Community Relations

This donation drive delivers solar lanterns to areas without electricity, using funds collected through cafeteria points from the Employee Benefits Service and donations of used books, DVDs, and other secondhand items. Since we began this drive in 2009, we have delivered approximately 130,000 solar lanterns to 36 countries. In fiscal 2025, a total of 400 employees donated their cafeteria points, and we collected 21,705 secondhand items from the general public and our employees, donating 2,790 solar lanterns.

These are environmental conservation activities in which employees worldwide collaborate with local communities, children, and families to help build a sustainable global environment and society. In fiscal 2025, 72 locations worldwide participated in cleanup and tree-planting campaigns.

We are also promoting the Panasonic ECO RELAY World Action initiative, which aims to encourage all employees worldwide to incorporate environmental conservation into their daily routines.

Panasonic was the first company in Japan to start offering sustainable seafood at its company cafeterias on an ongoing basis. The initiative, which began in March 2018 at two locations, has been in place at a total of 57 locations in Japan (as of March 31, 2025). Through the food served and consumed at cafeterias, we aim to raise awareness of the world’s fishery resources in crisis, encourage changes in consumption behavior, and expand our impact on our surroundings.

*1 Seafood certified for sustainable production (fishing and aquaculture) as well as management and traceability in processing, distribution, and marketing.

We have taken the initiative to provide employees with opportunities to learn the truth about the situation in Fukushima and support the area in its recovery from the earthquake and tsunami, as well as the effects of the lingering harmful rumors. The initiative involves providing menus featuring agricultural, livestock, and marine products from Fukushima Prefecture in company cafeterias and holding our Fukushima Marché [Market] to sell products from the prefecture. We first offered the menu at two company cafeterias in January 2022 and have since expanded to a total of 24 locations (as of March 31, 2025). The Fukushima Marché started in September 2022 and operates at a total of 14 locations (as of March 31, 2025). We continually work to raise awareness among employees about Fukushima Prefecture’s efforts to ensure food safety and security through lectures by prefectural officials.

This program helps NGOs and NPOs engaged in addressing social issues to improve their operational capacity by leveraging the skills and experiences our employees have cultivated through their work. Since the program began in 2011, 422 employees have assisted 70 organizations in formulating medium-term action plans, creating marketing materials, and rebuilding their websites.

Workplaces within the Group around the world take an active role in developing and rolling out a variety of volunteer activities that are tailored to the specific features of the regions and operating companies they are part of. In North America, for example, the Group has an employee volunteer program and annual Month of Service initiative through which we encourage employees to volunteer. In China, several times each year we have China Region Group Volunteer Activities in which employees at various workplaces across China undertake volunteer activities related to the same theme at the same time. In Japan, we also provided our employees with information on volunteer opportunities organized by NPOs and other organizations, and in fiscal 2025, a total of 280 employees volunteered outside the company.

We hosted the Social Good Meetup (SGM), a lecture series for employees featuring diverse guest speakers who are engaged in addressing social issues, to raise awareness of these issues and motivate employees to take action. In fiscal 2025, a total of 1,674 employees attended these lectures. Moreover, we offer a Disaster Volunteer Training Course to equip employees with the knowledge and skills necessary to volunteer in response to frequent natural disasters.

Several business units in Panasonic North America provide paid time off that allow employees to spend up to five full working days on volunteer activities to give back and contribute to their local communities. We also encourage and facilitate participation in volunteer activities on the part of our employees, including by coordinating volunteer activities at individual business sites.

To further encourage social involvement, some Group companies in Europe allow employees to take up to 16 hours of paid leave per year for volunteer work.