Choice Hotels Japan Co., Ltd. Program for Comfort Hotel members to experience SDGs “Forest School” will be held on March 15th (Saturday) in Okutama, which is full of nature, to enjoy learning about a sustainable future throu gh forest conservation

[Choice Hotels Japan Co., Ltd.] [Program for Comfort Hotel members to experience SDGs] “Forest School” will be held on March 15th (Saturday) in Okutama, which is full of nature, to enjoy learning about a sustainable future through forest conservation. ​
Choice Hotels Japan Co., Ltd. Press release: March 24, 2025 [Program for Comfort Hotel members to experience SDGs] “Forest School” will be held on March 15th (Saturday) in Okutama, which is full of nature, to enjoy learning about a
sustainable future through forest conservation 21 people from 8 groups participated in the hotel membership system “Choice Guest Club (TM)” where one night’s stay can help solve social issues Choice Hotels Japan Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Takahiko Ito; hereinafter referred to as “Choice Hotels Japan”), which operates Comfort Hotels, Comfort Hotel ERA, Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, and Ascend Hotel Collection (TM) nationwide, will launch the membership system “Choice Guest” on Comfort Hotel’s official website on Saturday, March 15, 2025. We held a forest conservation experience program called “Forest School” for members of the “Forest Club(TM)”. On the day of the event, 21 people from 8 groups, ranging from elementary school students to adults, participated, and through bamboo thinning and bamboo crafting, they learned about the importance of forest conservation activities and the donation support efforts of the Choice Guest Club(TM).
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/37991/208/37991-208-021f3930863060039e07a0fd955e01af-2000×1333.jpg Forest School Event Overview ・Name: Forest School ・Venue: “Okutama Umisawa Fureai Farm” 497-21 Umisawa, Okutama-cho, Nishitama-gun, Tokyo ・Date: March 15, 2025 (Saturday) 11:00-16:00 ・Participants: Membership system “Choice” on Comfort Hotel’s official website Guest Club(TM)” members: 8 groups, 21 people ・Cooperating organization: Certified NPO JUON NETWORK Choice Guest Club(TM), a hotel membership system where one night’s stay can help preserve future forests.Experience programs exclusively for members are held “Choice Guest Club(TM)” is a membership system for the official website of Comfort Hotels operated by Choice Hotels Japan. As of March 2025, it has approximately 1 million members. Based on the concept of “Revitalize the world and cities through travel,” in addition to providing convenient benefits such as discounted accommodation and long stays, we donate 0.5% of our members’ accommodation fees to three organizations working to solve social issues every year. We also offer hands-on benefits through donation support, because we want our customers to feel that they are involved in support, and we want to provide opportunities for children to have fun and learn together. The recently held “Forest School” is one of the “Hotel Conquest” benefits where you can receive a gift every time you stay at five different comfort hotels, and is an experiential benefit that only members who have conquered five hotels can participate in. The event was jointly held with the certified NPO JUON NETWORK (hereinafter referred to as JUON NETWORK) is one of the three organizations we support with donations, and is an NPO that works to restore degraded forests. With the aim of expanding networks that support each other between cities and rural areas through experiences, exchanges, and support activities related to forests, etc., and creating a sustainable society, we are working on the operation of the “Forest Raku School”, an experiential program where you can learn about forests and environmental issues. Choice Hotels Japan and JUON NETWORK has jointly held “Forest School” three times so far (October 2018, March 2024, and October 2024), and Saturday, March 15, 2025 will be the fourth time. ・Comfort Hotel official website membership system Choice Guest Club(TM) URL:
https://www.choice-hotels.jp/guest/ ・Introducing support groups URL: https://www.choice-hotels.jp/guest/csv.php Practice bamboo thinning and bamboo crafts! Learn about forest conservation and environmental issues while having fun in the great outdoors
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/37991/208/37991-208-d88a6c66c4daaf1ecb0184e4789db2e8-2000×1333.jpg On the day of the event, a total of 21 people, including seven elementary school students, participated in bamboo thinning, bamboo crafts making cups and chopsticks using felled bamboo, a nature walk, and a pizza making experience. We also learned about forests and environmental issues by interacting with local people and receiving explanations from JUON NETWORK about the importance of thinning and the ecology of bamboo.
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/37991/208/37991-208-ac38e455d0dfa66f4bcc2a19f6e94e83-2000×1333.jpg
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/37991/208/37991-208-24f4dc132417b657f2c2068cfbeac04b-2000×1333.jpg ・Thinning work Currently, Japan’s agricultural and mountain villages are becoming increasingly depopulated, and forests are not being properly maintained, leading to deterioration. Thinning is the process of selecting and cutting down trees that are not growing or are unnecessary in order to maintain the health of the forest. This method involves cutting down and thinning part of the forest so that sunlight can reach the ground surface and allow the remaining trees to grow healthily. Each group worked to thin the overcrowded bamboo forest. Not only adults but also children got a chance to experience cutting down a large bamboo several meters long using a saw while receiving lectures from local people. The program allowed both adults and children to have fun and realize the importance of forest
conservation.
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/37991/208/37991-208-bb27bd22449ced9184edf68b4e58ebe7-2000×1333.jpg
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/37991/208/37991-208-96315ed796d0f39414da39f6c49e3958-2000×1333.jpg ・Bamboo crafting experience We experienced making original cups and chopsticks using bamboo cut down during tree thinning operations. Bamboo is attracting attention as a sustainable material because it grows quickly and has little impact on the environment. Through a bamboo craft experience, students learned about initiatives that contribute to the global environment and local communities. Image
URL: https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/37991/208/37991-208-9caf8f08dd9ebdc403ec44bfd52f49af-2000×1333.jpg
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/37991/208/37991-208-a908f020eeb04f40948fb087664d7d75-2000×1333.jpg ・Pizza making experience Parents and children enjoyed making pizza in an authentic brick pizza oven. Each person enjoyed a freshly baked pizza by rolling out the dough, adding toppings, and baking it themselves. Participant comments Feedback from participants included, “It was a lot of fun because I got to experience something that I wouldn’t normally get to do.” and “It was a really fun event.” ・Participant comments “It was a great experience as I had never used a pizza oven or cut bamboo before.The kids really enjoyed it too.” “It was fun to make bamboo crafts and pizza with my daughter.” “Making the pizza, cutting down the bamboo, and all the crafts were fun.” Comment from person in charge “We want to be the kind of hotel where you not only create wonderful memories through your trip, but also where you can help someone by staying there.We hope that you will continue to stay at our hotel through the Choice Guest Club (TM) membership system on our official website and work with us to expand this initiative. ” Future outlook At Choice Hotels Japan, we will not only continue to provide accommodation services, but will also continue to expand our membership system, “Choice Guest Guest.” We aim to be a hotel that can contribute to the realization of a sustainable society by continuing social contribution activities through “Club(TM)”. Through a system that helps solve social issues every time a guest stays at a comfort hotel, we hope to create a cyclical cycle in which travel energizes the world and the city. Furthermore, we will continue to support donations to three
organizations working to resolve social issues, and through
collaboration, we would like to create opportunities for customers to feel that they are involved in support. ＜Choice Guest Club(TM) Overview> Choice Guest Club(TM) is a membership system on the official website of Comfort Hotels, which has over 1 million members. Based on the concept of “Revitalizing the world and cities through travel,” we offer convenient benefits such as accommodation discounts and long stays, as well as experiential benefits that allow you to learn about the SDGs. The biggest feature of “Choice Guest Club(TM)” is “a program that gradually rejuvenates society every time a guest stays with us.” Every time we stay, we accumulate “choices”, and every year since 2016, we have donated the amount according to the number of “choices” to three organizations that support the fields of “environment,” “education,” and “employment,” as well as “Japan’s cities” and “cities around the world.”
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/37991/208/37991-208-70ea0eecde216c372d974e69c22b2c9e-1554×901.png Address: Yoshino Daiichi Building, 1-6-3 Nihonbashi Bakurocho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 103-0002 2nd floor President: Takahiko Ito Established: September 2000 Capital: 20 million yen URL:
https://www.choice-hotels.jp Business details: Recruitment, guidance, management, and operation of hotel franchise members. As the master partner in Japan of the American hotel chain “Choice Hotels
International,” which operates over 7,400 hotels in over 45 countries around the world, we operate Comfort Hotels, Comfort Hotel ERA, Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, and Ascend Hotel Collection (TM) throughout Japan