Sony and wood chips may seem an unlikely combination, but wood chips are a valuable ally in our environmental initiatives. At offices and plants across Japan and elsewhere, we are actively introducing green power, derived from renewable, essentially unlimited sources of energy such as wind, sunlight, and biomass that are free of additional carbon dioxide emissions.

One supplier of this green power is Noshiro Biomass Power Plant in northern Japan. Biomass refers to renewable organic resources of biological origin, and here at the Noshiro power plant located in the heart of a heavily forested area, chips and scrap wood produced at lumber mills from forest thinning are burned as fuel in power generation. CO₂ from burning the wood is offset by the absorption of atmospheric CO₂ in photosynthesis by these trees as they grew, which makes this an energy solution that's attracting attention. But over the course of our relationship with the plant in Noshiro, we noticed an opportunity for improvement: a lot of wood from thinning was lying unused in forests.

Thinning is a key activity in nurturing healthy forests. Without it, not enough sunlight may reach trees for photosynthesis, which would inhibit growth. What's more, even when forest thinning was practiced in Noshiro, the resulting materials remained and accumulated because of costs associated with removal. We viewed this material as a valuable resource—fuel for the green power we sought.

That's when we approached local officials with a plan to defray transportation costs to the biomass plant. This system helps Noshiro forests thrive by promoting beneficial forest thinning while supporting the generation of green power from this material. After the plan for Sony to support this program was officially accepted in April 2008, Sony Marketing, Sony Supply Chain Solutions, and Sony Bank immediately switched to green power for 100% of their energy needs. We call our system linking forest conservation with green power Green Energy Link. This promising system can be developed nationwide. Green Energy Link is growing. The Sony vision of a greener future is well underway.