The challenge

One of the greatest challenges we face today is protecting the Earth’s natural resources for generations to come and placing preservation at the heart of agendas for sustainable development. And the key to sensitizing the public to the importance of World Heritage preservation begins with educating young people. By learning about World Heritage sites, the history and traditions of their own and other cultures, ecology, and the importance of protecting biodiversity, they learn from any early age to value the Earth's natural resources – and the importance of protecting them.

The response

Panasonic, one of the world’s leading electronics companies, has been working with the World Heritage Centre since 1995. Building on a long-standing partnership of publishing and disseminating World Heritage Calendars, Panasonic took a great step forward in 2011 to deepen the joint efforts to support sustainable development through World Heritage conservation and education, especially in reaching out to young people.

Leveraging Panasonic’s visual technologies and global reach, this partnership has helped raise awareness of the importance of cultural heritage and environmental preservation by supporting the UNESCO Young People's World Heritage Education (WHE) Programme. Launched in 1994, the WHE Programme seeks to encourage and enable tomorrow's decision-makers to participate in heritage conservation and to respond to the continuing threats facing our heritage.

“The partnership between UNESCO and Panasonic is
a partnership for change, a partnership for a better future.”

Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO

Activities on the ground

The partnership between Panasonic and the World Heritage Centre is two-fold – promoting World Heritage and sustainable development through a global communication campaign and supporting educational activities of the World Heritage Centre. The partnership seeks to raise awareness about sustainable development worldwide, especially among young people, reaching out to the public via television and the press.

Under the “umbrella” of Panasonic Kids School, the company boasts a wide range of educational programmes for young people, giving pupils the opportunity to learn about climate change and protecting our planet in easy-to-understand and playful ways. For the Eco Picture Diary Contest, children are asked to write down and illustrate the actions they have taken during the day to protect their environment, and tell how they propose to do even more. As part of the global Eco Learning Programme, children visit selected World Heritage sites to appreciate them first-hand.

Panasonic’s sponsorship of The World Heritage Special, aired on the National Geographic Channel, has brought awareness of World Heritage into homes and schools in 183 countries. A series of television commercials aired worldwide and related to the company's Green Plan 2018 features World Heritage sites and highlights the need to preserve them.

About Panasonic

Panasonic Corporation is a worldwide leader in the development and engineering of electronic technologies and solutions for customers in residential, non-residential, mobility and personal applications. Since its founding in 1918, the company has expanded globally and now operates around 500 consolidated companies worldwide, recording consolidated net sales of 7.74 trillion yen for the year ended March 31, 2014. Committed to pursuing new value through innovation across divisional lines, the company strives to create a better life and a better world for its customers. For more information about Panasonic, please visit the company's website at panasonic.net.

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