5. After the Greening Project Had Finished

The Hitachi Group staff had the chance to be involved in the desert greening volunteer project and experience an environment completely different from their normal daily lives.
On returning home, they told us that the first thing they did was to share what the experience had truly meant to them with the people close to them. It may be a roundabout way of getting there, but this building of environmental awareness and volunteer mindset in each individual reinforced our feeling of the responsibility that companies have to society.

Participants' Comments

[Image] Volunteers joined this project as their second time

[Image] I want to go and see what has happened to the trees I planted, next year and the year after that.

Two of the participants had also been on the first greening volunteer experience tour. They felt a particular flush of emotion to see how the pine saplings they had planted with their own hands had grown and how the surroundings were now bursting with greenery.

[Image] Volunteer with smile

[Image] Have we succeeded in restoring vegetation to even a small part of the vast desert?

When thinking about "volunteering", we tend to see it as a heavy and serious thing. However, in the current program, it was the participants themselves who, through working happily as a large group, were able to grow the most, and although it was billed as a "volunteer" project, there was a strong feeling that what we got out of the trip was something even greater. We intend to continue to get involved in all sorts of different activities that benefit society.

[Image] Volunteer pruning poplar tree

[Image] Just knowing that we were working happily was a reward

One participant explained his motives for joining the greening volunteer experience tour in the terms that, if he didn't experience it for himself, he would never know. He described how he was aware that everyone was working happily together and taking their involvement in the greening activities seriously, and that he felt he needed to learn more about desertification.

Greening Project is Looking Ten to Twenty Years Ahead

Impressions from the Hitachi Group team in China

[Image] Bai Tao, CSR staff at Hitachi China, Ltd.

[Image] We need to try harder!

Bai Tao, CSR staff at Hitachi China, Ltd.

I work at Hitachi China, Ltd., one of the 151 Hitachi Group companies that operate businesses in China. This is the first time I have been involved in the program and I was very moved by the sight of the Hitachi Group team breaking into a sweat as we worked at the greening project.
As a Chinese person and also an employee of the Hitachi Group, it made me want to work even harder. I hope to pass on this feeling and also the importance of measures for dealing with the environment to the others at Hitachi Group in China.

Coordinator for this Greening Project Volunteer Tour

[Image] Naoko Inoue

[Image] Actually doing it made me understand

Naoko Inoue,
Corporate Citizenship Group,
CSR Promotion Department,
Corporate Communication Division,
Hitachi Limited:

Although I had my own personal ideas about volunteering in the desert greening project during the preparation stage, I felt that words alone were not enough. I took away a lot of impressions from actually going along together with all the Hitachi Group people, and the five nights and six days we spent at the site was something I would not have missed for anything. I expect it will take time for the experience to really sink in and its meaning will grow as time goes on.
For the participants, I believe that participating in this volunteer program will have proved a valuable opportunity for them.

Greening the desert is something that looks ten to twenty years into the future, not something that will bring immediate results. In this respect, the 1,300 pine saplings we planted on our trip and the growth of the poplar trees we pruned will be a symbol of Hitachi Group's contribution to the environment. We intend to continue the Hitachi Group's volunteer work on the Horqin Desert Greening project.

[Image] A set photography with volunteers

Profile

G-Net NPO (Non-profit Organization)

[Image] Mr. Kitaura speaking about desertification
Yoshio Kitaura,
Executive Director of the G-Net
Non-profit Organization (NPO)

G-Net is an NPO set up to support desert greening and desertification prevention. In 1999, the NPO selected the Horqin Desert in Tongliao in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China as a site for its activities and agreed on a business partnership with the Tongliao prefectural administration. Joint work with the prefectural administration started in 2000. In the nine years since then, they have planted around 3.5 million trees covering about 1,400 hectares. The aim of G-Net's activities is to enrich the natural environment on a global scale, along with the local environment, the people who live there, and the people who provide support.

G-Net Non-profit Organization
502 Bay City Takigawa, Daimachi, Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture 221-0834
TEL,FAX: 045-328-3135

Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China

The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is a region of China populated by many people of Mongol descent. In administrative terms, it is equivalent to a province. The majority of the land area belongs to the Mongolian steppe plateau which is 1,000m above sea level, and although one of the world's great grasslands extends across the central region, the eastern part where the Horqin Desert is located suffers from advancing desertification.

Capital: Hohhot
Total land area: 1,100,000 km² (approx.)
Population: 24 million (approx.)

Horqin Left Rear Banner

[Image] A grazing horse
A grazing horse

[Image] Three-wheel taxi and driver
Three-wheel taxi and driver

[Image] Playing the matouqin, a traditional Mongolian musical instrument
Playing the Matouqin, a traditional Mongolian musical instrument

One of the five banners that make up Tongliao prefecture in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The words "prefecture" and "banner" used to denote different administrative divisions in Inner Mongolia can be thought of as corresponding roughly to the English words "province" and "county" respectively. Similarly, the seat of local government for the banner is called "Ganqika-Zhen" where the "Zhen" stands for "town" and is a place where many people live.

Area: 11,476km²
Population: Approximately 400,000 (2004) (of which more than 60,000 live in Kanchika town)
Climate: Temperate continental climate affected by monsoon
Mean annual temperature: 5.8°C (January mean: -15.1°C, July mean: 23.8°C)
Mean annual rainfall: 450mm (However, the influence of seasonal winds brings a high degree of year-on-year variability)
Industry: The banner is known as "the home of the golden cattle" for its extensive cattle grazing
Ethnicity: Most people are of Mongol descent (73% of population). Others include Han Chinese, the Hui, Manchurian, and Korean

Global Community Relations and Activities: All companies of the Hitachi Group are making efforts for the creation of a workplace atmosphere in which employees can participate in volunteer activities freely, for the enhancement of support systems, and provision of information, experiences and educational opportunities and so on, in order to enable employees to take a proactive part in various activities, including volunteer activities.

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