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We humans receive various benefits from ecosystem services provided by a variety of biological species. Ecosystem services include provisioning services, such as the supply of resources and water, and regulating services, such as climate regulation and water purification. These services are supported by the circulation of materials, including water, nutrients, and carbon, that circulate through ecosystems. Toshiba Group, whose business activities are also vitally dependent on ecosystem services, believes that conservation of the biodiversity of ecosystems is the key to environmental management.
Toshiba Group contributes to the conservation of biodiversity not only through its core business operations, including the promotion of water, environment, and energy businesses, the reduction of material procurement, and the minimization of environmentally harmful emissions, but also through its corporate citizenship activities, such as the 1.5 Million Tree-planting Project, conducted in collaboration with local governments and NPOs. There is a need to direct our attention to the indirect impact of our activities exerted on the environment through supply chains as well as their direct impact.
In order to conserve biodiversity and promote the sustainable use of biological resources that constitute biodiversity, Toshiba Group will implement the following measures:
The development of an environmentally harmonious society, which is designed to conserve biodiversity and provide the benefits of nature for many generations to come, is essential for achieving a sustainable society, along with the development of a low-carbon society designed to mitigate global warming and a recycling-based society designed to overcome problems regarding the use of resources and waste disposal. Toshiba Group is working to reduce the environmental impact of its activities based on policies focused on mitigation of climate change, efficient use of resources and management of chemicals.
The consumption of resources and discharge of environmentally harmful substances, which business activities necessarily involves, have various impacts on the environment. In order to measure the effects of impact mitigation measures, there is a need to adopt an approach aimed at making a comprehensive assessment of indirect impacts on various aspects of the environment. To that end, we assess environmental impacts using the life-cycle impact assessment method based on endpoint modeling (LIME*), which is designed to comprehensively assess environmental impacts from four different perspectives.
LIME classifies impacts on the environment into two categories, impacts on human society and impacts on ecosystems, and assesses environmental impacts from four perspectives: how the existence of mankind and ecosystems is affected (human health and biodiversity) and how the security of resources in human society and the photosynthesis capacity of ecosystems are affected (social assets and primary production). Thus, the assessment of the environmental effect regarding overall eco-efficiency, which is used as an index in the Toshiba Group Environmental Vision, integrates the four perspectives, including the perspective concerning biodiversity. The assessment of effects on biodiversity includes, for example, effects of environmentally harmful substances contained in wastewater discharged from factories on the increase of endangered species.
On the premises of the Yokohama Complex, there is a pond, known as a “lagoon,” which is part of a drainage channel for treated wastewater discharged from factories (used for manufacturing processes and for living) and rainwater. One of the purposes of the use and management of this lagoon is to secure space for biological habitats. The lagoon is inhabited by diverse species of animals and plants, including spotbill ducks and water speedwells, which are designated as near threatened species. In FY2008, we provided an environmental education session using the results of an ecosystem survey, showing insects collected in the lagoon to local elementary school children.
Because the lagoon is the final destination of the discharged water of Toshiba Materials, appropriate water quality management is necessary. For that purpose, the pH, COD and nitrogen concentration is monitored continuously 24 hours a day with automatic measuring instruments.
In addition, every weekday morning, ornithoscopy is conducted. Recently, the number of the incoming birds has declined for several reasons, such as the nearby expressway.
The lagoon is used as the venue allowing communication with a wide range of stakeholders.
We are striving to improve the awareness of environment conservation among students of the nearby elementary school who visit the lagoon; emphasizing the importance of the discharged water management by introducing the animals and plants living there and the water quality check using backtest.
Furthermore, we are also striving to improve awareness of the community residents and students of nearby colleges on the environment management of business organizations by explaining higher level issues, including the relationship between the discharged water management of the factory and ecosystem conservation.
The observation class for elementary school students
Various creatures live in the lagoon. Following the investigation (in 2006), it was confirmed that there are 186 kinds of plants, a kind of reptilian, 139 kinds of insects, a further 8 kinds of aquatic insects and 7 kinds of other aquatic creatures as well as the avian species.
The creatures found there are mainly common creatures that are distributed widely and those that are highly adaptable, maybe because the lagoon was originally an artificial pond on landfill in the waterfront area.
However, there are a few characteristic species of the biofacies of the South Kanto district, including those specified in the RDB (Red Data Book) of the Ministry of the Environment, the RDB of Kanagawa prefecture and those dependent on broad-leaved evergreen trees. The lagoon can be said to support the specific ecosystem of the area.
The lagoon of the Yokohama Complex, which is a precious habitat for rare species.
Spot-billed ducks (Parents and chicks)
a larva of lacertid
V. undulata
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