SustainableCommunity
Earth Embassy’s Solar Shower Is Heating Up!
Aug 25th, 2010
Posts Tagged ‘Japan’
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Creative Commons. Some Rights Reserved. Photo by Steven Depolo.
Previously, greenz.jp introduced Earth Embassy, the eco village at the foot of Mt. Fuji as “Earth Embassy Showcases Sustainable Lifestyles”. As the summer heats up, so does our solar shower; here’s how it works.
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SustainableCommunity
LEED versus CASBEE: A Comparison Between Two Green Building Certification Systems
Jul 1st, 2010
LEED Platinum California Academy of Science
As one of the pillars of a sustainable society, Green Buildings continue to gain widespread attention both in Japan — with projects such as Japan’s First Certified Passive House and Roof Gardens: A Smart Solution for Japan’s Dense Neighborhoods, the news that the Marunouchi building is to run on 100% ‘raw’ green electricity and ongoing research into how Green Biomass Dampers Atop Buildings Mitigate Earthquake Risk – and abroad — with projects such as The First Smart Upcycled Green Home In Malaysia — so it is no surprise that Green Building certification is starting to grab headlines. There are a bevy of green building guidelines around the world and this article by Fenja Blobel takes a closer look at the differences and similarities between USA’s LEED system and Japan’s homegrown CASBEE system.
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Japan's First Passive House by Key Architects ~ Photo provided by Passive House Japan website
You may all wonder what exactly is a passive house? Passivhaus became a standard in Germany in 1990 and it has followed all over Europe. It is said to be the most environmentally friendly way to build houses even over the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standard.
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Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA successfully launched the experimental powered solar sail, the first attempt for a solar sail to enter deep space.
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Scale model of the terrace house under construction (Photo courtesy of Takahiro Yamada)
‘Nagaya’, or terrace houses have been common in Japan since the Edo period. The word conjures an image of long wooden buildings in a cramped downtown neighborhood. This image is about to get a makeover through a project in the Fujino countryside, an hour from downtown Shinjuku. Let’s take a look at how the benefits of terrace houses, along with local materials and traditional green practices are coming together in this unique green project. (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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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.
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GLOBE BANKThere is a new social benefit website that is the subject of much praise from creators and designers. ‘Globe Bank’ began in July as part of the CSR program of Konica Minolta. A fusion of fun, art, and social contribution, the website is slowly gaining in popularity.
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Creative Commons. Some Rights Reserved. Photo by Captain GionaHave you heard of ‘on-demand buses?’
As the name implies, the buses run on demand, rather like a large taxi, but without the high price. Costing on par with regular public transport, the buses can be booked to pick you up where and when you want, and take you to your destination without making unnecessary calls at vacant bus stops. While this may seem like an ideal solution to transport problems in rural communities with declining populations, and also a good step for the environment, there are issues with delays, and high running costs that have yet to be overcome.
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Kiko is the Japanese word for “climate change” and Kiko Network is one of the Japanese NGOs that participated in Copenhagen to try to influence the negotiations. Based in Kyoto, they have a lot of members and activists who wanted the Kyoto Protocol to be succeeded by a binding protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. That didn’t happen, as the United States, China and others failed to find common ground for a global agreement.
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Reproduced from the National Institute for Environmental Science Environmental GIS ‘Vehicle CO2 Emission Map’.Reducing CO2 emissions is one way we can help put a stop to global warming. Vehicle emissions account for around 15% of total emissions in Japan, and are one of the few areas that we can affect directly through our daily lives. The National Institute for Environmental Science has released statistics on vehicle CO2 emissions. Emissions are ‘visible’ through color-coding for each municipality. Let’s see how Japan looks from this perspective. (more…)
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Ah, a new wave is approaching. That’s what I realized when I picked up the inaugural issue of the new Agricultural Magazine ‘Agrizm’.
The inaugural edition of the ‘farm/communication magazine that brings agriculture closer’ hit the shelves in September. The phrase ‘Hey Japan, The Farming Boom is Here’ cries out from the cover. (more…)
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From ‘Daily Global Warming Newspaper’, showing where different companies lie in terms of greenhouse gas reduction goalsOn the 19th, e’s Inc, founded by environmental journalist Junko Edahiro released a report on 55 companies surveyed on their greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets. According to the report, of the 55 companies surveyed, 52 or 95% had set quantitative goals. (more…)
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Photo by Millennium CityGlass walls, a large kitchen and dining room inside, and a ladder leading up to a small wooden house…
This is ‘Kurimoto Millennium City’, created by the NPO Millennium City on 1650 m2 of land in Katori, Chiba Prefecture. The facility is multi-layered, with tall deciduous trees, greenhouses, and huts making for energy efficient architecture. The large deciduous trees help control the temperature, blocking the hot sun in summer, and holding the sun’s warmth in winter. The glass greenhouse protects against rain and wind, while the huts provide privacy, and are easily heated thanks to their small size.
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Photo by MujiWhat do you use to wipe things up around the house?
A kitchen cloth from the supermarket?
A duster from your favorite interior goods store?
Or maybe an old towel you’ve cut up and recycled…Muji have come up with a new option: an environmentally friendly duster made from cotton lint.
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Do you ever wonder what forest your chop sticks, tables, and paper come from? Have you even ever thought about it? Did you know that Japan is a forest country. 67% of the land in Japan is woodlands.
Photo from watashinomori.jpThere is a site that asks you to take a look at those forests and feel close to them, so we can live with them and enjoy our lives doing so. The site is called “Watashi No Mori,” or “My Forest” in Japanese.
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Photo from Honda’s websiteRight now, gasoline prices are steady, but when thinking about the environment, it is obvious that we need to improve gas consumption as much as possible.
Every car company is putting out cars that boast of great gas mileage, but Honda is going at improving fuel consumption from another angle too with a new kind of car. -
EarthNews
No Nukes and No MOX Fuel. 11 Year Old Starts Petition Against Pluthermal Power.
Nov 30th, 2009
Part of the ‘children’s petition to stop pluthermal use’ stating the dangers of using the extremely toxic plutonium rich MOX fuel, and asking for a future where children and other living beings can live in peace.We caught wind of a child in Ehime conducting a petition against the local nuclear power station switching to plutonium-uranium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel, known locally as ‘pluthermal’. The image above shows part of a handwritten petition penned by the eleven-year-old child. It is addressed to the chairperson of the Ehime Prefectural Assembly.
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CulturalCreative
Call to Action. “MAKE the RULE”Book calling for new RULES to reduce CO2.
Nov 25th, 2009
Not a day goes by that you don’t come across the words ‘global warming’ on TV or in the newspapers. However this hasn’t stopped greenhouse gasses increasing by 8.7% since 1990. How will continued global warming affect us, and what can we do to deal with these consequences? A new booklet has arrived to answer these questions.
As previously introduced by greenz, MAKE the RULE is a campaign calling for new ‘rules’ to set goals for the reduction of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses, and action to achieve these goals. The MAKE the RULE legal committee has now released a booklet full of useful information on global warming.
Photo by MAKE the RULEPeople are loosing their livelihood due to rising sea levels caused by the polar ice caps melting. Still others are suffering from heat stroke. Above all, developing nations are the first to feel the brunt of global warming. Japan is the fifth largest producer of greenhouse gasses, and under the Kyoto Protocol has a duty to cut emissions by 6% from 1990 levels.
Despite the measures in place, however, the reality is that greenhouse gas levels continue to rise. That is why a political initiative is needed to change society and the economy.
The booklet can be downloaded from the web. It’s like a resource manual that is loaded with useful information for anyone wanting to know more about global warming. The MAKE the RULE campaign also encourages the public to lobby the government. The next time you see this cute polar bear mark, be sure to check out what’s inside.
This article is translated from the original Japanese post
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SustainableCommunity
Local Street-side Mechanic Pioneers The Future of Transportation: Hydrogen Motorbikes
Nov 23rd, 2009
Recently, ‘eco-cars’ have become all the rage. But the reality is, most of them still run on gasoline. ‘Is there really no other fuel that doesn’t have such an impact on the environment?’ you ask. There is, and that fuel is hydrogen.
Hydrogen, atomic number 1, atomic symbol H. Crude oil, from which gasoline is made, also contains a lot of hydrogen. Even the universe itself in ¾ hydrogen!
And if you burn hydrogen, you end up with… water! So you can envisage an energy cycle that goes something like this: water – hydrogen – water.
Creative Commons. Some Rights Reserved. Photo by vitroidCorporations cannot afford to ignore such an amazing element. Toyota and Honda have already come up with ‘fuel cell vehicles’ that run off electricity made from hydrogen, and Mazda has announced two new hybrid vehicles that use existing engines to run off a combination of gasoline and hydrogen. These work on the same theory as regular gasoline engines, using the explosion from igniting hydrogen to power the engine.
Creative Commons. Some Rights Reserved. Photo by tsukubajinWhile hydrogen is very light, it must be highly compressed in order to be of practical use. Compressing hydrogen requires a lot of energy in itself, and storage tanks must be strong enough to withstand this huge pressure, so it can’t be carried around and used as easily as gasoline. Currently the tanks alone cost upwards of several million yen each.
So, the problem with hydrogen is storage. Even so, there is still an amazing way of using hydrogen to get around in Japan, and it has been developed not by a large corporation, but a local mechanic. That is the hydrogen motorbike.
These bikes are being developed at ‘Inoue Boring’, an engine maintenance garage in small industrial area in Kawagoe, Saitama.
I just bought a tank of hydrogen, and shoved it into the carburetor, and the engine ran
…explains the manager, Sotaro Inoue.
Inoue has long been infatuated with 2-stroke engines. However as they were being phased out due to the dirty exhaust they produce, he started looking for an alternative fuel source. Hydrogen, which when burnt produces water, was an obvious choice. Because 2-stroke engines burn oil with the fuel, if a plant-based oil is used, the environmental impact will be reduced even more, explains Inoue.
Inoue Boring is currently developing a hydrogen motorbike, 2-stroke, of course.
The immediate goal is to have the throttle control the engine speed accordingly. For this to work, the timing of the release of hydrogen, and the spark must be synchronized, something they are just succeeding in doing. This will enable smooth acceleration, and deceleration.When the greenz editors visited Inoue Boring, he gave us a short demonstration, which you can see in the clip below.
To enable easy removal, the bike is designed to accommodate an Iwatani hydrogen tank as is.
Inoue says entering the bike in a race is his long-term dream. The future of transportation is being developed right here on the street corner, with no support from large corporations, the government, or universities.
This article is translated from the original Japanese post
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