Overview

The Shizen Foundation is a product of Shizen Energy Inc.’s 1% for Community® initiative and provides a platform to support region-led social reform.
As well as being an initiative to utilize revenue from power plants owned by the Shizen Energy Group for the development of the regions in which power plants are located, the Shizen Foundation was founded in 2016 in order to gather funding and provide support for businesses and other parties tackling regional issues over a wide area, and it is now expanding the scope of its activities.

Shizen Foundation Initiatives

Through the provision of funding and a network of nationwide businesses and government bodies built up by the Shizen Energy Group, this foundation aims to provide support for the growth of organizations carrying out social projects and expand their social impact.
Whereas traditional investment has the concept of an “exit”, which refers to financial returns through IPOs and sales, this foundation instead takes a different approach and identifies businesses and organizations who bring about systemic change (change in which region-led initiatives grow and have an impact on social systems an policy) and provides support for the realization of such change.

Why we undertake our initiatives

As well as energy issues, Japan also faces a wide range of other issues. In order to set up renewable energy power plants in areas all around Japan, we have always made the effort to actually visit these locations and see for ourselves the unique issues that regions face. At the same time, we have also encountered organizations and companies that have taken on the challenge of resolving these issues.
The Shizen Foundation also shares the Shizen Energy Group’s vision of changing the world with energy. With the shared aim of creating a sustainable world, the Shizen Energy Group works on initiatives with energy in the form of electricity while the Shizen Foundation works with energy in the form of people and new challenges.
By leveraging the knowledge and community connections that the Shizen Energy Group has around Japan, we believe that we can provide support to those who take on the challenge of resolving social issues from our own unique perspective.

Subsidies and funding provided by the Shizen Foundation so far

• Keio University EBA Minamata International Training Program
  An international training program held by Keio University based on fieldwork in Kumamoto Prefecture’s Minamata City for ASEAN students that aims to develop future leaders in the field of the environment.
• Colab Planet Co., Ltd. Blearnch Tutoring School (https://www.blearnch.com)
  A venture focusing on Kyushu which has strong local connections and uses idle facilities to bring tutoring schools to depopulated areas and other such areas that have no major tutoring schools with the aim of rejuvenating these areas through education.