It was the movie “An Inconvenient Truth” by a former vice president of the United States, Al Gore, which raised my awareness about global environmental issues and seriously made me consider that we need to take an action. As I age and became a parent myself, I began to constantly think about how I could make meaningful use of “my time left” and what I could leave behind for my children.

As symbolised by the SDGs adopted at the UN Summit in 2015 and “Paris Agreement” at the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP) which is responsible for discussing the international agreements on greenhouse gas mitigation, an international awareness of the significant and urgent issues on global environment is growing. However, there were many companies and organisations which did not take the necessary action, excusing themselves as calling such environmental actions as “propaganda,” which triggered me a profound sense of crisis.

However, as some big global companies have stareted to take painful and effective actions, even in the field of IT business venture which I am familiar with, people started to “take action”; a legendary venture capitalist, Mr. John Doerr, donated 150 billion yen to newly establish a sustainability-related department at Stanford University, being a green tech evangelist, and Mr. Bill Gates called for the establishment of a 130 billion yen fund named Breakthrough Energy.

As these “actions” stareted to give me a kick in the back, I came across the microalga, Galdieria sulphuraria.

Galdieria is a red alga which inhabits hot sulphur springs such as Kusatsu Onsen and has existed on the earth by a billion years ago. It survives in harsh environments such as high temperatures, high acidity, high concentrations of CO2 and in the presence of sulphur oxides (SOx) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). They grow autotrophically in the presence of light and grow heterotrophically with nutrients in the absence of light.

These characteristics enable industrial-level high cultivation efficiency as well as low-cost production.

Galdieria is able to selectively and throughly collect precious metals such as gold (Au) and palladium (Pd) from dilute metal solutions and adsorb on the cell surface, displaying higher performance than the existing technologies (ion exchange resins, activated charcoal, etc.).

n addition, the cell contents include a variety of nutrients and useful substances as is the case for the other microalgae, which can be applied as food, cosmetics, dyes and other products.

In other words, Galdieria has a potential to contribute and provide a holistic solution to globally significant issues such as improving the efficiency of precious metal recycling at urban mines, eliminating mercury damage at overseas gold mines, overcoming food problems and reducing CO₂ emissions.

We will challenge every day for realisation of a harmonious future among people, nature and the earth by harnessing the power of a unique microalga the mother earth has given a birth to.

At the same time, we aim to create an attractive and unprecedented corporate entity where each and every one of us can develop and flourish with a sense of responsibility and professionalism in each field.