Biodiversity plays an important role in supporting the natural environment. The various ecosystem services it generates, such as supplying resources, climate mitigation, cultural value, and water cycles, are essential to our lives. Yet at the same time, the rapid loss of biodiversity around the world is a cause for concern.

Established in 1992, the Kikkoman Group’s Environmental Philosophy, states that we will conduct “corporate activities keeping harmony with the environment.” Building on this philosophy, we have been including conservation and the sustainable use of biodiversity as an integral part of our corporate activities. Given our products’ use of water resources, a main focus for these has been water environment and coexistence with local communities. Going forward, we will promote activities that seek to identify impacts on natural capital and nature-related risks with a focus on biodiversity across the entire value chain, in addition to biodiversity conservation. Through these efforts we aim to ensure that the positive impacts of our business activities on biodiversity outweigh the negative, in turn helping to realize “Nature Positive,” in which nature recovers to beyond its 2020 state by 2030.

In FY2022, our group implemented a project using the LEAP approach^ⅰ to gain an overall picture of our group’s business and value chain’s dependence and impact on biodiversity. Following an initial assessment of our group’s business profile and key raw materials handled (soybeans, wheat, tomatoes, etc.) by ENCORE^ⅱ , we worked with external experts to examine these further. The results confirmed that initiatives in the areas of water resource use, raw material procurement, and local environmental protection were of particular importance. Looking ahead, we will organize opportunities and risks, consider how our response to them, and prepare for more detailed information disclosure.

^ⅰ LEAP approach: Guidance for private companies to assess their dependence and impact on nature from the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), an international organization that creates a framework for private companies and financial institutions to assess and disclose risks and opportunities related to natural capital and biodiversity. LEAP is an acronym for the following process:

・Locate: Identify contact points with nature
・Evaluate: Diagnose dependencies and impacts
・Assess: Assess risks and opportunities
・Prepare: Prepare to respond to and disclose risks and opportunities

^ⅱ ENCORE (Exploring Natural Capital Opportunities, Risks and Exposure) is a tool jointly-developed by the Natural Capital Finance Alliance (NCFA), an international network of financial institutions, the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Center (UNEP-WCMC), and others, with the aim of understanding the impact of private companies on nature and the extent of their dependence.