The idea behind the Green Curtains technique is to keep buildings cool by reducing their exposure to direct sunlight. Plants are grown on the outer surface of site windows and external walls, and on nets put up in surrounding areas. This serves to block out the natural sunlight and provide more shade. This approach can bring down the temperature inside by as much as two degrees Celsius, reducing the need for air conditioning and subsequent energy consumption.
Just one square metre of Green Curtain is enough to neutralise 3.4 kilograms of CO2 each year, meaning that with almost 2,900m2 of Green Curtain, Kyocera absorbs almost 10,000kg of CO2 every year. When considering the total impact of the scheme, which has been running since 2007, the total amount of CO2 neutralised exceeds 100,000kg.
Going beyond the obvious environmental and aesthetic value, this green initiative has also given the company’s installations a new purpose. Among the plants and trees, fruit and vegetables can be grown and are then used in the company’s cafeterias or shared with employees to take home. These include typical Japanese ingredients such as gourd.
Now active across 27 different sites, ranging from factories to office buildings, Kyocera also provides seedlings to their employees so that they can grow their own Green Curtains at home. This reflects the company’s ongoing commitment to promote sustainability as a key part of its philosophy.
This philosophy, created by founder Dr. Kazuo Inamori, is structured around the central question “what is the right thing to do as a human being?”, with a focus on “serving the greater good of humanity and the world”. Ever since Kyocera Document Solutions Europe was founded, these notions have dictated the objectives and strategies followed by the organisation.
Dr. Inamori’s legacy is particularly well reflected in one of Kyocera Document Solutions Europe’s fundamental objectives: reducing the use of energy. For example, the recent launch of the ECOSYS P3145dn, ECOSYS P3150dn, and ECOSYS P3155dn printers has extended the range of ECOSYS devices. Since its inception, this product range has been designed with the environment in mind to ensure that companies can fulfil their printing and document needs in the most environmentally sustainable way possible.
