Our Initiatives to Achieve Social Sustainability Through Open Innovation

We are currently facing various social and environmental challenges such as climate change, increasing natural disasters, an aging population, rapid infrastructure aging and resource and energy issues. Moreover, these challenges are becoming increasingly complex, intertwined with each other, and difficult to address through the efforts of individual companies or government initiatives alone, given the advanced nature of our social and economic structures.
The OYO Group has been actively pursuing comprehensive solutions in response to these challenges. In our mid-term management plan, "OYO Jump18" established in 2018, we emphasized our intention to collaborate with companies and institutions both within and outside the Group, including those in different industries. Furthermore, in our current mid-term management plan, "OYO ADVANCE 2023," we have formulated an innovation strategy centered on digital transformation (DX) and are driving business service reforms based on the premise of co-creation with other companies, government entities, and universities.
Currently, governments and companies worldwide are working on various initiatives to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. To accomplish these SDGs, it is essential to create solutions to address these challenges through open innovation that transcends industry and organizational boundaries. On this page, we will introduce some of our initiatives to address the social and environmental challenges and work toward achieving the SDGs through open innovation.

Disaster Prevention Consortium "CORE"

Cross-industry cooperation

Our company, along with 14 other companies, including Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co., Ltd., established the Disaster Prevention Consortium "CORE" in November 2021 (now joined by 57 companies). Recognizing the increasing and intensifying natural disasters due to climate change, the consortium aims to fuse technologies across industry boundaries, accelerate and promote new disaster prevention and mitigation efforts in line with the "Fundamental Plan for National Resilience". This includes the creation and market development of new services.
As part of CORE's subcommittee activities, we are currently leading the development of the "Real-time Hazard Map" in collaboration with Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co., Ltd., SECOM Co., Ltd., and PASCO Corporation. The Real-time Hazard Map utilizes real-time information from disaster prevention IoT sensors, social media networks (SNS), as well as AI for capturing signs and conditions of disasters from existing security cameras and other sources. This system allows residents and businesses to experience the arrival of disasters in real-time, aiming to achieve "zero evacuation failures" and minimize damage.

Collaboration agreement on disaster prevention community development with Hayama Town, Kanagawa Prefecture

Public-private partnership

Due to the impacts of climate change and other factors, the damages incurred from heavy rains are increasing nationwide. The town of Hayama in Kanagawa Prefecture has serious concerns regarding landslides and soil erosion on its steep slopes. To protect residents from such natural disasters, we signed a cooperation agreement with the town of Hayama and initiated empirical research to establish a new disaster prevention system. We have installed and are running our "Slope Movement Detection Sensors" and "Sediment Disaster Hazard Monitoring System" to verify the effectiveness of early detection of the signs of soil erosion and establish optimal methods to inform residents of evacuation actions based on the detected information regarding the premonitions.

Participation in the "30by30" Alliance, an industry-government-private coalition for biodiversity

Industry-government-private coalition

Our company is committed to the "30by30" goal to conserve over 30% of the land and sea as natural ecosystems by 2030.
We have joined the "30by30 Alliance for Biodiversity" and support the international goal of stopping and reversing biodiversity loss by conserving over 30% of the land and sea as healthy ecosystems. The "30by30 Alliance for Biodiversity" was established to achieve the domestic goals of the 30by30 initiative, bringing together voluntary cooperation from the government, industry, and private sectors, including the Ministry of the Environment.
Our company has been conducting ongoing research and studies on ecosystem changes in the dam and river basin areas at our "OYO Bionomical Engineering Institute." They provide consulting services for impact assessments and countermeasures related to natural environments during infrastructure development. They also actively engage in biodiversity conservation activities through their core business, such as surveys and ecological management of exotic fish species using environmental DNA, non-destructive testing technology for assessing tree health, and the dissemination of dryland afforestation technology in Central Asia.
Leveraging the latest technology and knowledge accumulated through these efforts to conserve biodiversity, our company is committed to contributing to the achievement of the domestic 30by30 goals and the sustainable development of society through our participation in this alliance.

Co-creation Lab

Industry-government-private coalition

With increased climate change, frequent natural disasters, the transformation of the economy and industry through digital technology, and a shift in lifestyles due to the pandemic, our surrounding environment is rapidly changing. On the other hand, the complexities of social and economic structures mean that the impact of natural disasters now ripples across multiple facets of society, signifying that we have entered an era where localized responses can no longer solve the problems.
In light of these societal transformations, we recognize the need to evaluate and analyze matters from various perspectives and develop integrated problem-solving approaches; to do this, our company launched the "Co-Creation Lab" in April 2022. The Co-Creation Lab operates with a research structure centered around open innovation, collaborating with university research institutions, and aims to develop solutions to implement in society.

Research topics

OYO&Hitachi Underground visualization service

Cross-industry cooperation

In collaboration with Hitachi, Ltd., our company has improved the "Underground Visualization Service" aimed at water / sewage / gas / electricity / telecommunications companies, infrastructure operators, construction and design companies, and introduced it as a new on-demand cloud service. This service accurately visualizes and centrally manages information about underground facilities such as gas pipelines and water supply pipes, including their locations and dimensions. It provides vital information needed for underground excavation work. The improvement to this technology, building on the evaluation and verification of underground radar surveys conducted thus far, further improves the accuracy of analyses and enables on-demand provision of buried material information, leading to increased efficiency in planning, designing, and executing extensive pipeline installations and upgrades, as well as reducing the risk of damage to buried pipes and delays in project timelines. This will significantly upgrade the maintenance and management of social infrastructure.

OYO&Backcasting Technology Co., Ltd. Decarbonization and Sustainable Community Development

Cross-industry cooperation

Japan has declared its goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and has set reduction targets for greenhouse gas emissions of at least 46%, ideally 50% by 2030, compared to the levels in 2013.
Furthermore, to achieve a carbon-neutral society by 2050, the "Act on Promotion of Global Warming Countermeasures" was revised in 2021, and a roadmap was developed to create at least 100 "carbon-neutral regions" ahead of schedule by 2030 as part of the efforts toward regional decarbonization.
Japan currently faces various complex challenges threatening regional sustainability, including a declining and aging population, deteriorating regional finances, aging infrastructure, and an increase in natural disasters. To achieve a carbon-neutral, resource-circulating, and decentralized society, it is essential to simultaneously address these challenges.
Our company and Backcasting Technology Co., Ltd are combining our expertise, including our potential assessment technology for renewable energy, probability calculation methods for disaster risks associated with global warming, various databases concerning demographics, hazards, infrastructure, and Backcasting Technology Co., Ltd consulting services in greenhouse gas reduction and backcasting methodology for designing future scenarios. Together, we aim to develop solutions for achieving decarbonization and sustainable regional development.