Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. in Japan, known as Panasonic worldwide, is running what it calls the Love the Earth (LE) Citizens' Campaign as one of its corporate efforts on the environment. This campaign aims to support employees and their families in the Matsushita corporate group to practice environmentally friendly lifestyles at home and in their communities.

Matsushita started the Household Accounting on the Environment program as part of the "Love the Earth" campaign in 1998. The number of participating families has increased steadily from the initial 3,300 to 27,000 in 2003.

According to the data on 26,000 participating families in 2002, the average carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per household were 2,190 kilograms, an 8.5 percent drop from the 2001 level. So far, the number of households involved has reached 100,000, and they have successfully reduced CO2 emissions by some 17 percent in total.

The Love the Earth participants, in addition to using the household accounting program, organize symposiums and try avoid using disposable plastic bags when shopping.

The Household Accounting on the Environment program, initially prepared by Japan's Ministry of the Environment, is a tool for citizens to get to know the relationship between their daily life and the environment, to reduce the environmental impacts caused by daily life, and to shift toward environmentally friendly lifestyles. Today, based on the ministry' program, many local municipalities, companies and organizations are creating and promoting their own similar programs.

http://www.japanfs.org/en/public/resources.html

Posted: 2004/02/27 08:59:45 PM
Japanese version

TAG Energy , Government , Manufacturing industry , NGO/Citizen , Other , System/Law