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| New employees at the Hamamatsu Factory plant potted seedlings one by one. |
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Kumamoto Factory, one of the largest Honda facilities, is now imbued with the lushness of greenery covering more than half its 1.69 million square meters grounds. In 1986, the factory was given the Ministry for International Trade and Industry Award at the National Conference for the Promotion of Green Factories, in recognition of its effort to promote planting. In fact, all the employees had shared the labor of planting the seedlings and caring for their growth, much like anxious parents do for their precious children. This award signifies not only the plant's outstanding achievement in the promotion of green factories but also the commitment its employees demonstrated in the growth and care of trees.
Another of the factory's many interesting programs is "environmental school," in which employees and local residents together learn how to care for plants. Seeds from trees on the premises are planted in small pots and distributed throughout the local community. These trees indeed a part of the hometown forestplay an important role in erasing barriers, both physical and psychological, between the work site and the community surrounding it.
The hometown forest, as represented at each site, is a product of the love and care each employee gives to it. Moreover, the hometown forest is a symbol of friendship with the local community, and of the coexistence between individuals, their factory and nature.
It is a fact that green plants are this world's only natural oxygen producers. Although in the twenty years since the birth of the Hometown Forest Project there have been occasional difficulties, such as the need to prune trees that had grown to large or the need to clear away matted leaf material. The growing public awareness of environmental protection has surely been enhanced by the presence of these groves. |
