CulturalCreative
greenz.jp in Japan Today INSIGHT: “Navigating A Sustainable Future”
Mar 13th, 2010
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As we talked about the value of content sharing in our contribution post to Tokyo Metropolis magazine, we’ve expanded the relationship to another great online media – Japan Today.
Japan Today, launched in September 2000, is a Tokyo-based online newspaper, featuring all the latest news on Japan and the world, including national, political, entertainment, business, technology and sports news. Japan Today publishes original content, including interviews with celebrities and business executives, and translations of pop culture articles from popular Japanese magazines and newspapers. And under their newly launched special feature “INSIGHT” section, there are collection of articles, stories, experiences and opinions garnered from the Thought-Leaders, Innovators and Visionaries in Japan. If you look inside the “Navigating A Sustainable Future” column, you would find out our recent contribution post.
Food for Thought – Future of Food
Over the past few years, there has been unprecedented media coverage and resulting community interest generated around the issue of food security in Japan. This has been fueled by scandals such as those arising from scandals like the case of the Chinese dumplings poisoning and “Jikomai” (damaged rice). As a result, many consumers are shifting their choices to healthier, domestically (or locally) produced food or even to growing their own vegetables in veranda gardens. Despite these individual efforts and increasing eco-consciousness, Japan’s food self-sufficiency rate is only 40% – shamefully the lowest amongst of the developed nations (Australia- over 200%, USA-132%, France 139% etc). But what’s more frightening is the fact (which many people do not know ) that self-sufficiency rate of Tokyo is 1% (From the 2007 MAFF (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries) survey of all prefectures in Japan.
Click HERE to read the rest of the post.
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We all know the importance and value of the internet in disseminating messages. And if those messages are practical, entertaining and economical, they should be shared to a broader audience.
And that is exactly what we at greenz.jp is trying to achieve. How can we share our unique Japanese ways of thinking, knowledge and practices to accelerate the adoption of sustainability ? Probably, the most simple way is to collaborate with like minded media and share content.
So we’ve teamed up with Tokyo Metropolis, the No.1 English magazine in Tokyo, Japan with distribution of 30,000 copies. The magazine is read by over 70,000 readers from 1000 distribution points throughout Tokyo, Yokohama and Chiba.
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SustainableCommunity
Mar 28 Azby Brown @ Good Books: Lessons in Living Green from Traditional Japan
Mar 11th, 2010
Azby Brown, the author of Just Enough: Lessons in Living Green from Traditional Japan will be speaking at Good Day Books at 6:30pm on Sunday March, 28th 2010. Just Enough is a book of stories, depictions of vanished ways of life told from the point of view of a contemporary observer. The stories tell how people lived in Japan some two hundred years ago, during the late Edo Period, when traditional technology and culture were at the peak of development and realization, just before the country opened itself to the West and joined the ranks of the industrialized nations.
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With land in short supply, Japanese families face a paradox. Despite spending a large chunk of money on an expensive plot of land, once you’ve built a house and (if you’re lucky) a place to park a car, there is little space (or sunlight for that matter) left for a garden. Roof gardens can replace land built over for housing. These elevated landscapes are not only highly sustainable, they can improve the quality of life in Japan’s dense neighborhoods. (more…)
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green drinks Tokyo Thu March 11, 2010
Creating sustainable workstyles with less than 10 employees
green drinks Tokyo is a casual drinking party held on the second Thursday of every month. March’s topic is “Creating sustainable workstyles with less than 10 employees”
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Keyboards, iPod, fur and more knit together. Photo: Nooshin Navidi
Here at greenz, we love cultural creative design that reinforces positive messages for the future of society. Take for example the Sustainable fashion challenge: One dress, 365 days, or Forest Milk, winner of the 2009 Good Design Awards. So, as a recent transplant to Tokyo from the green and techie Silicon Valley, California, I was doubly intrigued to come across MODE less CODE, a high concept eco + art + LAN lines + fashion exhibit at Nanzuka Underground by Kosuke Tsumura. (more…)
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Although not frequent, there has been some discussion about eco cars here on greenz in the past. You may remember our features on the National Institute for Environmental Science’s CO2 map of Japan, Park24, one of Japan’s first car-sharing services, and of course our guide to how renewable hydrogen will change transportation as we know it. Recently, however, we heard some rather surprising news — via Sankei News (Japanese only) and the Asiajin blog — about the new range of cars that qualify for the Japanese government’s “Eco Car” tax subsidies. One in particular, the Hummer H3 V8, was quite a shock to many of us. (more…)
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CulturalCreative
Sustainable fashion challenge: The Uniform Project, One dress, 365 days
Mar 8th, 2010
Uniform Project: Creative Commons. All Rights Reserved. Photo by OutsaPop
We’ve all heard of fast food, but… fast fashion?! That’s right, cheap and convenient, perfect for the modern urbanite; fast fashion tempts customers with new models of cheap clothing everywhere they turn. This trend towards cheap, fast fashion has lead to concerns of fostering a ‘disposable clothing’ market.
One project has begun to tackle this trend head-on by asking ‘what is a sustainable way of enjoying fashion?’ Let’s see what the Uniform Project: One Dress, 365 Days is all about. (more…)
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CulturalCreative
Design for life: Could ‘Savior Bud’ be the solution to the world’s water worries?
Mar 5th, 2010
‘Savior Bud’ is an award winning design concept that was presented at the Seoul Design Olympiad by Kim Hyo Jin and Seol Ah Sun from Kyung Sung University in South Korea. Inspired by Shel Silverstein’s book ‘The Giving Tree’, ‘Savior Bud’ is a clear plastic capsule designed to collect water from plant leaves.
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Nagoya is in the global spotlight as the city hosts the United Nations conference on biological diversity, starting on October 18, 2010 – in my opinion a much more important topic than how Toyota, with major factories in the city, will deal with its current crisis. We cannot afford to ignore biological diversity and genetic resources, and the ecosystems involving nature, plants, animals and humans are too complex to rebuild and once they are lost, what will we do about it? (more…)
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The latest news from the green scene in Japan. This week in the Green News Roundup: Is Honda’s hybrid sports car a world first? Mitsubishi Electric is looking to triple solar production by 2012, and Fuji Electric and GE launch a joint venture to produce smart grid meters. (more…)
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You may have seen this logo at a UNIQLO store near you. It is the logo for UNIQLO’s All-Product Recycling Initiative. The amount of clothes collected in March topped 1 million items – a commendable milestone even for a brand with 777 stores nationwide (as of June 2009). (more…)
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The British Council and eQualC Sustainability Communications Present:
Green Leaders Forum: Green Media & Web2.eco
Mon March 15, 2010 @ British Council
The Green Leaders Forum @ British Council is a free monthly learning and networking event for leaders in Green Business, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability. (more…)
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SustainableCommunity
Buy, Trade, Give and Get: 8 websites to save money, waste, and the environment
Mar 3rd, 2010
We all have things we want, and many of us can’t bear to throw away the things we no longer need. And while we want to get what we want as cheap as possible, cheap is not necessarily better when it comes to quality, and the conditions of the workers who made the product…
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Dive into Art ~ Cancun’s underwater sculptures are made from special materials that promote growth of new coralWant to learn how to build a house out of six million empty beer bottles or use local materials to simply keep food fresh up to 10 times longer? Then check out eco-ideas.net, a global environmental communication portal supported by Panasonic as part of its commitment to promote the power of ideas and to accelerate the shift to greener lifestyles.
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Color your plate with seasonal veges.
Photo: Sarah Krull.Last week I attended the first Green Leaders Forum@British Council, what came to my mind during the discussion was … organic – what does it really mean? Certainly more than just no chemicals.
Sustainability and lifestyle are concepts that come to mind when I think about organic. When I lived in Boston, I was always surprised when I saw the healthy, supposedly eco-friendly yoga moms shopping at Whole Foods and coming out of the store with 15 plastic bags. That seems counterproductive. (more…)
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PV Expo 2010, arguably the most important photovoltaic technology exhibition in Asia, kicks off at Tokyo Big Sight this week. If you are interested in solar energy, it’s a can’t-miss event. Although not widely known, Japan has some of the world’s largest eco and green festivals in the world… and from our expose on the washing machine that knows how smelly you are at the Eco Products Expo at Tokyo Big Site (attendance around 170,000 people!) to the “Go Ethical” food promotion for locavores and other ecovores at Earth Day in Yoyogi Park (attendance over 150,000!), you can bet greenz will be there to cover them all! (more…)
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The Green Energy Partnership, formed in 2008 to promote green energy, held a competition for posters and videos promoting green energy. The slogan: ‘Green Creative Contest – Let’s draw our future together!’
- This article has been translated by Ken from the original Japanese article by Takeshi Okahashi (November 18, 2009).
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Loaner bikes lined up at Suginami Kids Transportation Park, where traffic safety is made fun. Each has a different cartoon advertised. Img/Text: Rob Ketcherside, Flickr. Creative Commons Licence.
Since arriving in Tokyo about a month ago, my primary means of transportation has been my bicycle. I cycle to my language classes in Shibuya. I have gotten all sorts of responses when I say I ride a bicycle. Usually a little incredulous. Some pedestrians complain about the bicycles on the side walks, which I can completely understand. However, as a cyclist some streets are simply too dangerous! (more…)
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Seven things you can do to lead a greener life
Green Thing uses clever videos and graphics from some of the best creative talent in the world to inspire the rest of us to act against climate change. There are seven topics, big and small, you can enjoy doing to make the world a better place. From saving energy to walking more or going easy on the meat; watch, laugh, enjoy, but most importantly – be inspired and do the green thing! (more…)
