CSR

[ISO 26000 Core Subject] The Environment

The Fujikura Group aims to become a corporate group that is friendly to both people and the global environment. As a means to attain this goal, we have established and begun to apply the Group's guidelines on biodiversity conservation this fiscal year. Biodiversity refers to the diversity of ecosystems, species and genes. All creatures on Earth are directly or indirectly connected with and supported by each other based on biodiversity, which brings about many blessings such as rich ecosystems, and also supports our lives and daily living. Each and every employee of the Group is expected to be keenly aware of this fact and to conduct their business operations in line with the Group's guidelines on biodiversity conservation.

The Fujikura Group manages a range of green spaces within its premises, and as an effort to foster the use of these existing spaces, we plan to turn them into nature-rich parks open to local inhabitants. We have created a roadmap to implement this plan by overcoming various issues, including how to ensure the security and safety of the parks.

The Sakura Plant of Fujikura Ltd. participates in the Chiba network of companies for biodiversity conservation as part of the Fujikura Group biodiversity conservation activities. The network was founded on April 1, 2013 by the Chiba prefectural government to support companies in conducting biodiversity activities in a sustainable manner, and to contribute to achieving the Aichi Biodiversity Targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity by 2020. Companies participating in the network are implementing measures in collaboration with Chiba Prefecture and related support organizations.

In the network, 13 companies including Fujikura Ltd. and five organizations and universities, such as the NPO called "Chiba Satoyama Center" are participating (as of May 13, 2014).

The Fujikura-Kiba Millennium Woods, which we opened in Kiba, Koto-ku, Tokyo in November 2010, is full of living creatures. We began conducting surveys on the creatures concurrently with the opening of the bio-garden.
Specifically in the garden, we annually conduct biological research on the following eight items: (1) seasonal flowers; (2) grass and trees; (3) fruit; (4) birds in the bio-garden; (6) insects in the bio-garden; (6) fish; (7) waterweed; and (8) alien plants. As of May 2014, we have registered a total of 262 species as living creatures found in the garden.

In fiscal 2013, based on the Fujikura Group's guidelines on biodiversity conservation, similar surveys on living creatures started at other sites of Fujikura Ltd.

In November 2010, we opened the Fujikura-Kiba Millennium Woods in the center of Tokyo, an area where few places exist in which people can enjoy nature. For this bio-garden, the Fujikura Group CSR Committee carried out in-house recruitment of "supporters," whose role would be to help protect and develop the garden. To employees selected as supporters from among the many applicants, we regularly send the garden's seasonal newsletter.

Fujikura-Kiba Millennium Woods is a biotope garden (bio-garden) located adjacent to the head office of Fujikura Ltd in November 2010. We created this nature-rich garden for local communities in response to requests for greening that were made to us by local schools and local inhabitants and after receiving special support from local administrative agencies. The bio-garden extends over 2,200 square meters and consists of two ponds connected by a brook, a floating island, and a promenade. It is designed to reproduce a part of the rich forest that existed on the Musashino Terrace several hundred years ago. We named the garden the "Fujikura-Kiba Millennium Woods" in an effort to protect this natural reproduction long into the future in cooperation with local inhabitants.

The head office of Fujikura Ltd. supported the municipal government in measuring trees in Fujikura-Kiba Millennium Woods. The government conducted this activity as a step to formulate its greening guidelines. In the biotope garden, ten participants including students and officials dispatched from the government measured the height and volume of trees in 16 locations, spending as many as 11 hours from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

We feel very happy that our bio-garden, where we are protecting the natural environment in cooperation with local residents, has contributed to the municipality's nature conservation activities.

We held a seminar on biotopes in Fujikura-Kiba Millennium Woods on November 23, 2013, with the help of employees who volunteered to participate in the event, following the one held in May of the same year. The seminar began at 10:00 a.m., avoiding the coldness of the morning. About 50 nature lovers, including couples as well as parents and children, participated in the seminar.

Participants made comments, including "The colored leaves are really beautiful," "I visited the bio-garden when it was opened. During these three years, the garden became richer in nature," "I often passed by the garden, but hesitated to enter it. Today I entered it for the first time. It is really wonderful," "I stop by the garden everyday when I go shopping. The garden has a healing effect," and "In the neighborhood, there are no places where you can see colored leaves that are more beautiful than those in the garden." A child and his parents who were looking into a pond in the garden were surprised to hear that there are several thousand fish in the pond, though many of them were hiding behind rocks on the day due to the low water temperature. The seminar in fall was ended after 3:00 p.m., before the sun went down.

(Seminar held in May)

(Seminar held in November)