News: Sakata Goes Solar!

Sakata Seed America Announces New Solar Project Installation

Taking a significant step toward environmental sustainability.
Morgan Hill, September 2013—Sakata is pleased to announce its solar project installation at the company’s U.S. headquarters in Morgan Hill, California. This project represents one of the largest solar-powered projects to date in the Santa Clara County.

The Solar Company, a family-owned and operated solar panel installation company, completed the entire 670 Kilowatt generating system project. The 2,000 panel project can create over 1 million kilowatt hours of electricity and is projected to eliminate 100% of current electrical usage.

Dave Armstrong, President and CEO of Sakata Seed America, enthusiastically championed the solar initiative for the company. “Sakata is an environmentally responsible company and is extremely interested in promoting care and respect for the natural world. By converting our beautiful California sunshine to electricity for powering our operations, we not only save costs but also reduce our carbon footprint and continue to contribute to the improvement of our environment,” says Armstrong.

Sakata Seed America, Inc. has deep experience in commercial and home grown vegetable breeding and production, and in bedding and potted flowering ornamentals. Sakata believes in maintaining environmentally-friendly policies to achieve a more sustainable business.

To fulfill various sustainable efforts, Sakata has formed a team consisting of staff members from a variety of departments. It is aptly named the GreenUp Team. “Our focus is to ensure that we reduce negative impact on our global and local environment, community, society and economy,” says Diana Blea, Human Resources Director and member of the GreenUp Team.

Sakata is also currently fulfilling a three-year plan to improve the infrastructure by reducing water usage for the office landscaping and through installing low-flow toilets earlier this year. Additional initiatives that have been made by Sakata include digital communications to reduce paper, rigorous recycling of various material such paper, food/drink containers, and electronics, and switching out all light bulbs for energy efficient options. Both buildings at the America headquarters also recently had the windows tinted to reduce air-conditioning use.