Yokohama Rubber Employees Around the World Joining Hands to Cultivate Forests In the YOKOHAMA Forever Forest Project, all activities are carried out by employees and local community members. These activities range from collecting acorns and raising seedlings to preparing seed beds and planting trees. In this section we present the thoughts of employees who are part of the growing global network for forest creation.

We operate our business based onn a diverse range of gifts from nature, principal among which is the raw material rubber. It is also a fact that our production activities place a burden on the natural environment.

Based on this awareness, the Yokohama Rubber GGroup is carrying out the “YOKOHAMA Forever Forest Project,” with the desire of not simply minimizing the impact our business activities have on the environment, but turning thevery existence of our factories into a positive influennce on the environment. Through this project we aim to achieve the goals of raising environmental awareness, creating buffer strips and environmentally protected forests, contributing to the mitigation of global warming, maaintaining biodiversity, and engaging local communities in communication, as we also tirelessly explore ways tto maximize the meaningfulness of these activities.

Under the direction of plant ecologist Dr. Akira Miyawaki, we hope to plant a total of 500,000 saplings at seven plants in Japan and 11 overseas by Yokohama Rubber’s centenary in 2017.In FY2009, we held events at 12 plants. Some 5,950 people participated in planting 53,600 saplings. So far, we’ve finished planting a total of 133,720 trees in Japan and abroad.

In the time since we started this project we’ve encountered a number of challenges, from the painful realization of how difficult it is to get employees to volunteer for this kind of project, to doing heavy labor in the scorching sun, as well as the tumult that ensued after we broke some plumbing when building a mound. However, overcoming these difficulties made me feel like Tokugawa Ieyasu when he succeeded in uniting all of Japan under one rule. As we continue to expand there will be many challenges, but I look forward to developing forests with the help of all our employees.

Project Summary

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Comment from the Secretariat Mie PlantHisataka Okada,

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In the Philippines, naturalhe Philippines, natforests are shrinking yearng yearby year. Every one of usEveneeds to take action. This needs to takeproject gives us the ives usopportunity to bring backopportunity to br

e Earth’s beauty, so Ithe Earth’s beauteople as want as many peo

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This was a good opportunityfor me to experienceJapanese culture, and itJprompted me to startrecycling at home with my children. There’s pleasure in seeing the tangible results of something I worked to be asom

of, and now I’ve takenpart of,erest in the environment esan inter

on a global scale.bal scaleon a g

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to wanting to dooo whwhat I can. Why not try plaanntinng just

one tree yourself? It’s fun!

ar, I vSo far, I’ve participated in 11participated in 11tree-planting events. lanree-p

e I started, I leftt Beforeronmental eenviron

ctivities up to otheheer activipeople, but now mmmypattitude has chananngeded

Masaru Naito

ShinshiroPlant

project is meant not for us but for our children too.ren tooThe fruits of our labor won’t appear immediately, but tely, buI want to stay aware of our mission for a long time me tocome.

Every time I see howEvery time I see hmuch the trees we uch the trees we planted have grown I ed have grown Ifeel thhe sense of responsibilibility we have to maintaitain forests and a pride ininhaving been able to participate. This

uka FactoryHiratsu

he gifts we continuously receive or allll th“return the favoavor” fofrom the Earth.

r hat oourAfteAfter learning that thygenttlyowown company is dilig

ntinggconnducting tree-pland projeojects in Japan and

lglobbaoverseseas to protect gelpe to hheresourcrces, my desire

mallny ssmthe enviroironment in ant toI waantway possibleible grew. I

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Every day from July to Every day froOctober I helped out with October I helped out withcutting and carryuttincut nd carrying logs. ng It was tremendously tiring It w ndously tirings tremendously ti

ork, but servings of wor but sut servings ofbarley tea and hel lbarley tea and helpfulremremre arks from people in

e a the cocommum nity were a theat enccouro agement. Igreat

me were helping ang as ound t-handd ho h w people arofelt firstfelt first-haI worI worked.

Mishima PlantMishima Plant

becaecaususee of the diff es we faced when tilling he difficulties we faced when tilling thessoisoill and rand raising seedlings from acorns that we wereablebleble to he to have a successful tree-planting event.

By participatingwith family andfriends my interest in the environmenthas grown, which, Ifeel, is one steptoward environmentalprotection. It waswass ctio

Yoshito Matsushitta

Nagano Plant

participants’ awareness of the environment, but at alsohelp everyone to create meaningful relations thrs throughmutual cooperation.

At our plant, At oalmost all of theemployees participate inpartitree-plantingplantintevents. These activities not only raise

Nongongnuch Meerot

Yokohama Rubberama RubberkYohailand) Co., Ltd.d) Co., L d.ail(Tha

Planting trees and touching soil for the first time in a while brought back memories for me andallowed me to experience the pleasure of achievingsomething with otherpeople. Let’s all participatein building “forests of life” and take control of building the global environment forthe global environment forour future!

You can read Dr. Miyawaki’s full message and the comments of other employees onthe Yokohama Rubber website.

Onommichi Plant

the saplings. It was a great opportunity to talkleisurely about the environment as parent and child.

This was my first his time participating me

r. with my daughter. Working in a relaxed lrelaxeddatmospheretogether with numerous friends,she really seemed to enjoy planting

Mie Plant

environmental awareness, so I want to invite mycoworkers who haven’t yet participated.

I’m really lookingforward to seeing what the saplings we planted will grow into five or ten years from now. Participating inthese activities improves one’s

Hamatite Plant

After seeing local people covered in mud and yet enjoying the activity of planting trees, I decided Iwanted to participatetoo. It’s just a smallinitiative by one company, but if similaractivities were to spread around the world I believe we could improve the environment.

Wora-anong Doungkratoke

Yokohama Tire Manufacturing Ma(Thailand) Co., Ltd.

Mitsuru Manabe

Haruyoshi Suketa

Takashi Yajima

Kenji Kishimoto

Noboru Asaba

oshiyuki TeramotooshiYoYo

Tim FretwellTim F

Patrick Pineda

even better environment by transforming thement by tranenergy of individual people into a larger, people intocollective energy.

This project is aneffort to creaeffort to create a clean environmnment in which future e children can havvean easier life. The local communityalso supports us.I hope to build an

Jianqing Zhu

Hangzhou Yokohama Tire Co., Ltd.

Yokohama Rubber holds the following philosophy: “The most outstanding technology coexists only with the best green environment which is reforestation movement with native tree.” They are working to develop forests that protect biodiversity, plant seeds for the future, plant trees in our hearts, and that coexist harmoniously with the best technologies. I sincerely hope that Yokohama Rubber will demonstrate to the world the expertise of developing forests together with local communities as well as the amazing results of such efforts. (Summary of the full comment.)

Yokohama Rubber’s Message to the World

Dr. Akira Miyawakiplant ecologist

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24 YOKOHAMA RUBBER CSR REPORT 2010 25YOKOHAMA RUBBER CSR REPORT 2010

YOKOHAMA Forever Forest Project

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