OREANDA-NEWS. August 17, 2016. Kyocera Corporation (President: Goro Yamaguchi) announced that it is planting Green Curtains at its factories and offices in Japan for the 10th consecutive year as part of its ongoing environmental protection and sustainability activities. The natural foliage of climbing plants creates “curtains” that cover building walls and windows, providing shade for the rooms inside and lowering the building temperature by up to 2 degrees Celsius*1 (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) while helping reduce the use of energy-consuming air-conditioning systems.

One square meter of Green Curtain neutralizes as much as 3.4kg of CO2 annually. In 2016, Kyocera’s Green Curtains stretched out for roughly 710 meters and covered an area of 2,900 square meters in total, absorbing approximately 10,000kg*1 per year. With 10 years of Green Curtain tradition, Kyocera’s efforts total more than 85,000kg of absorbed CO2 — or the equivalent of about 6,300 cedar trees*2.

Background and expansion to date

Kyocera started growing Green Curtains in 2007 at one of its factories in Japan’s Nagano Prefecture in cooperation with local government and a non-governmental organization, with the goal of further reducing the factory’s environmental impact. To date, the activities have been expanded to 27 sites in total including additional factories and offices throughout Japan. Kyocera also encourages its employees as well as local residents to participate in this Green Curtain initiative in their own homes by providing seedlings produced by the Green Curtains. Gourd and morning glory are the most commonly used plants for the Green Curtains, but many others such as passion fruit, navy bean, sponge cucumber and mini Japanese squash (cucurbita pepo) can be used as well

Enjoy healthy dishes with freshly harvested vegetables

Kyocera employees enjoy special dishes with vegetables harvested from the Green Curtains at select company cafeterias or at home. Gourd is often cooked as tempura with Japanese udon noodles or onigirazu (Japanese rice sandwich), which has become very popular in recent years in Japan.

*1 CO2 absorption (3.4kg) x area of Green Curtain (m2) = volume of yearly CO2 absorption. (Source: Rural Culture Association Japan)
*2 One cedar tree absorbs 14kg/year of CO2. (Source: Forestry Agency of Japan)