The Panasonic Group is involved in numerous social action programs in China as part of its concept that "a company is a public entity of society." In particular, with the rise in concern in China over recent years on environmental preservation and conserving of resources, Panasonic has changed its programs accordingly.
- Video Report by Ms Liu Ying in Panasonic Corporation of China, a correspondent of Panasonic News Portal
On April 12, 2013, the Panasonic Group in China held a kickoff meeting at the Dalad Banner (equivalent to a county) of Ordos City in Inner Mongolia, China, for the Panasonic China Public Forestation Project, which is promoted with the Dalad Banner Forestry Administration. The project will be undertaken next to a desert area, and is hoped to improve the local ecosystem and help prevent dust storms. An area of 600 mu, equivalent to 40 hectares, will be planted this year. This is almost exactly the same size as Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
- Director Zhou (left), Dalad Banner Forestry Administration, presenting a certificate to Regional Head for China and Northeast Asia Osawa
The kickoff event was attended by over one hundred executives and employees of the Panasonic Group in China, including PC Managing Executive Officer and Chairman & President of Panasonic Corporation of China (PCN) Hidetoshi Osawa and Panasonic Industrial Devices (Qingdao) Co., Ltd. (PIDQD) Managing Director Hiroyuki Tanaka.
Six hundred seedlings were planted consisting of three types of trees, including the Mongolian pine, with resistance to dryness and the ability to spread its roots wide and grow even in places with low moisture levels. The Forestry Administration of the Dalad Banner will continue to cooperate in the project. When the project is finished, it will create a public forest of over 100,000 trees.
The event was attended by officers from the Ordos Forestry Administration and the Dalad Banner Forestry Administration. Together they helped to plant a tree commemorating friendship between China and Japan, and prayed for the growth of the Panasonic China Public Forestation Project and the happiness of the people of China.
- Employees in the Panasonic Group companies in China planting seedlings
The Roots of Panasonic's Environmental Activities in China
The roots of Panasonic's environmental activities in China go back to May 2008, when Hu Jintao, at that time President of China, visited Panasonic's Head Office to express his gratitude for our company's contributions to China, and to state his hopes for further help with energy saving and the environment.
To meet these hopes, Panasonic held the Panasonic-China Environmental Forum 2009 in Beijing in May 2009, and declared it would be a model corporation for contributing to the environment in China. Over the following three years, seedlings equivalent in number to the company's employees were planted, environmental education was given by all companies in the group in China, plus environmentally friendly manufacturing was introduced to these companies.
Seedlings were planted in places such as Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Hebei, Henan, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Fujian, and Hong Kong by 68 Group companies in China, reaching 190,000 in number. Environmental education has also reached 470,000 children so far.
The Panasonic Group in China intends to continue to be active as a corporate citizen through these planting and environmental education activities.
- Xiaosong, the official mascot of the PCN Weibo account (Weibo is equivalent to Twitter in China), also came to lend his support to the event
