February 2015
| Business World
67
use some of the products that they make [in
the Philippines] and ship them over, because
it makes a lot of sense for our business.”
DEVELOPMENTS
In 2011, Ichijo USA took on their inaugu-
ral development. Spearheaded by the City
of Issaquah with other partners, the zHome
community was the first of its kind in the
country. Using net-zero energy, the 10 town-
homes were all equippedwith the latest state-
of-the-art innovations in energy and green
efficiency including geothermal, rainwater
systems for recycling rainwater for flushing
toilets and washing machines as well as so-
lar and in-floor radiant heating to create a
utopian way of living. As President of Ichijo
USA, Akinobu Ohno sees the zHome proj-
ect as just the beginning.
“We’re now in the process of building some
other projects around Issaquah, where there
are 35 single family lots” Ohno said. “We’re
going to start other projects in other cities;
we anticipate completing 40-60 projects in
2015.”
The ambitious and aggressive project plans
set forth by Ichijo USA are already being
put into place, with development already be-
ginning on a community called Sun Ridge,
located in the Issaquah Highlands. The 35
single-family detached homes being built
will all have solar panels on them, a majority
of them will also have Ichijo’s own in-floor
radiant heating, a product that the company
fabricates on its own; a unique selling point
for the area and another step in the right di-
