The 2nd Award winning activities

Over the years, Oita Operations has been contributing to several year-end charity initiatives. It has taken part in the year-end charity event hosted by the Oita City Government for 35 years. Employees performed 20-minute stage shows to entertain more than 2,500 guests and the proceeds were donated to social welfare organizations. In addition, “My Car Club”organized a year-end charity drive for the 20th year. Approximately 500,000 yen was raised and contributed to the Association for Traffic Accident victims. (“My Car Club” is a club made up of employees commuting by cars.).

Over the past year, Toshiba has sponsored two “Home Appliance Disassembly Workshops” for elementary and ju nior high school students. The fi rst was held in Tokyo in November 2005, and the other in Hokkaido in July of 2006. Designed to help children understand how products work, the workshops allowed children to disassemble and investigate the inner workings of a variety of electronic devices. Toshiba Group employees volunteered to help the children use the appropriate tools to disassemble the products and to answer questions. The workshop provided the children with insight on how many different parts makeup a product, as well as how important the use of recycling is in Toshiba’s manufacturing processes.

Visited local elementary and junior high schools and other organizations on request to give lectures and seminars to introduce Toshiba’s environmental protection activities.

Toshiba Mie Operations Group and the Mie Branch of the Toshiba Labor Union have co-sponsored this twice-yearly activity for more than 20 years. Participants visit the local social welfare facility for the aged, Mizuho Ryo, to volunteer their help in cleaning and entertain elderly residents by making rice cakes and playing bingo with them. Particularly, elderly residents and staff members of the facility appreciate the cleaning work that these participants do on areas that they find difficult to clean by themselves, such as air conditioner filters by the ceiling and window panes at heights. Many elderly residents look forward to talking with these young volunteers.

The Special Kitashiba Fire Brigade, consisting of 24 employees, works in cooperation with the local fire station. Members of this fire brigade attend regular monthly training sessions in addition to joint training sessions with the local fire station (in which the brigade has been participating in for 21 consecutive years), and goes into action in the company’s own fire engine to fight fires in the neighborhood four or five times a year. When a fire broke out near the plant on the evening of June 16, 2006, the fire brigade was the first to arrive on the scene and to fight the fire, while other employees assisted in the rescue of elderly people and traffic control in the surrounding area. There were no injuries and the fire was able to be contained.

Organized a rice cake pounding event at a local kindergarten.Then visited a special-needs old people’s home in the city with the children to present rice cakes to the residents. They all gained valuable experience by sharing each others time.

The company’s Mie Operations has contracted out jobs, such as removal of roll paper from copper wires and aluminum materials, to vocational aid centers for mentally and physically challenged people since 1999. In addition, the company invites people from these facilities once a week to the office to provide vocational training such as dismantling of PC and other skills to promote their independence.
The company received a special commendation from the Mayor of Yokkaichi City for this activity in 2005.

All employees of the company (400 people) participated in the clean-up activity after work, in which they got rid of weeds and picked up garbage and empty cans around the premises and the path to the nearest railway station. This activity is carried out every August, when weeds grow at a faster rate, for over 25 years since 1981, to make visitors and local residents feel comfortable .

The Association was founded in 1964 with its mission to “take children who are not in the care of their parents to the zoo,” and has carried out a total of about 400 activities so far. It holds events, such as fi rework party, sports meet and rice cake pounding party to entertain children several times a year. Tsuneo Tsunofuji, Masato Shindo, Yoshimasa Ishii, Mitsumasa Tsutsui and many other employees have volunteered in these activities.

Forging an on-going partnership with Orange County Social Services, TAMS and ACT Committee have continued to assist neediest children by using proceeds
from the annual charity auction organized every year since 1986. With those proceeds, ACT shops, wraps, and delivers clothing, food and toys to families.
Auction held in Oct. 2005 raised over $14,000. A grand total of over $150,000 has been raised throughout the last 20 years, helping over 450 families and 1,053 children.

The volunteer fair is organized to promote employees’ participation in volunteering activities in the community. This year, 23 non-profi t organizations set up their booth to give information on volunteer related activities to 80 employees attending the fair. Employees are encouraged to engage in activities which help the community they live in. At the same time, employees were asked to give contributions of items such as sanitary materials for hospitals and other facilities.

TREL employees actively participate in charity sports events on their own initiatives. In the charity relay race, Chariots of Fire, 300 pounds sterling from the company and 80 pounds sterling collected from employees were donated to the East Anglia Air Ambulance. In the Action 100 bike ride challenge, 40 pounds sterling collected from employees were donated to an organization engaged in medical research into incurable diseases.

Since 2004, more than 300 employees have been supporting local education by making personal contributions deducted from their salaries. The contributions were used to cover the costs of textbooks, writing materials and school uniforms of the 63 students of a local elementary school, and for the monthly aid to four teachers. In addition to financial support, employees participated in volunteer work to reconstruct the toilets, paint buildings and to repair the volleyball court at the request of the school.

Thai Toshiba Group participated in a nationwide mangrove planting project that was carried out as one of the events to commernorate the 60th Anniversary HM The King accession to the throne. The Thai Toshiba Group donated about 1,800 mangrove plants (worth one million baht, which is equivalent to about three million yen), which 360 volunteers, including employees from Thai Toshiba Group planted in the Sirindhorn National Park over three days.

Understanding the importance of communicating with the community, the company holds meetings with local people on regular basis to discuss about measures to improve community environment. In response to requests from the local community, the company changed the color of the roofs of its buildings for antireflection, installed simple sound abatement shields. In addition, the company conducted anticrime patrols at night (from 0:00 to 5:00) in cooperation with local people for 11 days towards the end of the year.

The company invited sutudents and the teachers from the Toshiba Elevator Hope Elementory school to visit the plant. The plant tour included introduction on the history of Toshiba and about the leading technologies.