Woodland of Hitachi High-Tech Science Receives Highest JHEP Certification Ranking Following Renewal

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Tokyo, December 23, 2020 – Hitachi High-Tech Corporation (President and CEO: Masahiro Miyazaki / Hitachi High-Tech) today announced that it has renewed and received the highest rating of AAA at JHEP certification*¹ for the "Woodland of Hitachi High-Tech Science" project at the Hitachi High-Tech Science Corporation (President: Sukehiro Ito / Hitachi High-Tech Science) Fuji Oyama Works (Sunto-gun, Shizuoka). The certification is awarded by Ecosystem Conservation Society Japan (President: Hobun Ikeya), which quantitatively evaluates and certifies efforts to contribute to the conservation and recovery of biodiversity. The first certification renewal after five years has resulted in the company rising from its initial rank of AA+ to the highest rank of AAA.

Hitachi High-Tech Group has identified priority issues facing society that we as a company must strive to resolve through our business activities, in accordance with the SDGs, a set of shared international rules and targets to be achieved in the 21st century. As one of these priority issues, it has identified a theme of "Contributing to a sustainable global environment", and now promoting environmental activities by setting concrete targets for “Realizing a decarbonized society”, “Realizing a recycling-oriented society”, and “Realizing a society in harmony with nature”. The "Woodland of Hitachi High-Tech Science" project, for which this certification was renewed, received its first JHEP certification in 2015. It is located at the site surrounding the R&D facility at Hitachi High-Tech Science's Fuji Oyama Works. The approximately 44,000-square-meter woodland area has been regenerated over the course of 50 years as a place where people coexist with nature in order to restore the area's indigenous natural ecosystem, with the aim of realizing a society in harmony with nature.

The criteria for maintaining and renewing the JHEP certification are to carry out continuous planned activities and to consistently yield results. Since FY2015, the "Woodland of Hitachi High-Tech Science" project has been cultivated as a broad-leaved forest using native plants, including regeneration of Japanese pampas grassland to facilitate the growth of a variety of native wild flora, and the removal of non-native plants. In FY2018, a total of 97 people, including students from local elementary and junior-high schools, participated in tree-planting activities. Seedlings of the existing native species of sawtooth oak and jolcham oak were planted, as well as Japanese maple, Japanese snowbell, Japanese beautyberry, mountain cherry and Japanese dogwood seedlings, in an effort to regenerate woodlands with a diverse variety of trees. These continued efforts to preserve and restore biodiversity were evaluated very highly, leading to the "Woodland of Hitachi High-Tech Science" project being awarded an AAA rating upon renewal of the JHEP certification, the highest ranking possible.

Hitachi High-Tech Group is encouraged by this JHEP certification renewal to continue to strive for creating “a rich future for both humans and nature”, working together with local communities and employees to realize a society in harmony with nature.

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JHEP certification: JHEP certification system compares biodiversity values for a habitat “in the past before a project” and “in the future after a project.” It then performs an evaluation and assigns a rank based on the difference between the two values and certifies habitats. JHEP is the only certification system in Japan to demonstrate that a project either does not reduce the amount and quality of natural habitat (suffers no net loss of habitat value) or improves the habitat (provides a net gain of habitat value)

Biodiversity Conservation Activities website

• https://www.hitachi-hightech.com/global/en/company/sustainability/environment/bio/index.html

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