Kokuyo Co Ltd has been in the news recently thanks to the creative new look for its office in central Tokyo. With a focus on reducing CO2 emissions and lowering power consumption, the stationary maker introduced LEDs, zoning that reduces the need for lamps, and divided the office into several areas. Such efforts have resulted in a 28% reduction in power consumption by the overall office....
Tonight we are hosting our monthly Green Drinks Tokyo (every second Thursday of the month) in trendy Harajuku. Starting in August, greenz.jp has teamed up with Cafe Omamori and created Lounge Greenz in a three story building where people can come and chill out, just north of OmoteSando.
BEE Japan (Bicycle for Everyone’s Earth) is on a great trip from Hokkaido in northern-most Japan and will soon arrive to Tokyo. BEE is a group of international members that promotes environmental awareness and green living in Japan. By September 15 they will be in Kyoto for a Model of the United Nations event. Good luck guys, you are great!
Whoever said that Tokyo - the world's largest megalopolis, with over 35 million people living in the Greater Tokyo Area - didn't have any nature?
I know of at least one cheeky monkey that would beg to disagree.
Image courtesy of Pink Tentacle
This little fella, properly known as a Japanese macaque, has been making waves in national and international media with his impromptu appearance at Shibuya Station in Tokyo.
Bamboo grows wild in forest grooves in Asia, shutting out the sunlight and making forest management difficult. Instead of just complaining, some people at a non-profit group called Tojiba started using bamboo as raw material for market tents that are getting popular here in Japan. An old solution perhaps - using bamboo is as ancient as people have shared the land with the fast-growing plants - but the design is nice and the tents feel great.
With nations undecided on what to do, it is great to see cities and states get tough on greenhouse gas emissions. California enacted a cap on global warming emissions in 2006, and yesterday the Tokyo metropolitan assembly adopted an ordinance requiring large businesses to reduce their CO2 emissions to specified levels, the first such obligation in Japan.
Environment Month 2008 has seen a variety of festivals around the globe, and Japan was not to be left behind. This weekend saw the second annual Ecolife Fair burst into life with a veritable smorgasboard of all things environmental, not to mention a liberal helping of local celebrities, artists and musicians.
The Ecolife Fair 2008 was held at Yoyogi Park and NHK TV Studios in Tokyo, Japan. With sponsors such as NHK, Japan's largest television network, and Team Minus 6%, an organization founded by the Japanese government and environmental NPOs to promote the 6% CO2 emissions reduction goal established under the Kyoto Protocol, the event was guaranteed success.
Tokyo's mayor has seen the (green) light and is taking major steps to introduce a climate change programme for the city despite Japan's reticence nationally on the matter. Mayor Shintaro Ishihara is a 75 year old self-acknowledged rightwinger who has decided to go it alone and impose strict curbs on local green house gas emissions. Some have compared his initiatives to those of California's Governor Schwartzenegger's differences with the Bush administration.
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Technorati
