Daikin Industries Ltd.
May 2014: Daikin Industries Ltd. announced an expansion of its current partnership with Conservation International to protect nearly 11 million hectares (over 27 million acres) of forests in six countries. The new multi-year, multi-location endeavor will focus on forest conservation and environmental education activities to foster sustainable livelihoods on a global scale, aimed at reducing CO2 emissions and safeguarding some of Earth’s most critical forests for human well-being.
Daikin will invest US$ 4.5 million for 10 years to support forests in Brazil, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia and Liberia.
The new global program builds on the company’s support for Conservation International’s “Green Wall Project” to reforest the degraded area in the buffer zone of Gunung Gede Pangrango National Park in Indonesia.
The partnership began as a three year effort in 2008 to protect the water reservoir and habitat for wildlife and plants on Java Island, Indonesia, and has rejuvenated degraded land through reforestation activities. Since inception, approximately 120,000 indigenous tree seedlings have been planted on 300 hectares of land in cooperation with 644 local farmers and 20 national park rangers. These efforts have received positive evaluations from the Directorate General of Forest Protection and Nature Conservation of Gunung Gede Pangrango National Park at the Republic of Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry for sustaining reforestation activities by making them compatible with the livelihoods of local farmers.
Daikin also encourages their customers to participate in the protection of the global environment by selecting the energy-saving function of their ‘eco-point’ air conditioning systems. While using this setting, a virtual ‘tree’ grows in the unit’s display as points accumulate. When the ‘tree’ is fully grown, the customer can request to put his/her name on a sign at the project site in Indonesia, thereby linking the customer's actions to actual reforestation and conservation activities.
Daikin Industries Ltd. is a manufacturing company based in Japan. For more information, please visit www.daikin.com.
