Activities to Conserve Nature for Future Generations

Promoting communication through collaboration with retailers and municipal governments

Kao is raising environmental conservation awareness within employees and communities by assisting the establishment of foundations promoting efforts to protect and nurture greenery in communities both inside and outside Japan.

Understanding local nature and culture through the Wakayama Plant's Corporate Afforestation project

All across Japan, municipal governments and corporations are working together on forest protection programs. In 2007, Kao decided to undertake a "Corporate Afforestation" project in Wakayama Prefecture. This project focuses on the upper reaches of the Kinokawa River, which is the source of all the water utilized at Kao's Wakayama Plant, the largest of Kao's production facilities in Japan. In addition to the Kao Forest Kimino project, which has been going since 2007, we have been working on forest conservation initiatives at Kao Forest Oishi since 2017.

An employee's children take care of a local Japanese nutmeg sapling at home

Employees and their family members plant home-grown maple saplings (Kao Forest Oishi)

At Kao Forest Oishi, we took on a 0.8-hectare plot of neglected mountainous land in Wakayama Prefecture. Together with the local forestry association, we then cleared and prepared the land for planting. In order to protect the genetic makeup of the local trees, we collected saplings native to the area and had our employees cultivate them at home before relocating them to the forest. In 2018, we planted 67 saplings that came from 8 different species. Our employees and their families will continue to work hand in hand with Kao overseas trainees, retired employees and the forestry association to promote forest conservation activities in the two Kao forests.

Implementing the FURUSATO Environmental Conservation Project in Northern Thailand

Kao engaged in the FURUSATO Environmental Conservation Project starting in 2012, in collaboration with the Organization for Industrial, Spiritual and Cultural Advancement (OISCA) to combat the issues of deforestation and soil degradation in Northern Thailand.

Government officials, Thai Kao Group staff members, the local community and neighborhood schoolchildren attended an afforestation event Kao hosted as the first round of the project. A total of 42,500 trees were planted in nearly 35 hectares of the land through reforestation and forest protection activities over the past five years and they were properly managed with support from local residents.

Starting from 2019, Kao moved forward with activities including crop production utilizing the reforested land and initiatives to help the local residents improve living standard and technology in the second round of the project. The afforestation activity also started in another area at the request of the local community. (Activity concluded in 2022)

Thai Kao employees participating in reforestation activities

Environmental education activities for local residents

Promoting Eco

Promoting Eco

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