Environment
Toward a resource recycling society
Achieving a sustainable society is a goal shared around the world. Tackling environmental problems such as global warming and resource depletion will help achieve this goal, and corporations are increasingly expected to lead those efforts.
The Nippon Soda Group utilizes the water treatment technology, resource recycling technology, heavy metal removal technology, and other technologies developed over its long history, to come up with various environmental solutions and develop business. For sustainable plant protection, we are also contributing to the protection of the pine forests that are a feature of Japan’s natural heritage.
SDGs
Materiality
Contributing to the environmentally sound recycling of resources through chemistry (technological expertise)
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01
Steady supply of water resources
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02
Reduction of environmental burden caused by waste
KPI
① Volume of Water Contributed
Volume of water that can be treated with solid chlorine agents sold by Nippon Soda in FY 2024: 3.20 million metric tons
② Current Initiatives
In the field of waste treatment, at Nippon Soda we have developed and supply HIDION, a heavy metal fixing agent for fly ash treatment at waste incineration plants. Approximately 32.3 million metric tons1 of waste is treated annually in Japan, and approximately 1.20 million metric tons2 of fly ash is generated through the incineration process. The high quantities of lead and other heavy metals in this fly ash can pollute the environment when released as metal ions, and so by law, fly ash must undergo in solubilization treatment.
In addition to demonstrating excellent heavy metal fixing performance in this process, HIDION is highly safe to handle, and has therefore received wide acclaim and been used by many incineration plants across Japan for more than twenty years.
- 1, 2 Calculated based on the Ministry of the Environment’s “State of Discharge and Treatment of Municipal Solid Waste in FY2022 (March 28, 2024).”
Materiality
Achieving sustainable plant protection
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01
Protection of precious trees such as pines and cherry blossoms from harmful insects
KPI
① Current Initiatives:
Contribution to Pine Forest Protection and Contribution to Local Communities
Results in FY 2024
- 1. Supporting activities to protect national natural monuments: On a remote island off Okinawa Prefecture, a case of pine wilt was discovered for the first time three years ago. Since then, the damage has spread rapidly. On the island is a large, more than 250-year-old Okinawa pine that has been designated as a national natural monument. At the request of locals who wanted to protect the tree, the decision was made to use the trunk injection process as a means of pine wilt prevention. Two Nippon Soda employees observed the process and provided technical advice.
- 2. Technical education (pine): We hosted a training seminar to educate prefectural and municipal staff on how to control pine wilt in prefectures in the Chubu region, providing them with basic technical information. (Participants: Approx. 30)
- 3. Technical education (cherry): To educate people on how to protect cherry trees from the red-necked longhorn beetle, we dispatched one employee to prefectural pest control training seminar hosted by prefecture in the Kanto region to deliver on-site training. (Participants: Approx. 80)
