Caring for the Earth
Conservation of natural capital
Our lives are intricately supported by various benefits brought to us by natural capital such as food and water (ecosystem services). The business activities of the Calbee Group are deeply involved in agriculture, and under our corporate philosophy of “harnessing nature’s gifts,” we want to make sustainable global environment by understanding process and identifying risk and opportunity that depend on and impact natural capital.
Natural capital: The capital (stocks) formed by nature, such as forests, soil, water, air, and biological resources.
Excerpt from the Annual Report on the Environment, Sound Material-Cycle Society and Biodiversity in Japan 2024, Ministry of the Environment.
Main initiatives
Sustainable procurement of raw ingredients: Natural capital for the future
The Calbee Group both depends on and impacts nature in the form of natural capital throughout its supply chain. Calbee’s Potato Chips products are dependent on nature for raw materials, such as potatoes and palm oil, as well as the fuel and water used in the production process. Our business activities also have an impact on the environment, including the use of pesticides and fertilizers in potato cultivation, the use of plastics made from petroleum resources, land development, and greenhouse gas emissions.
There are a range of challenges associated with the supply chain of raw ingredients, which are heavily dependent on nature’s gifts.
They include the excessive use of resources, loss and degradation of biodiversity resulting from development of areas where our ingredients are grown and greenhouse gas emissions from forest and land clearing.
We are striving to address and deal with these challenges.
The Calbee Group is closely connected to nature, and many of the themes that we prioritize regarding materials are also associated with nature.
In terms of the materiality of “Progress to develop sustainable agriculture” and “Caring fot the Earth” we are cultivating and developing potato varieties that are resistant to climate change, analyzing soil in fields that differ depending on the soil type and conditions, and proposing appropriate fertilizers to contracted producers to enable greater potato harvests.
To address environmental and human rights issues associated with palm oil and paper, we pursue sustainable procurement by expanding our use of RSPO certified palm oil and FSC certified paper.
The connection between Calbee’s business and natural capital
In recent years, there has been a shift in the flow of global finances to nature-positive outcomes. Therefore, an increasing number of companies have made disclosures that are aligned with the framework of the TNFD in order to report and act on their nature-related risks, opportunities, dependencies, and impacts.
The Calbee Group is in the process of developing a roadmap that is aligned with the official version of the TNFD framework that was announced in September 2023. The roadmap is scheduled to be disclosed in 2025.
Climate change and biodiversity are two sides of the same coin.
Based on our corporate philosophy, we will work to balance climate change countermeasures with the conservation of the natural capital.
In our efforts to conserve natural capital, we identify dependencies and impacts at the points of contact with natural capital, address risks and opportunities with partners in the value chain, and propose new value.
RSPO: Acronym for the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, a non-profit membership organization established by WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) and stakeholders in the palm oil industry (manufacturers, retailers, environmental organizations, etc.)
TNFD：Acronym for the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures.