Tamachi Building Co. Invites Nursery School Children to Potato Dig at Company's Rooftop Garden
-- Offering Fun Learning Opportunity about Environment as CSR Activity --

The 219 square meter (m2) garden where the event took place is situated on the roof of the Dai Ichi Tamachi Building, directly across from East Japan Railway's Tamachi Station in Minato-ku.
Within the rooftop garden, a 21.5m2 vegetable garden has been used to cultivate some 100 sweet potato plants. Sweet potato was selected because during the summer season this plant has a high green coverage ratio, thereby providing excellent heat insulation; also, sweet potatoes offer good opportunities for children to dig and taste. The remainder of the garden is being utilized primarily for planting grass, flowers and evergreens.

At the latest event, about 30 three-year-old children attending a nearby nursery school first learned about the rooftop garden system and its benefits through easy-to-understand explanations using photos and drawings. They then enjoyed digging up the potatoes, drawing pictures of their fun experience, and eating potatoes steamed on the site.

Tamachi Building has been conducting the rooftop garden experiment since May 2009 as part of a program to achieve full-fledged rooftop greening in the near future. The initiative is also linked to Minato-ku's greening campaign targeting a green coverage ratio of 25% by 2026.

Tamachi Building is a wholly owned subsidiary of MHI 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 to provide safe and comfortable buildings, the company undertakes activities relating to education and the environment in line with MHI's CSR and environmental policies. Since April this year the company has taken up a new challenge focused on consumption, in a restaurant within the Dai Ichi Tamachi Building, of dishes using safe, healthful, freshly picked vegetables cultivated on the site in solar-powered "mini vegetable factories" that use no pesticides or other chemicals.

Through these various activities, Tamachi Building is contributing to a better environment and to its local community as it simultaneously raises the CSR awareness of its employees.