Panasonic Spearhead Development of a Sustainable Smart Town

Panasonic Corporation and eight other companies that are spearheading advanced environmental initiatives through eco-conscious urban development and smart city projects today announced they will work together to implement a smart town concept called "Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town (Fujisawa SST)" which showcases Panasonic's "entire solutions" business model in full scale to the world.

The city of Fujisawa, in cooperation with the surrounding regions, will also participate in the efforts to globally promote Fujisawa SST as a model project of an environmentally-minded city in action.

The eight leading companies are Accenture, Mitsui & Co., Ltd., Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd., Nihon Sekkei, Inc., ORIX Corporation, PanaHome Corporation, Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co., Ltd. and Tokyo Gas., Ltd. in alphabetical order.

Panasonic and Fujisawa City in Kanagawa Prefecture, situated about 50 km west of Tokyo, reached a basic agreement last year to build a smart town on the vacant lot of Panasonic's former factory site as they announced on November 17, 2010. With an aim to open the new town in the fiscal year ending in March 2014, the business partnership of these nine companies and one city will collaborate to build an innovative smart town deploying services and energy systems based on Panasonic's Eco Ideas for green lifestyles. The developers, manufacturers and service providers will work closely together throughout every phase of the project, from the master planning stage to actual operation of the town that will have about 1,000 households.

Panasonic will apply its "comprehensive solutions for the entire house, entire building and entire town" to Fujisawa SST, combining its energy technologies and a safe and secure environment. The company will effectively create an advanced model of a town demonstrating efficient use of energy by promoting widespread use of energy-saving devices and proposing new solutions that integrate measures for energy creation, storage and management. Specifically, the company plans to preinstall its solar power generation systems and home-use storage battery systems across the town, including homes, various facilities and public zones, which would be the first of its kind in the world. Panasonic intends to replicate Fujisawa SST as a business model in other parts of Japan and overseas.

Roles and Responsibilities for Each Business Partner

The partners of the Fujisawa SST project will lay out plans to carry out their responsibilities for materializing the concept described in the following pages.

Accenture

• Creates the smart town concept, and design and promote the service model.
• Supports construction of a smart town platform in light of global trends.
• Supports overseas expansion and marketing by using its experience in smart city and grid projects abroad.

Mitsui & Co., Ltd.

• Builds infrastructure and develop city blocks and real estate from a global perspective.
• Provides energy management services, taking trends of smart cities overseas into consideration.

Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd. / Mitsui Fudosan Residential Co., Ltd.

• Develops infrastructure entailed by the development projects such as land readjustment.
• Participates in the sales of residential homes and lots.
• Formulates planning, design, and development rules for building the town.
• Formulates service frameworks for operation and maintenance of the town.

Nihon Sekkei, Inc.

• Creates plan for optimal deployment of new energy devices and corresponding space design.
• Proposes a landscape design appropriate for a smart town.
• Formulates town guidelines, etc. for the maintenance of the smart town.

ORIX Corporation

• Considers a one-stop service business that provides a variety of services that will increase the value of the town and an eco-conscious, comfortable and safe lifestyle.
• Creates a low carbon footprint town through mobility sharing.

PanaHome Corporation

• Develops infrastructure entailed by the development projects such as land readjustment.
• Participates in the sales of residential homes and lots.
• Formulates planning, design and development rules for building the town.
• Creates a framework for service business aimed at operation and maintenance of the town.

Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co., Ltd.

• Designs smart town evaluation indicators (to determine environmental real estate values).
• Plans environmentally-conscious loans designed exclusively for the Fujisawa SST.
• Provides town cards, account settlement services and eco-point management to support an eco-conscious, comfortable lifestyle for the inhabitants.
• Provides leasing and financing programs (for secondary batteries, etc).

Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd.

• Introduces its latest "Ene-Farm" household fuel cell systems.
• Proposes ideas for ecologically-sound and comfortable living by utilizing Ene-Farm.
• Promotes smart energy networks.