Environmental Activities

With “Green x Clean Revolution! Expand the power to connect lives to the world” as its theme, Eco-Products 2010 is being held from December 9 to 11, 2010 at Tokyo Big Sight. This year, Panasonic and SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. have jointly set up a booth to propose Energy Solutions for Entire Towns offered only by the Panasonic Group, including Panasonic Electric Works Co., Ltd.

The Eco-Products, which marks its twelfth run this year, has been held every year since 1999 under the sponsorship of the Japan Environmental Management Association for Industry and Nikkei Inc., and total of 745 companies and organizations are participating this year. Highlighting important themes, including not only global warming prevention but also the issues of biodiversity conservation and resource depletion, each booth at this year's event features the most advanced eco-friendly products, environmental technologies, solutions and services, and CSR activities.

Panasonic’s exhibition theme is “Energy Solutions for Entire Towns.” The ‘eco ideas’ for Lifestyles zone presents comprehensive solutions that have been expanded from those for homes, buildings, and offices that Panasonic has been proposing to those for stores, factories, and public areas. Together with the ‘eco ideas’ for Business-styles zone, a wide range of the Panasonic Group’s products and services are showcased in two ’eco ideas’ zones.

The Panasonic booth consists of two zones with a stage in each zone and a total of five sections where each section has a hands-on corner. The booth is designed to help children experience and further understand the key points picked up for each section from among Panasonic’s comprehensive solutions.

After introducing Panasonic’s vision to become a Green Innovation Company, presentations on Energy Solutions for Entire Homes for achieving lifestyles with virtually zero CO₂ emissions through energy creation, storage, saving, and management are given. This stage also features Comprehensive Energy Solutions that are expanding from homes to entire towns.

Energy creation aims for generating electricity in homes, energy storage for storing the electricity generated, energy saving to minimize household electricity consumption, and energy management to effectively use electricity. This section especially spotlights the ECO NAVI function, which contributes to energy saving. A workshop is held with a focus on sensor technologies used in ECO NAVI home appliances.

A full-sized model of a convenience store is set up and refrigerating showcases and LED lighting systems are displayed in the store. Through a quiz rally for finding eco-friendly ideas incorporated throughout the store, this corner demonstrates Panasonic's Comprehensive Energy Solutions that work effectively even though people may not be aware of them.

By using the HD Visual Communication System, a simulated teleconference with compelling reality is demonstrated with visitors playing the roles of company presidents and executives. The focus is placed on eco friendliness made possible by the HD Visual Communication Systems that eliminates the need to move or travel.

To raise the profile of Panasonic offering Comprehensive Solutions for public areas, this section displays the Solalib which generates and charges electricity by solar cells and uses it to illuminate LED lamps and charge eco-cars. At the hands-on corner, visitors can experience the energy efficiency of LED light bulbs by feeling the differences in the load for lighting up LED and incandescent lamps by manually rotating a power generator.

This corner introduces the Panasonic Group's cutting-edge energy solutions for factories by using SANYO's Kasai Green Energy Park, the next-generation eco-friendly plant in Hyogo, Japan as an example of best practice. The hands-on corner provides quiz-style explanations of the Kasai Green Energy Park in an enjoyable way by using charts, and demonstrates that the park itself is a state-of-the-art eco-friendly plant and promotes energy creation, storage, and saving throughout the facility.

The stage provides easy-to-understand explanations of the Green Plan 2018, an action plan for all Panasonic employees to work on global environmental issues and realize the company's vision for the 100th anniversary of its foundation. Panasonic is promoting an initiative named ‘eco ideas’ Relations (eR) to bring about major innovation in environmental contribution through interactive communications with society.

An eco learning program on the subject of solar power generation is held for elementary school children. Through eco quizzes, solar power generation and charging of rechargeable batteries and experiments are demonstrated to run a hybrid vehicle powered by solar panels and rechargeable batteries, aiming for the children to have deeper understandings of Panasonic's environmental and energy business.