Tamachi Building Restaurant Offers Freshly Picked Vegetables

The restaurant serving freshly picked vegetables is located on the B1 level of the company's Daiichi Tamachi Building located in front of JR Tamachi station in central Tokyo. The facility is operated by NewTokyo Restaurant Co., Ltd., a major Tokyo-based restaurant chain, and serves lunch and dinner. The freshly picked vegetables appear mainly in such dinner items as salads, lettuce-wrapped shumai dumplings, and baby greens and prosciutto pizza.

Two vegetable mini-factory units have been installed at the restaurant. Each day about 60 heads of leaf lettuce (roughly 6 kg) can be harvested, along with about 1,500 heads (2 kg) of baby greens. The vegetable-growing systems are powered by electricity from an MHI solar generation system installed on the roof of the building last year. This system can generate about 4 kWh, which is equal to the electricity consumption of an average household.

Tamachi Building installed the vegetable mini-factories in January. Working in tandem, the company and NewTokyo Restaurant carried out test plantings until a stable yield was achieved and developed new menu items that would showcase the freshly picked vegetables. At the same time, tasting sessions were held so that restaurant patrons could compare the flavor of vegetables harvested at the restaurant with that of vegetables grown outdoors. The two companies also tested the drawing power of a healthful menu featuring freshly picked vegetables and launched a PR campaign.

Tamachi Building is a wholly owned subsidiary of MHI that was established in 1964 to own and operate rental office buildings, manage MHI's own buildings and provide related services. Reflecting a business philosophy that aims at providing safe and pleasant buildings, the company undertakes activities relating to education and the environment in line with MHI's CSR and environmental policies. Through these activities, the company contributes to a better environment and to the community and raises the CSR awareness of its employees.