OREANDA-NEWS. June 18, 2012. The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., announced today that its nine domestic and 13 overseas locations again participated in the global tree-planting campaign "Green Wave 2012" as part of its support to the initiative. This year actual plantings took place at 11 of the 22 total locations, with 2,722 participants planting 23,000 trees. Promoted by the United Nations, Green Wave events including plantings take place concurrently around the world in conjunction with the International Day for Biological Diversity, May 22 each year. Supporting this activity, the Japanese government has designated the period from March 1 through June 15 as "Green Wave 2012" and encourages schools, companies, local public bodies, etc., to join the effort. Yokohama has taken part in Green Wave for the past three years, starting in 2010.

 This year’s domestic plantings took place at the Hiratsuka Factory, Onomichi, Ibaraki, Shinshiro, Mie and Mishima Plants, and the Daigo Proving-ground and Research Center (D-PARC). Overseas locations were SC Kingflex Corporation in Taiwan, Yokohama Tire Corporation (YTC) in the U.S., Yokohama Tire Manufacturing (Thailand) Co., Ltd., and the TIRE TEST CENTER OF ASIA in Thailand. The 11 locations that did not plant new trees this year staged watering, weeding and other events to care for trees planted already.

 Yokohama also affirmatively provides seedlings raised by its employees at their plants to administrations, schools and other companies. During Green Wave 2012, a total of 4,236 seedlings were delivered to local communities, including Otsuchi-cho, Iwate Prefecture, where forests are being created using disaster debris - an effort sponsored by Yokohama under its "Yokohama Forever Forest" project.

 Yokohama launched its "Yokohama Forever Forest" project in 2007 to plant 500,000 trees by 2017 at all Yokohama Rubber Group production facilities in and outside Japan, for the company’s celebration of its 100th anniversary. Under the guidance of Dr. Akira Miyawaki, plant ecologist and professor emeritus of Yokohama National University, Yokohama has planted about 256,000 trees as of the end of Green Wave 2012 on June 15, about half its target.