Thanh Hoa, March 23^rd – More than 100 employees of Panasonic in Vietnam had participated in the company’s Eco Relay Tree planting program at Xuan Lien Natural Reserve, Thanh Hoa to plant and donate 15,000 trees. The annual social responsibility activity with employee's participation aim to realize the company vision of bringing wellness lives to people and contribute to the sustainable development of the country. Besides, specialized forest planting will contribute to the promotion of carbon credits as in the direction under the commitment of carbon emission reduction.

From 2013 until now, Panasonic has planted and donated more than 270,000 trees in 10 provinces and cities, with the active participation of employees to convey the message "Panasonic for a Green Vietnam".

This year, more than 100 Panasonic employees traveled hundreds of kilometers to the specialized forest area in Xuan Lien Nature Reserve, collaborating with authorities and local people to plant 15,000 trees,including Parashorea chinensis, Hopea mollissima, Vatica philastraena, Magnolia fordiana, Magnolia glauca BI. These are large timber native tree species that have value in restoring impoverished forest land and contribute to the development of specialized forests to improve watershed protection, absorb CO2 and against climate change.

More than 100 “sustainable ambassadors” of Panasonic participated in the tree planting program

With the support from the Management Board, Panasonic has contributed total of 33 hectares of forestry in two recent years. In 2023, Panasonic planted 13,000 trees in annual the Eco Relay program, and another 10,000 trees in another program “Live Wellness Contribute Green” at Xuan Lien Nature Reserve.

Eco Relay is the global initiative of Panasonic aim at inspiring each employee to be a “sustainable ambassador”, to convey the message of environment protection and the inspiration of sustainable development to communities. Besides planting new trees, Panasonic's members had offered memorable experiences to re-visit and take-care of their planted trees in last year program to understand more about the importance of forestry development and protection. They also joined together in various meaningful activities to support local community such as: Environmental and STEM learning class for students; Work on organic waste treatment for local people …

This year, Panasonic planted 15.000 more, added up to 33 hectares of forest at Xuan Lien contributed by the company

“In 2022, Panasonic Holding declared our VISION as our commitment, to reduce over 300mil Tons of CO2, equivalent to 1% of global CO2 emissions, in whole value chain for our whole global business before 2050 to create IMPACT on global warming. But in Vietnam, the environment protection is much more critical and urgent matter, as you can see that there are a lot of disasters in our country in recent years.” Mr. Marukawa Yoichi, Director of Panasonic Vietnam shared.

“Panasonic has declared our new vision towards next 50 years as our passion and solid commitment, to further contribute to the Wellness life of Vietnamese people and sustainable development of Vietnam, through our business growth and SCR activities. However, the power and impact will be quite limited with just by only 1 enterprise. We need to increase more awareness, and invite more companies, and more Vietnamese people especially young generation to create impact on green activities. That's why we dedicate ourselves to organize the tree planting program for more than 10 years, while offering opportunities for employees to "relay" spirit of protecting environment for a Green Vietnam and inspire to communities to create green impact together.”

This year, Panasonic continue choosing to plant in the natural reserve of  Xuan Lien, Thanh Hoa as this area plays a very important role for its location in the upper forested watershed of the Chu River, covering an large area including natural forests, rivers and lakes that plays the role of protecting water sources for domestic use and irrigation for millions of people in Thanh Hoa province and surrounding areas, while also keeps underwater, preventing erosion, landslides, and reduce floods. Furthermore, Thanh Hoa has being one of six critical provinces participating in the forest carbon credits sale as part of Emission Reductions Payment Agreements in the North Central region, signed on 2020 between World Bank and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. 2023 marked a significant milestone for the forestry sector as Vietnam successfully sold 10.3 million forest carbon credits (equivalent to 10.3 million tonnes of CO2).

Panasonic’s representatives collaborated with local authority and people to plant trees

Mr. Vi Manh Hung, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Van Xuan commune, Thuong Xuan district, Thanh Hoa province shared: "Activities carried out by Panasonic help raise awareness of environmental protection for local residents, while inspire and provide knowledge to local future generations to contribute more to the sustainable development.”

During 2 days field trips, Panasonic’s members has participated in several CSR activities for the local community including:

- Tree re-visiting and monitoring: participants had opportunity to visit and taking care of last year’s planted trees in the nature reserve and at neighboring Bản Mạ village and Tiến Sơn village
- Eco-learning Class for local students: more than 100 students have learned more about the topic of Sustainable Energy through an interesting Environmental education combining STEM interactive session.
- Organic waste treatment workshop: local residents had been shared by expert on how to make Eco Enzyme, produced from the fermentation of fresh kitchen waste, sugar, and water, which could be used in sustainable agriculture and gardening.

Besides the Eco relay, another tree planting program named “Live Wellness Contribute Green” has just completed planting 250,000 trees in its second year, add up to total of 605,000 trees under the program since 2022, with active participation of its customers and business partners, to realize the next 50 year’s Wellness vision.

Some of the memorable activities of Panasonic’s members in the two day program:

Panasonic’s members had travelled hundreds of kilometers to the heart of the specialized forest

Exciting of participants to contribute to environmental protection

The program brought exciting experiences to local students in STEM learning class

Provide workshop to local people on utilizing organic waste at home with expert's instruction