CulturalCreative
Feb 8th, 2010
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Recently greenz.jp has been attracting a lot of attention from international sources. Two of our most recent listings were in i-genius, a world community of social entrepreneurs that seeks to inspire a new generation of social innovators, social business and social enterprise, and Wend Magazine, a forum for real people, writing real stories about real adventures and real environmental issues. (more…)
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The Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) has released an interesting and very informative look at some of the problems surrounding food and being an island that relies on 60% of food from abroad. Who would have thought that 80% of the ingredients in something as Japanese as Tempura Soba are not from Japan? (more…)
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We’ve talked a lot about food at greenz.jp and about reducing waste associated with food, including ideas such as the okaeri plate and the “WASARA” Good Plate For Good Food, but there hasn’t been much discussion about wasted food itself. And yet, 19 million tonnes of food goes in the trash every year and 9 million tonnes of this hasn’t even expired before it hits the bin, while more than 650,000 people in Japan lack food security. Sad, wasteful and shameful statistics that Second Harvest Japan (2HJ) is trying to do something about. (more…)
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Source: BBC News
The UK is about to send it’s first shipment of nuclear waste back to where it first came from – Japan. This is not the first batch to reach Japanese shores. Since 1995, 12 shipments of nuclear waste originating in Japan have already been returned from facilities in France. The UK shipment is due to arrive in Japan before the end of March, where there are already local storage facilities in place. The UK plant, Sellafield, is not only fulfilling contractual obligations from the 1970’s, but is returning the nuclear waste in accordance with international policy. (more…)
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Coming soon: The Sanyo eneloop music boosterMany music devices, such as amps, equalizers, and multi-track recorders operate on a 9V DC power source supplied by either AC adapters or dry-cell batteries. However AC adapters cannot run without an electrical outlet, and dry-cell batteries are often replaced and thrown out before they are fully exhausted to prevent an embarrassing power failure during a performance. In order to address this issue, Sanyo has created the ‘eneloop music booster’, a new high-capacity rechargeable lithium-ion battery able to supply a stable and long lasting 9V power source for music devices. (more…)
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As a recent vacation approached we found ourselves at a loss for what to do. Too short for a meaningful trip home but too long for milling about Tokyo, we searched for ideas. Even though we’ve been here almost a year, there is still so much of Japan that we want to explore and experience. How to choose? Finally, we found an answer – WWOOF!
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GreenAdvertizing.com just launched the worlds first carbon neutral ad network.
GreenAdvertizing.com is unusal as advertising businesses go as the company is not just about profit. GreenAdvertizing.com is an ethical company and invests in green entrepreneurs and social enterprise. (more…)
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Photo by Hot Rod Homepage. Creative Commons. Some Rights Reserved.
Find inspiring people with Spysee. Help them make a difference with Cheer.Spysee
Spysee is a specialized search engine for finding people. It has has over 40 thousand profiles of people that you can browse and search. And it has its own charity site. (more…)
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Photo by coniferconifer. Creative Commons. Some Rights Reserved.
With a 26 year history, and 103 volumes published, the pages of comic ‘Oishinbo’ (‘The Gourmet’) have long been a battleground for two culinary journalists, Yuzan Kaibara and Shiro Yamaoka. However, from the September 26 issue, the long battle for culinary supremacy is taking an environmental twist! Let’s take a look at how these two will approach ‘cooking’ these ‘greens’. (more…)
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Forest Milk: Winner Good Design Award 2009
Have you checked out the 2009 Good Design Award recipients yet?
Amongst eco-friendly products such as the Toyota Prius, Honda Insight, and Ene-farm Fuel Cell systems, greenz.jp noticed a bottle of ‘forest milk’ by Amita Corporation. Forest milk is produced through forest farming, a technique developed to add extra value to plantation forests. The milk from cows living in these forests has been chosen for the best package design award. (more…)
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‘Kamiyosaku’ – the DIY paper log maker and paper logs. Photo by Kamiyosaku.
Previously, we introduced ‘O’BON’, a company that has been turning newspapers into colored pencils. Now we have another revolutionary way of recycling that ever-growing mountain of old newspapers.
‘Kamiyosaku’ – the DIY paper log maker is a new eco tool for recycling your unwanted newspapers into burnable logs, and just in time for winter, too! (more…)
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Photo by Cayusa. Creative Commons. Some Rights Reserved.
Some would say the most important thing for protecting the environment is education, and a shift in awareness. Teaching our children about how the earth’s systems work, and having them think how to protect the environment is essential for the future of the earth. But how can we teach this? Enter the new global environmental card game ‘My Earth’! (more…)
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Good Ideas Salon is an event organized by the New York based global trends research company PSFK. Held in major cities around the world, it brings together leaders and innovators to share good ideas for a better future. In October, Good Ideas Salon Tokyo was held at CLASKA in Meguro. With the backing of Nissan Motor Co., over 100 local and international designers and creators gathered, including our very own greenz.jp community director Hiromi Matsubara as a panelist! (more…)
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SustainableCommunity
Corporate social contribution a deciding factor for consumers: eneloop survey
Jan 8th, 2010
Creative Commons. Some Rights Reserved. Photo by Simon Whitaker
The eneloop circle campaign we’ve talked about previously on greenz is just one way Sanyo is working for the environment through the eneloop brand. The campaign has accumulated over 300,000 points, meaning the third batch of eneloop lanterns are on their way to Uganda, to bring light to areas with no electricity. (more…)
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Home to some of the most beautiful gardens in the world – including a number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites – Japan has no shortage of spots for the gardening enthusiast to visit. Since our arrival a little less than a year ago, I’ve had the pleasure of visiting many of these and have been amazed again and again.
Yet, what I find the most striking and what still makes me pull a camera out time and time again are the everyday gardens tucked in every corner of the city.
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In 2007 countries with internal armed conflicts numbered 31. That was down from 87 In 2003. There has been a decrease, but we still can’t say it is a small number. Small conflicts sooner or later develop into large wars that create a great number of casualties and refugees. But there are people who are trying to prevent these disputes from turning into large scale wars. They are private civilians that are not related to the United Nations, nor the countries in the conflicts, or event a third party country. These people are referred to as “hikeshi” in international society.
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“You don’t have to be a pro to do it!”
With those words one young man began running. The 3000 kilometer “You Can Do It” Marathon, form Aomori to Okinawa began on September 27th. This cruel journey begins in Rokkasho village in Aomori prefecture and through full distance, 42.195 km, daily marathons ends 71 days later in Naha city, Okinawa.
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We would like to introduce some bags that have an extraordinary style, drawn from Japan’s traditional culture, with really cute crumples and pleats. This brand, Kna Plus, was made with these things in mind: Kanazu Textiles, the company that made it, nature, and a “plus.” The plus is for the people, actions, and things that will connect and interact with the bag when people use it.
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photo by ecolor
From Ecolor (Japanese only), the website of a leader in catalogue shopping Felissimo (Japanese only), are new reusable and washable gauze tissues (Japanese only).
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Creative Commons. Some Rights Reserved. Photo by johann.aberkaneI imagine there must be a lot of greenz readers who are avid bloggers themselves. Green blogs often influence each other and grow with each connection made. If you’re going to the effort of making a blog with green content, why not go all the way, and have green design and management? The Livedoor ‘Get Eco with Green Blog Design’ campaign offers the opportunity to contribute easily to global environmental activities while writing your blog. Let’s see how they do this.
