Panasonic established 2 corporate visions: "contributing to the realization of the ubiquitous network society " and "living in harmony with the global environment." While focusing on these 2 corporate visions, Panasonic Center functions as a "communication hub" where Panasonic can communicate the goals that it aspires to by introducing various products and services and where it can directly acquire feedback and requests from the users. There are Panasonic Centers in Tokyo and Osaka, but one in Beijing opened in 2007.

The environmental exhibition zone of the Panasonic Center Beijing has been renovated just in time for the "Panasonic China Environmental Forum 2009," so I went to take a look. I hope the photographs and video will give you a great overview!

The guests and the media who had gathered at the "Panasonic China Environmental Forum 2009," headed towards the Panasonic Center Beijing after the forum.

Panasonic Center Beijing, which serves as a showroom for Panasonic, is located quite close to The Ritz-Carlton, Beijing, the venue at which the forum took place. The Panasonic Center Beijing can be found inside the Shin Kong Place department store situated in the rapidly growing business area in the city, where the 2 main roads, Dawang and Jianguo intersect. The Shin Kong Place serves as a landmark for this area, and the Panasonic Center Beijing is located on the 5th and 6th floors of this building complex.

I also accompanied them to the center to take a look at the exhibition held there. Many people who had attended the forum were looking with keen interest at the specific examples of the initiatives announced in Panasonic’s declaration. I will gather more information about the exhibition and tell you about it in detail in the entries to come.

The forum, which was held at the ballroom of a very high profile hotel in Beijing, attracted a greater number media and was attended by many guests including dignitaries. I believe that Panasonic was successful in communicating how seriously committed it is to "becoming an environmentally conscious, socially contributing model company in China."

Panasonic announced its declaration to become a corporate role model for environmental contribution in China at the "Panasonic China Environmental Forum 2009." The third and final pillar in this respect is "employees."

In 2007, approximately 67,000 employees of the 74 group companies in China all signed the "eco activities declaration" and have committed themselves to leading an ecological lifestyle putting several activities into practice at the workplace, home, and in their communities. One of the main objectives of the declaration made at the forum this year involves further promoting and making such eco activities widespread throughout the local community.

For example, the Panasonic Center Beijing has been providing opportunities for children to come and learn about the environment since 2007 and plans to offer such educational classes at 80 facilities starting from June this year. The goal is to provide environmental education to 1 million children over a 10-year period.

Another example introduced was the tree-planting activities. Every year, Panasonic plants one tree for each of the 100,000 Panasonic China employees in various regions across China to absorb CO2 and to improve the natural environment. Panasonic aims to nurture 1 million trees in 10 years. Panasonic will celebrate its centennial in 2018, a decade from now, so I have been told that Panasonic would like to focus on the number "100" for the next 10 years.

The knowledge passed down to 1 million children and planting enough trees for 100,000 employees over 10 years - in addition to such efforts, if each and every one shares what they have learned and felt through their experiences with their friends and families, this would become a truly formidable strength.

The Panasonic Center Beijing, which serves as Panasonic’s showroom, has been renovated just in time for the forum. I will tell you more about it in my next entry.

These slides introduce Panasonic’s plans to educate 1 million children in the next 10 years.

Next, I would like to introduce the second pillar, that is "factories." This involves sharing the know-how and human resources with respect to factory environment management, which Panasonic has cultivated over the years, with other companies in China.

More specifically, Panasonic will make available its environmental training curricula to factory engineers from other companies in China. Panasonic will do so by sending trained Panasonic factory engineers as instructors to offer training focused on the environment.

Moreover, the major environmental indicators and 2010 targets as defined in China’s 11th Five-Year Plan have been reflected into Panasonic's internal targets. Panasonic remains committed to achieving these targets by fiscal year 2009. In addition, 49 out of all 55 manufacturing sites have already passed the clean production audit, which is the representative environmental certification system in China, and the remaining 6 sites are also scheduled to receive this certification by the end of this fiscal year. Panasonic aspires to use its advanced environmental management know-how to create a program that may be also useful to other industries in the future.

Panasonic's willingness to not only share its know-how with others, but to also dispatch instructors to train engineers is very impressive. This seems to be indicative of Panasonic's strong commitment to "do everything in their power" to help regardless of whether it is beneficial to its organization or not.

The actual training program starts with a focus on technologies that help reduce CO2 emissions because "reducing CO2 emissions not only directly alleviate energy issues, but it also helps reduce costs by minimizing energy waste, thereby leading to enhanced productivity."

At the "Panasonic China Environmental Forum 2009" held on May 19, Panasonic announced its declaration to become a corporate role model for environmental contribution in China. This has pushed Panasonic's declaration to becoming an "Environmentally Contributing Company in China" it made in 2007 to an even more aggressive level, and reflects its expanding commitment to the Chinese society. Using some slides as reference, Chairman Kisaka of Panasonic Corporation of China introduced its policy comprised of 3 main pillars, which are "products", "factories" and "employees". These pillars respectively respond to the "3 eco ideas" Panasonic is promoting globally, which are ‘eco ideas’ for Products, ‘eco ideas’ for Manufacturing and ‘eco ideas’ for Everybody, Everywhere. Now, let’s look at them closely one by one.

In this entry, I would like to concentrate on the first pillar, "products." In its "Declaration to Becoming an Environmentally Contributing Company in China" announced in 2007, Panasonic communicated its plans to make all its products 'green'. Since then, Panasonic has made efforts to improve environmental performances of the products sold in China, so that its products may acquire the environmental labeling promoted by the Chinese government. As a result of such efforts, nearly 80% of the new models that are part of these efforts for fiscal year 2008 have successfully acquired such labeling.

At the forum, Panasonic clearly stated its commitment to the enhancement of the energy-saving performances of each product, creating and storing energy, and energy management. Specific examples of such ideas are also on display at the "eco ideas HOUSE" within the Panasonic Center Tokyo, which opened this April.

At this year's forum, Panasonic conveyed its unwavering commitment to develop environmentally conscious products as well as the way their products should be in the near future. I believe Panasonic has succeeded in clearly communicating its commitment to various environmental issues to the government officials and the media members who had gathered in the forum.

Panasonic opened the "eco ideas HOUSE" within the Panasonic Center Tokyo this year. There, it introduced a system, which will nearly achieve zero CO2 emission, as a way to live in harmony with the environment. This system will make good use of the nature's bounty, enhance the energy-saving performances of various home electronics, and create and store energy with a combination of fuel cells, solar power, and accumulator batteries.

The first such forum was held in 2007, and the second such forum has been held this year. China is one of the regions that is strategically important to Panasonic. And Panasonic has been promoting the "China Eco Project," a group-wide three-year environmental management plan, since 2007. In September of the same year, Panasonic held the first "Matsushita Group China Environmental Forum 2007" and announced its "Declaration of Becoming an Environmentally Contributing Company in China." In this 2007 declaration, Panasonic identified specific environmental initiatives it would undertake in the following three years.

This year, the forum kicked off with a speech from Mr. Song Jian, Chairman of the China-Japan Friendship Association, on behalf of the organizers of the forum, followed by greetings from Mr. Yuji Miyamoto, Japanese Ambassador to China, and Mr. Li Ganjie, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People’s Republic of China. Every one of the speakers described today’s environmental problems as a top priority issue that affects the future of mankind and highly praised the environmental activities Panasonic has been committed to in China. Next, Mr. Fumio Ohtsubo the President of Panasonic Corporation addressed the guests. Then Mr. Toshiro Kisaka, the Chairman of the Panasonic Corporation of China, started to talk about the main theme of the forum, that is Panasonic's environmental policy. I will introduce Panasonic's new environmental activities more in detail in the following entries.

One of the things mentioned in these speeches was the deep relationship between Panasonic and China. The relationship dates back to 31 years ago, when the company's founder Konosuke Matsushita met with Mr. Deng Xiaoping, the Vice Premier at the time, and declared that Panasonic is "determined to help China modernize its electronics industry." In May 2008, which marked the 30th anniversary of this relationship, the President Hu Jintao of the People's Republic of China visited Panasonic's headquarters during his stay in Japan. President Hu Jintao expressed his appreciation for 30 years of support Panasonic has offered to China to help it modernize and develop its electronics industry. He also asked for continued support from Panasonic that focused on "environmental" contribution.

At this environmental forum, which was held after Panasonic unified its name last year, Panasonic announced its commitment to not only continue with its environmental activities, but also to further apply its environmental technologies and know-how in China, so that it may serve as an environmentally conscious, socially contributing model company in China. Please check back for my later entries to learn more about such activities.

Hi everyone! This is mino, one of the writers of this blog.

Actually, I am writing this entry from China. I came here to write about the "Panasonic China Environmental Forum 2009," which is taking place in Beijing on May 19. The forum was held to communicate about Panasonic's commitment in China to environmental issues, and how it is attempting to contribute to the local community. I will write more about it in the entries to come, so please look forward to them!

Panasonic China Environmental Forum 2009

Date: May 19, 2009 (Tues)
Venue: The Ritz-Carlton, Beijing, Panasonic Center Beijing
Organizers: Panasonic Corporation, Panasonic Corporation of China, China-Japan Friendship Association