Ecosystem Evaluation

Ecosystem Preservation Assessment for Business

Since FY2011, the Hitachi Construction Machinery Group has been introducing its employees to our point of view regarding how our corporate activities are related to the ecosystem, as well as international trends and case studies from those initiatives, based on the “Hitachi Group Ecosystems Preservation Guideline.” To further deepen our employees’ awareness, we have been making attempts with the Hitachi Group’s “Ecosystem Preservation Assessment for Business” since FY2012 to assess our efforts regarding the entire range of business activities. In FY 2015, this evaluation was fully carried out on major production locations subject to consolidation. This gained and awareness of relationships with ecosystems throughout the entirety of a life cycle, ascertained the present situation, and specified issues. Furthermore, of the approximately 400 activities currently underway, 63 have been deemed to require improvement.

The activities carried out by Hitachi Construction Machinery (Shanghai) for the afforestation of the Horqin desert, which have continued for a 10-year period since 2005, are an example of ecosystem conservation activities. Aiming for the restoration of habitats that have been destroyed and turned to desert due to over-grazing etc. and protection of weak ecosystems, a 100,000m2 desert belt within the Horqin desert of China’s autonomous Inner Mongolia region has been designated as an “Hitachi Construction Machinery Carbon Offset Forest” and afforested, which has contributed greatly to greening. 26 of our partner dealers are participating in our new plan for the next 10 years which commenced in 2015 for the first time, and afforestation of a desert belt of 130,000m2 has begun.

The Hitachi Construction Machinery Group has considered Aichi Targets and other important guidelines*1 in totality on the basis of this assessment, and has formulated the “Ecosystem Conservation Activities and Initiatives List”. The implementation status of initiatives, and targets have been clearly specified on the basis of the “Ecosystem Conservation Activities and Initiatives List”, and we are aiming for further progress.

*1 The Ministry of the Environment’s “Guidelines for Private Sector Engagement in Biodiversity,” JBIB’s “Guidelines for Offices Promoting Coexistence with Living Creatures,” JBIB’s “Guidelines for Raw Materials Procurement for Businesses that Consider Biodiversity,” JBIB’s “Guidelines for Forest Creation for Coexistence,” etc.

Corporate Ecosystem Services Review (ESR)

In order to investigate the degree of dependency and influence on the ecosystem for each business, we use the “Corporate Ecosystem Services Review (ESR)*2” from the WBCSD (World Business Council for Sustainable Development) to conduct supply chain-wide assessment to quantify the dependency and influence on the ecosystem across seven business areas categorized according to the construction machinery usage such as demolition work, dredging work, and forestry. We use the results of the assessment in assigning priority to our ecosystem preservation initiatives.

*2 ESR stands for Corporate Ecosystem Services Review. This is a an ecosystem service assessment for corporations that promotes an understanding of how corporate activities depend on and impact ecosystems with respect to “supply services,” such as forests, water, genetic resources, and “regulatory services,” such as atmospheric regulation, climate regulation etc., based on defining benefits from nature as “ecosystem services.” Management of business risk and opportunities is conducted based on this assessment which is a systematic methodology enabling future strategy formulation.