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  • Yoriyuki Yamada among the green landscaping of Kajima’s office in Tokyo

    01Yoriyuki Yamada among the green landscaping of Kajima’s office in Tokyo

  • Bees are part of Kajima’s biodiversity action plan

    02Bees are part of Kajima’s biodiversity action plan

  • Bees target blossoms and other plants

    03Bees target blossoms and other plants

  • Oasis 21 park in downtown Nagoya

    04Oasis 21 park in downtown Nagoya

  • Yamada spots his bees in the treetops

    05Yamada spots his bees in the treetops

  • Kajima’s iPhone app recognises the sounds of birds, frogs and crickets

    06Kajima’s iPhone app recognises the sounds of birds, frogs and crickets

  • Yamada maps the bees’ flight

    07Yamada maps the bees’ flight

  • Kajima staff hold meetings in the atrium

    08Kajima staff hold meetings in the atrium

  • Greenery has transformed Kajima

    09Greenery has transformed Kajima

  • Yamada opens a hive containing 10,000 bees

    10Yamada opens a hive containing 10,000 bees

  • School children help to make honey

    11School children help to make honey

  • The honeycomb

    12The honeycomb

Business

Environment

Report

The buzz driver— Global

Preface

Kajima, one of Japan’s largest engineering firms, built the country’s first concrete dam and nuclear reactor. Now it’s at the forefront again, this time in the field of urban biodiversity. We meet the man who sees the future in the birds and the bees. Name: Yoriyuki Yamada Employer: Kajima Job: Head of biodiversity

Conservation, Urban biodiversity, Yoriyuki Yamada

Sustainable growth

Yoriyuki Yamada CV

1968: 14 November born in Chiba, Japan
1992: Graduates from Chiba University, joins Kajima
2002-04: Attends the University of Pennsylvania for a masters degree in landscape architecture
2008: Becomes head of the biodiversity committee at Kajima’s global environment office, receives Japan Society of Civil Engineers’ environmental award
2009: Launches Kajima’s honeybee project in Tokyo
2010: Unveils Kajima’s vision for a sustainable city, launches its Biodiversity Town website

Kajima

Founded in 1840 by Iwakichi Kajima as a carpentry business, Kajima is one of the largest of Japan’s engineering and construction firms. The€14.5bn-revenue company, based in Tokyo, has more than 8,600 employees working at offices in 20 countries, and designs and builds office towers, bridges, dams, airports and nuclear reactors. In ENR magazine’s annual survey of the world’s 225 top contractors, Kajima ranked 24th in 2009. The company has a track record of firsts in Japan: it built the country’s first western-style building in 1860, first concrete dam in the 1920s and first nuclear reactor in the 1950s. Five years ago, Kajima became the first publicly listed Japanese company to draw up a biodiversity conservation plan. The company later launched a research programme to assess how local ecosystems in cities work.

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