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Environmental Management
Environmental Sustainability Report 2005

Contribution to Environmental Protection through Products, Technologies and Services (5)

Nature protection, environment restoration, and hazardous substance treatment
Plant activity level diagnostic system
Various environment protective functions of forests have come into the limelight. It has been an important issue to maintain and grow forests and greenbelts and to utilize environment purification and public benefit functions of plants and their community. These functions are deeply involved with the activity level of plants and their community.

Kobe Steel has developed a plant activity level diagnostic system. This became possible through plant growing experiments using biotrons, by clarifying how infrared rays and visible images influence the plants and their communities.

The new system enables grasping the chronological change of plant growth. Also, appropriate maintenance, diagnosis, and management of plants and plant communities become possible. For example, withering can be avoided by detecting pests at early stages through analyzing the state of forests and rice paddies, as well as predicting the volume of the harvest.
Plant activity level diagnostic system



Artificial dry sand-making system
Earth Technica Co., Ltd. has developed the Hybrid Sand System, dry sand-making equipment, to respond to the shift in using artificial sand instead of natural sand in concrete from the standpoint of environmental protection. This enables the stable production of artificial sand of the same shape and size as natural sand. The new system costs 30% less than conventional equipment.

Earth Technica Co., Ltd. HP



Rooftop tree planting construction method using "Roof Soil" an ultralight natural soil
Shinko Kosan Kensetu Co., Ltd. offers a rooftop tree planting construction method using an ultra-light natural base material made of Roof Soil. Tree planting is possible on the rooftop with only 3 to 10 cm of natural soil. Rooftop tree planting has many benefits including CO2 absorption, prevention of the urban heat island effect by heat insulation and water evaporation functions, and CO2 reduction through improved air conditioning efficiency and energy saving. Also, it improves the landscape, offering a pleasing view.

* Roof Soil is a natural material made from the best quality humus peat dug from plateau at 3,500 meters above sea level in Sichuan province, China. It is an environment-friendly product, having good water permeability and drainage. Also, this lightweight soil contains no germs, pests or weeds and holds fertilizers well. It is insoluble in water due to its high aggregate structure and has a porosity of over 40%.




Construction machineries to respond to the noise control and IT function standard
Kobelco Construction Machinery, Co., Ltd. has been upgrading the functions of its hydraulic excavators for Japan, responding to the secondary control of exhaust gas in 2001 and 2002, and equipping the auto idling stop function as standard for the first time in the industry in 2003.

Version S, a newly developed hydraulic excavator model, passed the certification for super-low noise or low-noise machines and achieved the domestically required level of the second stage of the EU noise control directive which starts in 2006, by using new cooling fans and adding sound absorbents. Also, Version S is equipped with proprietary operation control system, Merit, which has IT functions as standard equipment. Operation costs are reduced, as the operation oil can be used for a longer time. Thus, further value was added to the product from various perspectives.

Kobelco Construction Machinery,
Co., Ltd. HP

Grand Beetle Series

Dynamic Acera SK 200