Employees, their families, and local residents who participated in tree planting

Participants planting seedlings

Sharp Green Club (SGC)^*1 held the first tree-planting event on March 24, 2007 to establish the "Sharp Forest in Yaita" in Yaita City, Tochigi Prefecture, the location of Sharp's Tochigi Site.

SGC is involved in creating "Sharp Forests" in prefectures and cities where Sharp business locations and sales offices are situated. The Sharp Forest in Yaita is the sixth to be established in Japan, and was accomplished through set up with the participation of SGC in a Program to Promote Collaborative Forestation of Water Resource Areas^*2 which being carried out by Tochigi Prefecture and the prefectural forest management corporation are promoting . The plan is to reforest two hectares of open land near the Shioda Dam at a location upstream on the Yame River (Naka River system), which flows into Yaita City.

On this day, some 150 people, including Sharp employees and their families and local residents, gathered to plant 200 mountain cherry, magnolia, and maple tree seedlings. It turned out to be an enjoyable day for families to interact with nature, and it included activities such as a class on making taketombo (a small toy helicopter made of wood or bamboo that flies when spun between the palms of one's hands) given by a teacher who had taught for many years at a local elementary school.

In the future, SGC will continue to advance the planting of trees and tending to their growth, and at the same time, help foster employee awareness among employees of protecting the environment by using these sites as places to interact with nature.