EUROPEAN INSTALLERS SEE FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE LIVING IN JAPAN WITH PANASONIC  

The winners of the Panasonic PRO Awards have just returned from an amazing trip to Panasonic HQ in Tokyo.   Heating and cooling installers from across the EU, including France, Ireland, Poland, Spain and the UK, recently visited Japan to see the company’s state-of-the-art factory in Gunma and get a glimpse into the future of sustainable technology, visiting the Panasonic Centre in Tokyo and Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town.
 

Delegates were given the opportunity to explore Panasonic’s state-of-the-art factory in Gunma, where they were given a glimpse of upcoming developments in the company’s heating and cooling technology.  

The trip also included a ‘behind the scenes’ tour of Panasonic’s manufacturing facility, where they could see the lengths Panasonic goes to to ensure the reliability and quality of their products that customers have come to expect as well as a visit to the impressive Sustainable Smart Town in Fujisawa.   
 

Speaking about the trip, Stuart Frudd of UK distributor FWP commented: “I thought the trip to Japan was a fantastic experience.  The trip to the Fujisawa Smart Sustainable Town was really interesting; it was great to see the technology being put into practice that’s helping create sustainable communities. Japan always seems to be ahead of the curve when it comes to technology, so it was fascinating to see what the future holds for heating and cooling at the Panasonic factory.”
 

The Panasonic Centre in Tokyo provided the visitors with an insight into the future of technology across all of Panasonic’s business areas, including heating & cooling, digital AV products, healthcare services and home appliances. Technology plays an ever-increasing role in our lives, and the Panasonic Centre is designed to give visitors an idea of how it will develop over the next five to ten years and shape society and the world around us.  

Finally, the visitors were given a guided tour of the Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town (SST), an initiative developed by Panasonic to showcase their latest technology and how it can be integrated into communities to create the safe and sustainable living spaces of the future. The town was created in collaboration with the public sector and accommodates over 1000 households. Earthquakes are a significant concern in Japan and the homes in the Fujisawa SST are specifically designed, through smart technology, to resist these disasters. The town also uses a smart infrastructure to provide services to residents such as healthcare and energy, as well as providing technology such as photo-voltaic panels and energy efficient heating solutions to help residents live a sustainable lifestyle.  Panasonic technology, such as the company’s ECOCUTE energy efficient heat pump, helps to manage local energy generation for “self-creation and self-consumption of energy”, using a hybrid of natural energy and advanced technologies, including energy-creation, energy-storage, and energy-saving technologies.