SANYO North America Employees Volunteer for International Coastal Cleanup Day

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- SANYO North America Corporation (SANYO) employees are voluntarily participating this Saturday in Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup Day, a single-day signature volunteer cleanup event dedicated to cleaning up coastlines all over the world. With its workforce all across North America, 250 SANYO volunteers will participate from and in locations such as Mexico, the United States (California and Oregon), and Canada. By encouraging its employees and surrounding communities to participate in the international event, SANYO is further advancing its corporate social responsibility activities, supporting efforts to create a more sustainable planet. The community cleanup efforts will take place on Saturday, September 25.

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(Photo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100923/LA70468)

In its 25th year, International Coastal Cleanup Day holds a signature annual event each September, where hundreds of thousands of volunteers from countries all over the world spend a day picking up and removing litter and marine debris in an effort to prevent them from taking a toll on underwater and water-related environments. According to Ocean Conservancy, in 2009 498,818 volunteers collected more than 7.4 million pounds of trash in 100 countries and 42 U.S. states. It is the world's largest volunteer effort of its kind.

"Marine debris is the most widespread problem facing our coast and ocean, and it's entirely preventable," said Greg Helms, the Southern California Program Manager of the Ocean Conservancy. "People caused this problem, and on Coastal Cleanup Day the community is being part of the solution."

In San Diego, where SANYO has its North American headquarters, the local cleanup efforts are being coordinated jointly by "I Love a Clean San Diego" and "San Diego Coastkeeper." More than half, approximately 150, SANYO employees will be participating in the event at the Mission Bay Vacation Isle North Cove location. Statewide support for the cleanup effort is being offered by the California Coastal Commission. Last year in San Diego County, 10,283 volunteers removed 174,491 pounds of debris from more than 150 miles of coastal shorelines and inland areas.

"Keeping our environment clean is important and our responsibility, which we highly encourage at SANYO," said Mr. Masami Murata, President of SANYO North America Corporation. "It is very compelling to see the response of the volunteers around the world as they take time to do something to care for the environment. As a company, we want to support our community and environmental causes, and we constantly work to develop products and services that will minimize our footprint on the environment."

For more information about SANYO, please visit http://us.sanyo.com.

To learn more about the International Coastal Cleanup Day on Saturday, September 25, please visit: http://oceanconservancy.org.

About SANYO

SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. is a global, multi-billion dollar leading company for energy and environment. SANYO North America Corporation, a subsidiary of SANYO Electric, markets and sells energy- and environment-related products in North America including a variety of commercial and consumer solutions such as rechargeable batteries, digital imaging devices, biomedical and health-related equipment, HVAC equipment, home appliances, etc. For further information on SANYO, please visit http://us.sanyo.com/.

SOURCE SANYO North America Corporation