Crain News Service report
TOKYO (Oct. 24, 2013) — Yokohama Rubber (China) Co., Ltd. was honored recently with the "Most Excellent Company Image Award" at the inaugural 2013 Beautiful China awards ceremony, held in September in Beijing.
"Beautiful China" is presented by 17 Chinese newspapers and Web-based media outlets to encourage and recognize environmental protection activities in discharging corporate social responsibility, according to Yokohama.
Awards were presented to 100 companies, including 35 foreign companies, as well as to 38 individuals. Yokohama Rubber China was one of two Japanese companies to receive the Most Excellent Company Image Award.
The tire maker received the award in recognition of its tree-planting activities and contributions to regional projects by a Chinese environmental NGO. Yokohama said since 2011 it has been cooperating with the Beijing SanSheng Environment and Development Research Institute in a project to promote sustainable economic growth and ecological preservation in Heyuan, a poor village in the Laojun Mountain Nature Reserve in Lijiang, Yunnan Province, China.
Because Heyuan depends on lumber as the villagers' main source of income, according to Yokohama, damage has been done to the area's natural resources and ecosystems. To reverse this process and help villagers establish a sustainable livelihood while preserving the natural ecosystem, Yokohama has supported educational and environmental protection activities in Heyuan since 2011.
The company has also planted 40,000 trees at group production sites throughout China as part of the global Yokohama Forever Forest Project started in 2007.