	0.4〈1〉	0	0	0
  	Norway	０	0	0	0	21〈1〉
  	Denmark	０	0	37〈1〉	0	0
  	Netherlands	０	0	0	0	32〈1〉
  	Germany	０	0	10〈1〉	0	3〈2〉
  	France	０	0	5〈1〉	0	1〈1〉
  	Spain	０	0	０	1〈1〉	０
  	Poland	０	0	０	0	0.4〈1〉
  	Italy	14〈2〉	0	０	0	0.4〈1〉
  North America	Canada	０	0	０	0	240〈2〉
  	United States	０	0	150〈2〉	22〈8〉	0
  Total*1		701〈13〉	107〈3〉	1,944〈15〉	1,556〈22〉	338〈13〉

  1. *1.Totals shown may differ from the simple sum of values shown due to rounding.

• Water Withdrawal by Water Stress Level

  

The survey results showed that “High” or “High-Middle” levels of water stress applied to 16 production sites, located in the Chinese cities of Suzhou, central Thailand, Saudi Arabia, India, Russia and Italy, which account for approximately 17% of the Group's total water withdrawal. In the next “Middle” level category were 15 production sites situated in Japan's Kanto region and Aichi Prefecture, Indonesia, coastal regions of Thailand, the southeast United States and a number of locations in Europe, which together account for approximately 42% of total water withdrawal. Production sites in the “Middle-Low” and “Low” categories accounted for approximately 41% of total water withdrawal.
Although the majority of the water used in the Kubota Group's production activities is sourced in areas with stress levels in the “Middle” or lower categories, the survey showed that some of the main sites primarily in Thailand and India are located in areas of high water stress. At these production sites, the Kubota Group is now promoting the horizontal rollout of regional examples of good practice in areas including the reduction of water withdrawal and appropriate management of water discharge.
We will also conduct water stress surveys in each case for the water areas around new sites that are scheduled for construction as part of the Group's more globally oriented business growth.