Home > About Us > Corporate Social Responsibility > Sustainability Report > Sustainability Report 2009 > Cooperation with the Local Community

Cooperation with the Local Community

The Kobe Steel Group takes a cooperative approach on environmental issues with the local community. We support environmental activities, maintain communications, add greenery where possible inside and around our plants, and run activities to enhance local neighborhoods and keep them clean. We also accept overseas trainees and work in other ways to promote international cooperation.

Supporting Environmental Activities

The Kobelco Natural Environment Conservation Charitable Trust Fund and the Kobelco Environment Creation Fund were set up in 2001 to support people and groups involved in environmental conservation activities. These funds are directed beyond the Kobe Steel Group of companies, and provide support for a wide range of conservation efforts at community level.

The Kobelco Natural Environment Conservation Charitable Trust Fund is for the support of environmental conservation activities undertaken in Hyogo Prefecture. In fiscal 2008 it assisted a total of 37 different projects, including conservation of rural landscapes, environmental studies, encounters with nature, and forestry volunteering.

The Kobelco Environment Creation Fund was set up to support relatively large-scale environmental conservation activities with greater future vision. In fiscal 2008 it was used to fund international cooperation efforts in forestry regeneration in Mongolia, which were undertaken by the Hyogo Environmental Advancement Association, a private foundation.


Main Activities Assisted by Kobelco Natural Environment Conservation Charitable Trust Fund in fiscal 2008

Organization assisted	Outline of activities
Tamon Higashi Junior High School Eco School Club	Activities to restore traditional rural environment; eco-farming; green curtains for school walls, etc.
Wildlife Research Society	Creating environments to promote Gifu butterflies
Miki Naturalists Society	Protection and conservation of local endangered plant variety.
Stork Wetlands Network	Restoring and reintroducing wetlands as feeding sites for storks.
Kishin Line Community Rape Flower Project	Cultivating rape for oil on 6,000 sq m of unused farmland.
Association for Nature and Culture	Management and conservation of Inagawa natural woodland; organizing nature appreciation events and wildlife surveys.
Kanegasaka Park Organizing Committee	Natural environment conservation activities such as planting cherry, maple and azalea in Kanegasaka Park.

Measures to Promote Biodiversity

All plants and works have created green spaces and planted areas within their perimeters and these have become the habitats of insects and small animals.

The biotope of the Nadahama Science Square that is next door to the Shinko Kobe Power Station has trees full of fruit and ponds full of fish and is visited by many species of wild birds and ducks. Local school children benefit from being able to observe wildlife in its habitat.

Nature observation at biotope

Cooperation with the Local Community

Shinko Kobe Power Inc. in Kobe supplies steam heat from its power generation plant to three sake breweries in the Nishigo area. Nishigo is one of the five areas renowned for sake brewing in Kobe and Nishinomiya. Supplying steam from power generation to replace the breweries' individual boilers helps save energy in the local community.

Steam generator

International Cooperation

Utilizing its broad experience in the environmental and energy fields, the Kobe Steel Group promotes international cooperation by providing technical training to overseas trainees.


International Cooperation

Company/plant	Type of activity	Recipient country/ies	Related organizations
Kobe Works, Shinko Kobe Power Inc.	Training for monitoring acid rain in Southeast Asia, visiting facilities (power station etc.), training on coal-powered electricity generation, etc.	Cambodia, Myanmar, China, Laos, South Korea, Vietnam, India	Japan International Cooperation Agency JICA, Japan Coal Energy Center JCOAL, Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship AOTS
Kakogawa Works	Study tour on measures for the proper management and reduction of environmental impact of chemical substances	Taiwan	-
Kobelco Research Institute	Technology transfer for measuring and analyzing dioxins	Thailand	New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization NEDO

	Topics

Participating in Energy-Saving Diagnosis Project in India

Kobe Steel joined other steel companies and the Japan Iron and Steel Federation in sending representatives to an energy-saving diagnostic tour of the Indian steel industry. This was a project of the Steel Task Force of the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (APP) with the purpose of spreading Japanese energy-saving technology for the steel industry.

On 11 February 2009 Kobe Steel representatives headed a team of experts on a visit to Tata Steel's Jamshedpur Works, where they made a visual inspection of the plant and held meetings with counterparts for the three-day diagnosis.

Measures to spread energy-saving technology are attracting attention in new international frameworks based around a sectoral approach.

Inspecting steelworks