Social contribution activities
Environmental Preservation
Although the chemical industry is a major producer of CO2 emissions, it also has the technical capabilities to tackle that same issue on a fundamental level. As part of our social activities, we are always looking for ways to use Mitsui Chemicals technologies to resolve issues facing society, such as global warming and biodiversity.
Desert greening activities
Prompted by a suggestion from one of our employees, who asked if we could use Mitsui Chemicals products and technologies to help prevent the increasingly serious issue of desertification on the Chinese mainland, we set up a desert greening project in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China in mid-2007. Based on the results of experiments conducted in 2008, and interviews with the local community to assess their needs, we set ourselves the target of restoring an area of salt-damaged (alkaline) soil that local people had abandoned as unusable wasteland.
Providing that the land is properly managed to some extent and the necessary funding is made available, it is possible to “green” sandy soil (arid soil in an advanced state of desertification) by planting trees, fixing the sand for a certain period of time, supplying water and restricting access. There are many examples of both Chinese and overseas NGOs doing this successfully.
As we are yet to come up with effective methods of greening and utilizing salt-damaged soil however, large areas of land are still going to waste. Unlike ordinary sandy soil, it is extremely difficult to grow plants in highly alkaline soil (pH8-9) as it is hard and has poor drainage.
In an effort to tackle this difficult challenge, we set up a test site in the district of Baixingtu, in the outskirts of Tongliao in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, in April 2009. As the test site was designed to enable experiments to be managed all year round, we set about investigating three technical points, namely (1) developing soil improvement technologies, (2) utilizing Mitsui Chemicals materials, and (3) selecting appropriate tree species.
Since then, we have been experimenting with planting tress in a combination of different conditions, planting 17,000 trees in April 2009 and 1,300 in April 2010, in an effort to identify effective technologies. As part of our experiments in 2010, we tried growing seedlings from tips cut from the branches of sea buckthorn trees, with the aim of establish a continuous cycle of picking, growing, planting, nurturing and picking.
For technical investigations, we are also exploring a wide range of inexpensive materials that can be procured locally, to enable local residents to improve and utilize salt-damaged soil on an independent and sustainable basis in the future.
Participating in Wakayama Prefecture's Company Forest scheme
As part of its environmental activities, our affiliate Honshu Chemical Industry signed a Forest Conservation and Management Agreement with Wakayama Prefecture and Hidakagawa Town on September 7, 2010, with the aim of participating in Wakayama Prefecture's Company Forest conservation scheme.
As part of the Company Forest scheme, Wakayama Prefecture works in partnership with companies and other organizations to effectively harness the prefecture's rich natural environment and get local people involved in environmental preservation.
On November 13, Honshu Chemical Industry held a tree planting ceremony, as part of which employees and members of their families planted approximately 1,500 trees on a 1.32-hectare area of forestland in Hidakagawa (Hidakawa-gun, Wakayama prefecture). The forest was also given the official title “Hidakagawa Honshu Chemical Industry Forest”.
A sign for Hidakagawa Honshu Chemical Industry Forest
A group photo at the tree planting ceremony
