On Dec 5 2012, Sony Europe won the Sustainability Leaders Award in the Stakeholder Engagement category for the communication efforts of its Futurescapes campaign. The Sustainability Leaders Award is one of the UK's premier award events for those demonstrating leadership and innovation in sustainability in both the private and public sectors.
From Aug 31 to Sep 5 2012, Sony took part in the IFA electronics show in Berlin. During the press conference Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai touched on how Sony strives to make products that "do more with less", pointing to the EISA Green Smartphone Award winning Xperia P as an example. A number of eco-conscious products were displayed in the Sony Booth.
Sony Europe launched the Open Planet Ideas crowdsourcing challenge in partnership with WWF in September 2010 to identify ways to use existing technologies to deliver positive sustainable impact. People from over 170 countries submitted over 400 concepts with the"+U"mobile volunteering application voted the winner. +U is a unique mobile volunteering application which combines real world volunteering opportunities with the power of social networking. In March 2012, the app was released in the UK and the coding of the application wasreleased as open-source.
In December 2011, 400 staff attended Sustainability Fairs held at Sony UK offices in Weybridge and Basingstoke. A series of fun, interactive stands and challenging games encouraged staff to compete for green prizes such as energy monitors and organic chocolates while learning more about Road to Zero, energy and waste. A toolkit is being shared across Europe to encourage other sites to run similar events.
On Nov 25 2011, Sony Europe's Forest Guard project was honored by the Energy Globe Awards. Sony Europe Director of R&D, Morgan David, accepted the award on behalf of the Forest Guard team. The Forest Guard concept uses a network of solar-powered CCTV cameras and online citizen fire watchers to obtain advance warning of wildfires before they manage to spread. The resulting prototype cameras have been piloted in the Tahoe National Forest by the University of Nevada, Reno since 2009.