Midori Ippai Project Activities LINE 3389th Hollyhock Planting Event at Kamigamo Shrine May 18, 2019 NTT West Group
On May 18, 2019 (Saturday), NTT West Group held a hollyhock planting event at Kamigamo Shrine.
Due to changes in the natural environment and damage caused by deer that feed on them in recent years, hollyhocks that are used for the Aoi Festival in Kyoto are no longer readily available like before. In light of this situation, the "NTT West Group Afuhi Project" was launched in 2011.
Under this project, employees of the Group and their family members become "foster parents" by adopting and growing hollyhocks from Kamigamo Shrine at their workplace or home. Hollyhocks grown by the "foster parent" volunteers are then multiplied by root division and planted back at Kamigamo Shrine by the employees, former employees and family members at the planting event. Marking the ninth year of the initiative, a total of 69 participants who are employees of NTT West Group and their family members took part in the event. At the Aoi Festival that was held on May 15 this year, about 1,000 out of the total number of 10,000 hollyhock plants prepared by Kamigamo Shrine were taken from those grown by NTT West Group.
At the opening ceremony on the day of the event with the verdant green glistening in the drizzle, Mr. Ono, Manager of NTT West Kyoto Branch, expressed that NTT West has launched a new corporate vision to become a social ICT pioneer, and it was extremely important for NTT West to heighten our interest toward the environment and environmental conservation, as well as activities that take a cutting-edge approach or the initiative to address challenges of the society and region using ICT. This was followed by a speech from Mr. Tanaka, Chief Priest of Kamigamo Shrine, who gave an interesting introduction to the history of the shrine and Aoi Festival. Also, participants visited the main shrine that is usually out of bounds to the public and had the opportunity to experience the sense of magnificence.
After the opening ceremony, we donated a Japanese maple and two katsura plants in view of the considerable impact of Typhoon No. 21 last year on the trees that protected the hollyhocks in Kamigamo Shrine.
At the planting event, all the participants carefully planted the hollyhocks grown by the NTT West Group employees under the guidance of members from the Afuhi Project. A total of 613 hollyhock plants were returned to the shrine this year.
Climate conditions last year were harsh with many typhoons and dry weather, and we are thankful for the support to return such a large number of hollyhock plants to the shrine.
Besides planting, participants also took part in weeding as well as gathering of fallen leaves for use as leaf mold.
At the closing ceremony, Mr. Doiuchi, Manager of Technology Innovation Department at NTT West wrapped up the event with a closing speech. He expressed that the entire NTT Group consumes a large amount of electricity, which is equivalent to about 1% of the total electric power supplied in Japan. As a company that emits a substantial quantity of CO2 in the course of electric power consumption, it is extremely important that we make proactive efforts to protect the global environment, and we hope to continue to engage in endeavors to preserve the traditional culture of Kyoto.
NTT West Group will continue to engage in activities to protect the global environment with the hope that this could help to develop awareness toward biodiversity conservation and preservation of traditional culture among more people.
We would like to thank everyone at Kamigamo Shrine, Afuhi Project as well as all the participants for their support.
- Organizing company
- NTT West
- Participating companies
-
Employees and family members of:
NTT West
NTT Marketing Act
NTT Business Associe West
NTT Fieldtechno
NTT Business Solutions
NTT Neomeit
Kansai Area
Hokuriku Area
Chugoku Area - Venue
- Kyoto Prefecture, Kyoto City, Kita-ku, Kamigamo Shrine
- No. of participants
- 69
