Aeon's Tree Planting Activities
Aeon has positioned its tree planting activities as one that embodies its Basic Principles, which state "pursuing peace, respecting humanity, and contributing to local communities, always with the customer's point of view at its core."
Building Foundations for Peace
Environmental issues are a common challenge for humanity, which pose a threat to healthy and peaceful lives.
Aeon operates its businesses that are closely linked to people's lives, and strives to resolve environmental issues by planting trees based on the awareness that businesses will grow only when there is a peaceful society.
People Interacting Vibrantly
Tree planting brings together many people, young and old.
Greetings are exchanged, conversations begin, and smiles spread.
Aeon hopes to further expand such opportunities for vibrant communication through tree planting.
Growing Together with People of the Community
Aeon aims to nurture forests that are rooted in the community by planting tree species that are native to the area.
We also hope to share with many people the wide-ranging awareness obtained through the tree nurturing process and continue to grow constantly.
Planting the Next 10 Million Trees Together with Customers
Aeon's tree planting activities began in 1991. The number of trees planted together with customers throughout Japan and around the world totaled 10 million in 2013. We wish to thank all customers inside and outside Japan who participated in this initiative. To welcome more customers to join us in the new stage of tree planting activities, Aeon will continue to plant trees and create shopping centers filled with greenery.
Globally Expanding Tree Planting Activities
Aeon's tree planting activities are also conducted outside Japan in Asian countries including China, Malaysia, and Thailand. The circle of tree planting activities is expanding to include customers around the world.
The Philosophy behind Tree Planting
Around 50 years ago, in the 1960s, Takuya Okada (current Honorary Chairman), who was president of Jusco (now AEON) at the time, sensed something was wrong with the global environment when the nandina berries he had planted in the garden of his home in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, stopped blooming. Even after that, as the economy grew and air pollution and other forms of pollution became social issues, Okada began to feel a great sense of crisis, believing that "losing the blessings of nature means losing the source of our abundance."
Then, after thinking about what we could do as a retailer, we launched the "AEON Hometown Forests Program" initiative in 1991.
Since then, AEON has taken advantage of the unique feature of retailing, which is a business closely tied to the local community, to conduct tree planting activities together with local customers when opening new stores in various locations.
Learn about Aeon's Tree Planting Activities
There are two activities: "AEON Hometown Forests Program" which is carried out when a new store opens, and tree planting activities by AEON Environmental Foundation. We are carrying out tree planting activities with great care under the guidance of the late Akira Miyawaki, a world authority on plant ecology and professor emeritus at Yokohama National University.