Canon India has donated 20 solar panels for energy production center at Ferozpur Namak village in Mewat District of Haryana.
Installed on the roof of the government school in the village, these solar panels would enable 30 fans and up to 20 lights to be operational for 6 to 8 hrs in a day.
The company has also augmented its sustainability initiatives through various community development programs in villages.
Canon India is focusing on three areas of corporate social responsibility (CSR): Eye Care, Education and Environment. The company launched an “Adopt a Village” program in 2012. It plans to replicate the model in other needy communities.
Commenting on these sustainability initiatives, Kazutada Kobayashi, president and CEO, Canon India, said, “The Ferozpur Namak Village is the first project under our holistic Adopt a Village campaign and has successfully completed one year of operation.”
Canon’s aim was to bring up the village under three areas of their core CSR policy – Education, Eye Care and Environment, Kobayashi said. During the last one year, there have been significant improvements in the overall infrastructure of the school, adopted under this campaign at the village.
“We are proud of this significant achievement and want to help the village to become self-sustainable in the long run enabling us to bring more villages under this program,” Kobayashi added.
To further strengthen its Adopt a village project in 2014, Canon will focus on quality of education through Teachers’ Capability Trainings, establishment of a computer lab and a series of community engagement programs for sustainability at the village school.
In the vision centre, Canon aims to make provisions for conducting surgery and multiple successors training. A sanitation drive will begin for overall village community development.
By 2016, the company aims to benefit 50,000 people in Ferozpur Namak and neighboring villages for Eye Care, development of 1,500 children, improved sanitation and water situation to improve quality of life of 9,000 people in 1,100 households.
Other CSR projects undertaken by Canon include adoption of 3 rapid metro stations for creating a green belt around them in Gurgaon and a photo exchange program between Canon India and Canon China wherein kids in the adopted villages of these two countries click pictures with Canon cameras and share them across boundaries with each other.