Environmental Communication - Social Contribution and Environmental Awareness

• Action guideline and main activities
• "Household eco-account book" initiative
• Plastic shopping bag reduction campaign
• Environmental Volunteer Activities
• LE Expert Accreditation System

In 1998, we launched the Love the Earth Citizens' Campaign (LE Campaign) targeting our employees in Japan and their families. This initiative was based on the then President's idea that Panasonic's employees should themselves act as citizens who are environmentally-conscious at home and in their local communities. At present, employees in charge of the LE Campaign (Who could be based in either the environmental or personnel divisions, or indeed, within the labor unions), are deployed at each domain company and business site to conduct a range of activities to raise the environmental awareness of employees and transform their lifestyles into more environmentally-conscious ones.

LE activities are conducted based on the Eight Action Programs for Eco Life^* as their action guidelines. In line with these guidelines, employees and their families are encouraged to keep a "Household eco-account book" for their households, reduce the use of disposable plastic shopping bags distributed at stores, and participate in environmental volunteer activities. Those who have participated in these activities are certified as LE Families. Nine years after the launch of LE activities, we are now gradually producing tangible results. In fiscal 2007, approximately 58% of our employees' households in Japan took part in LE activities. We have also introduced an accreditation program for employees who have achieved excellent results in LE activities, thereby further promoting these activities.

• * (1) Energy conservation; (2) Use of eco bags; (3) Cooking for eco life; (4) Green purchasing; (5) Extended use of products; (6) Waste reduction/recycling; (7) Use of public transport/Eco driving; and (8) Environmental volunteer work.

This initiative encourages employees to record and reduce the amount of energy they use at their households, (such as electricity and gas), and to help identify and reduce their CO₂ emissions using Panasonic's unique Household eco-account book. By recording relevant data in the book, employees become more focused on the Environment, are further motivated to reduce their CO₂ emissions and make their lifestyles more environmentally-conscious.

Number of participating households and past achievements

• * Total CO₂ emissions from households that participated in the campaign for two consecutive years.

As part of our efforts to save resources and reduce waste, we are promoting this campaign to encourage employees to bring their own bags when shopping, thereby reducing use of the disposable plastic shopping bags provided by stores.
   In fiscal 2007, some 4,000 employee households participated in this campaign and 2,995 of them made a report on their use of disposable plastic shopping bags. The average number of these bags used per household has been decreasing since the launch of the campaign, due to our in-house awarness-raising activities. It has also been influenced by the fact that discussions are now underway regarding the introduction of charges for disposable plastic bags, which are generally freely distributed at stores.

Number of households reporting on their use of disposable plastic shopping bags

Average number of disposable plastic shopping bags used per household

• * Calculated based on the reduction in the use of disposable plastic shopping bags achieved by the reporting households over three months

We encourage employees to participate in local tree planting activities, cleaning activities, recovery of wasted cans, and selling recycled goods as part of our environmental impact reduction and environmental education activities. In fiscal 2007, approximately 15,000 employees participated in these activities.

In order to promote LE activities further, we introduced a system for the accreditation of employees who have achieved excellent results in environmental activities ("LE Expert Accreditation System") in fiscal 2007. Under the system, employees who continuously have environmentally-conscious lifestyles at their households, in their offices, and in local communities, and who are promoting such lifestyles to others, are accredited as LE Expert. In fiscal 2007, we accredited 11 employees as such Experts. In the future, we aim to increase the number of LE Families by holding seminars in which the LE Experts will give guidance to participants.

Outline of accreditation criteria for the LE Experts

Employees who have obtained certain scores in the following items are certified as Masters of LE Activities.

• * Employees who have voluntarily met the extended criteria shown in parentheses are given extra scores.

[Related Data File]

• The Matsushita Green Volunteer Club (MGV)
• Joint LE and MGV activities in Hitorizawa Community Woods
• Forest of Coexistence Program
• Providing support to NPOs tackling environmental and children's issues
• Local exchange activities at Sakura Hiroba
• Starting planting activities in Wakayama