Contributing to Global Environmental ProtectionEfforts to Protect Water Resources at Our Production Sites, 2024

The Chugai Pharmaceutical Group regards the conservation of the global environment as a crucial foundation supporting all business activities, and actively promotes efforts to minimize its impact on the global environment.

Water is not only an important raw material for pharmaceutical production, but also an indispensable resource for a sustainable society. In addition to reducing the amount of water used in our production activities and managing wastewater, the Chugai Pharmaceutical Group aims for our water source conservation activities through forest maintenance at production sites to not only minimize the impact of our company’s production activities on the global environment, but also to contribute to the conservation of abundant water resources used jointly with the people living in the watershed area.

In 2024, in Kawanehoncho, Shizuoka Prefecture, the water source for our Fujieda Plant, employees of the Fujieda Plant and their families carried out shrub¹ removal and maintenance work on September 7 with the cooperation of the NPO Earth and Future Environment Fund and the guidance of the NPO Kawane Raifu. On November 17, in addition to tree thinning work², we held a woodworking experience, which included a workshop to paint wooden eggs made from thinned wood.

In Yokoze-cho, Chichibu-gun, Saitama Prefecture, the water source for our Ukima Plant, forest thinning work was carried out on October 5, 2024, under the Saitama Prefecture Forest (Mori) Creation Agreement⁴ signed in April 2023. Due to light rain on the day of the event, the planned activities with employees and their families were scaled back and were carried out with a small group of people experienced in tree thinning under the guidance of the Saitama Prefectural Agriculture and Forestry Public Corporation. 

Furthermore, in April 2024, we signed an agreement, the Water Source Eco Project W-eco’p⁵, with the Yokohama City Waterworks Bureau (Shuichi Yamaoka, Director General, Yokohama City Waterworks Bureau), where our research base, Chugai Life Science Park Yokohama, is located.

In our business activities, the Chugai Pharmaceutical Group uses water with care and releases it back into nature in a clean state. By continuing with efforts to maintain the forests that nurture clean water, we will contribute to building a society in symbiosis with nature.

For more details on our biodiversity conservation initiatives, please click here.
https://www.chugai-pharm.co.jp/english/sustainability/environment/biodiversity.html

1. Shrubs: Short trees with underdeveloped trunks

2. Tree thinning: Work designed to prevent forests from becoming overgrown, leading them back to health by cutting down certain trees to maintain appropriate density. Thinning allows sunlight to reach the individual trees, while also encouraging the growth of short trees, leading to a healthier forest. By carrying out activities such as tree planting, pruning, undergrowth clearing, and thinning, we can preserve healthy forests with water source recharge function³.

3. Water source recharge function: When trees are firmly rooted in the ground, rainwater does not immediately flow out of the forest, but percolates into the ground (soil) and slowly flows out as groundwater. By carrying out activities such as tree planting, pruning, undergrowth clearing, and thinning, we can preserve healthy forests with water source recharge functions.

4. To protect and nurture the forests, which are the common property of the residents of Saitama Prefecture, companies and organizations engaged in forestation activities, municipalities providing activity sites, and the Saitama Prefectural Government form agreements and collaboratively carry out forest creation initiatives.

5. An initiative by the Yokohama City Waterworks Bureau in collaboration with companies and organizations to cultivate the water source forests owned by the city of Yokohama in the village of Doshi, Yamanashi Prefecture. Its purpose is to maintain rich forests that create clean water and pass these resources on to future generations.

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