Environmental Sustainability Management Across the World

On 4 June, Panasonic Asia Pacific organized a tree-planting activity on Pulau Ubin, a tranquil island located off Singapore's north-eastern coast. About 50 Panasonic employees and Singapore government officials planted 50 trees of eight species, including Rusty Sterculia, Wrinkle Pod Mangrove, and Seashore Mangosteen, that are native to the country.

The tree-planting activity was organised in commemoration of World Environment Day 2024 to help society become more eco-conscious through Panasonic ECO RELAY initiatives and contribute to environmental sustainability. This year's tree-planting activity is a continuation of Panasonic Group's efforts in conserving this Pulau Ubin site following the planting of 100 trees in 2018 in celebration of the Group's 100th anniversary. The effort also aims to bring about positive influence on society under the Group's long-term environmental vision, Panasonic GREEN IMPACT. The tree-planting event was also organized in honour of Panasonic Asia Pacific's 50th anniversary in Singapore this year.

Panasonic Energy Co., Ltd. (PECTH), a Panasonic Group Company, has launched a scheme to recycle used dry batteries through 7-Eleven stores in Thailand in March 2024, building on its used dry batteries collection program that began in 2022 in collaboration with CP ALL Public Company Limited (CP ALL). This effort aims to reduce the environmental impact in the long term. The companies have installed collection boxes at 1,000 7-Eleven stores, achieving the initial goal set when the project kicked off and have been expanding the initiative across Thailand.

PECTH's dry batteries are widely used as an energy source. Since 2020, the company has been working on global initiatives to reduce environmental impact as the top manufacturer of dry batteries, such as using paper package for packing of dry batteries and promoting efforts to achieve net zero CO₂ emissions at factories. In June 2022, the company started to install collection boxes for used dry batteries in Thailand at 31 local 7-Eleven stores in cooperation with CP ALL, which operates 7-Eleven. In March 2024, the company established a scheme to recycle used dry batteries manufactured by itself. The company partnered with UMC Metals Ltd., a Thai steelmaker that utilizes an ECOARC^TM Furnace, an electric furnace capable of melting used dry batteries into reusable materials. This unique technology enables the safe processing of PECTH's dry batteries, which contain no environmentally harmful substances, and recover reusable materials, thereby accelerating the company's Circular Economy Initiative through Battery Recycling Project. This initiative aims to reduce waste in the ecosystem and promote end-of-life recycling among consumers.

Panasonic Vietnam (PV) has successfully planted 1 million trees with customers, partners, and employees, reaching a target set in 2022. From 2022 to 2024, a total of 1,099,300 trees were planted in Vietnam. This accomplishment makes PV the fastest foreign company to achieve this milestone in Vietnam within three years.

PV has planted a total of 1,346,390 trees since 2014. According to estimates by Vietnam Ministry of Agriculture & Environment, this initiative is expected to reduce CO₂ emissions by approximately 120,000 tons over the next decade.

With a vision of promoting healthy living and sustainable development for Vietnamese people, PV focuses its CSR efforts on education and environmental initiatives. In alignment with Vietnam's national goal of planting 1 billion trees, PV and its employees have actively engaged in various environmental activities through ECO RELAY, including tree planting since 2014 as part of its community contribution efforts.

Through ECO RELAY activities and its tree-planting programs with customers and partners, PV has achieved this record-breaking milestone at an unprecedented pace. Moving forward, the company remains committed to shaping a sustainable future in line with the Panasonic Group's long-term environmental vision, Panasonic GREEN IMPACT, and its goal of fostering wellness and sustainability for Vietnamese society.

On July 25, the 3rd ESG Development Forum, organized by Southern Weekly, was held under the theme "Building an ESG Ecology Together." Panasonic was honored with the title of "2024 Low-Carbon Pioneer" in recognition of its proactive efforts in developing energy-saving and emission-reducing products, advancing hydrogen energy applications, and supporting electric vehicle (EV) initiatives aimed at achieving China's "dual carbon" goals.

The Southern Weekly ESG Development Forum, launched in 2022, aims to promote sustainable development in the ESG field among Chinese enterprises. This year's forum presented four awards: Low-Carbon Pioneer of the Year, ESG Research of the Year, ESG Investment of the Year, and ESG Competitiveness Enterprise of the Year. The Low-Carbon Pioneer award recognizes leading companies that play a pioneering role in implementing green production methods and contributing to carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. In 2024, ten companies received this prestigious title.

*Southern Weekly, founded in 1984, is part of the Southern Newspaper Media Group and operates under the Southern Daily, the official newspaper of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, established in 1949. As China's largest-circulation news weekly, it covers major urban cities and maintains a high-quality, stable readership, with over 78% of its audience holding a university degree or higher.

As part of Panasonic's efforts to enable greener manufacturing, the 50-year-old manufacturing plant in Cardiff (UK) has been fitted with a combination of 21 units of 5 kW pure hydrogen fuel cell generators powered by green hydrogen, solar PV and 1 MWh battery storage, all steered by Panasonic's proprietary Energy Management System. Panasonic Manufacturing UK Ltd. develops, manufactures, and sells microwave ovens and other products. Microwave oven production represents the main electricity and overall energy need at the site; the Panasonic HX installation will power this microwave oven assembly using renewable energy.

Panasonic HX at its Cardiff factory is expected to deliver wide-ranging operational and sustainability benefits. By being able to produce its energy onsite, the factory will benefit from more reliable electricity provision. This decentralised approach to energy demand management increases the company's energy resilience in a volatile market. By integrating an energy management system and storage batteries, the factory will be able to scale its energy needs when ramping up productions, for example.
The heat generated by the Panasonic hydrogen fuel cells as a by-product of the electricity production will be used to heat spaces and domestic hot water, further improving overall energy efficiency. By replacing the facility's gas boiler with this renewable energy source – a combination of a heat exchanger and Panasonic's heat pump technology – fossil fuels will cease to be used, representing a significant and positive environmental impact.

Panasonic opened on 27 March 2025 Germany's first Proof-of- Concept for its so-called Panasonic HX, a sustainable energy solution powered by green, locally sourced green hydrogen at its Munich campus in Ottobrunn. For this pilot project, 5 hydrogen fuel cells of 10kW power each and a photovoltaic system have been seamlessly integrated providing the Customer Experience Center (CXC) in Ottobrunn, near Munich, with 100% green electricity.

The CXC is not only a modern showroom where Panasonic demonstrates the depth of its advanced technology solutions and those of its partners. What is shown here goes far beyond the company's well-known consumer electronics products, showcasing business & industrial key components, products and solutions for vertical markets such as the energy sector, mobility, retail and other industries.

The Ottobrunn location is the World's First for type of application case in a Customer Experience Centre, lab & office mix building, and the third location worldwide of Panasonic (after Kusatsu, Japan, and Cardiff, Wales) to run such an HX solution.

The five hydrogen fuel cell systems (10kW each) and parts of the photovoltaic system (170 panels (out of 570 in total with ca. 60 kWp power) are managed by Panasonic's proprietary Energy Management System.

The use of solar energy and electricity from green hydrogen is a significant step towards long-term sustainable energy solutions. This project, as well as the Panasonic HX business strategy, serves to demonstrate a modern hydrogen transformation and thus a decentralized, stable, and resilient renewable energy supply infrastructure. With this initiative, Panasonic is taking an important step to further advance the decarbonization of the industry.

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The "Casa do Leo" is a project with a contribution to environmental and social education, and it was officially launched in September 2023, with the participation of the mayor and authorities of Sao Jose dos Campos city. This project will provide the integration of society in visiting Panasonic's culture and history, production process and games experiences, encouraging the correct disposal of batteries, in partnerships with schools visiting Casa do Leo.
In 2024, Casa do Leo received 321 visitors from April to September and each one took a kind of mini collector to dispose of their own batteries.
*Leo is the mascot of battery team.

Engaging the youth for six consecutive years, empowering young minds, as part of Panasonic Harit Umang (Joy of Green) Program, we observed the World Environment Day 2025 by felicitating the Green Ambassadors, recognizing their commendable efforts in making the "GREEN IMPACT:. The program is aimed at nurturing the youth to drive change through awareness, adoption and advocacy of environment friendly habits for a greener future. The program is aligned with the vision of Panasonic GREEN IMPACT.
This year, over 2,300 Green Ambassadors from schools, colleges, and other educational institutions actively led initiatives under key themes of e-waste management, plastic circularity, and energy conservation with pathbreaking achievements engaging in:

• Empowering ITI Youth: Leveraging engineering and industrial skills for e-waste reuse and refurbishment; showcased through 'Celebrating Diwali Differently' with refurbished lights for the festival of Diwali celebrated across the country.
• E-Waste Collection Trail: Schools and colleges emerged as pivotal collection HUBs, amplifying outreach and reinforcing the program's multiplier effect. Each year the 7 feet high artifact created from the collected e-waste, travels through the university colleges, as a representation of circularity wherein the respective college activates as a new hub, ensuring safe collection of e-waste organized as a collection drive from adjacent Schools and colleges for responsible disposal, and scientific recycling.
• Record-Breaking Plastic Circularity Campaign: Green Ambassadors collected 43,890 plastic bags, surpassing the publically declared Guinness World Record; launched with a walkathon for mass awareness. The collection records will now be submitted to the respective authority for validating
• Model UN Dialogue: Institutions simulated global group discussions on consumer behaviour and technology in circularity in the UN Dialogue format with each school representing a different country
• UNDP Collaboration: Strengthening expertise and outreach as an associate partner of Panasonic Program in spreading awareness with PILOTS on Sustainability issues.
• Recognizing Sustainability Champions: Panasonic awarded medals crafted from the metal of responsibly recycled electronic waste, reinforcing commitment to circular economy.

In line with our initiatives to promote collective wisdom and support knowledge sharing, we had organized enriching sessions on "Panasonic Green Impact" The session provided opportunity to the participants at various Panasonic manufacturing locations to learn about the commitment and goals set by the organization to support circular economy and build a clean, green, sustainable ecosystem.

During the session, initiatives taken by Panasonic along with success stories from across Panasonic were shared which inspired the participants to think about innovative ways of contributing towards R&D, procurement, Supply chain perspective in building sustainable environment.