January 2006

Cover Story 1

The real side of the LOHAS boom—Being “cool” is the key to sell the environment-friendly products


TREND: Notion of environment-friendliness is changing from “costs” to “added values”


LOHAS: Where is the LOHAS boom in Japan directed?


Case studies:

Toyota / Tactics to sell 1 million hybrid vehicles

Ministry of the Environment / Never repeating the mistakes made with the “energy-saving look” short-sleeve business suits

Radish Boya / Winning the hearts of vegetable consumers with stylish designing and trustworthiness

Gifu Beikoku / The sales of millet and other “miscellaneous cereals” makes a sharp growth with the idea of “returning to the origin of the diet,” while there are some catches behind the boom

Mitsukoshi / Awareness in sustainability evolves the department store

Mitsubishi Estate / Selling environment-friendly condos wrapped in LOHAS

Mitsui Fudosan / Cooperating with therapists in oriental medicine to design a commercial facility building at a new railroad station

Picchio, HIS / Eco tours to face the real side of nature

Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) / Selling “All-Electric” system as the strategic product by using its environment side as the selling point

Technology

First Step in Technology
[Stationary fuel cell] Manufacturers take challenges to improve durability and reduce costs with an aim to start mass production in 2008

Products
[Heat-pump operated washer and drier] Technology developed for air-conditioners reduces the electricity and water consumption by half

New Energy
[Snow-powered air conditioning and refrigerator] Snow storage for a detached house is developed to provide air conditioning and refrigerating during the summer

Environmental Cleansing
[Plasma VOC decomposing system] Low-priced new model developed for small- to mid-sized companies uses ozone functions to decompose VOC into CO₂ and water

“Honor Students” in Recycling
[Printed-circuit board] Each year 24,000 tons of materials are recycled by developing pretreatment processes

Learn about Environmental Laws

Easy-to-Understand Environmental Law
[Food Recycling Law] Nationwide rules to apply regulations are needed to uniformly categorize food scraps into general waste or industrial waste


Environmental Laws Q&A
What kind of organization is the Japan-China Inspection Corporation, which is making great impact on recycling resource export to China?

This Month’s Environmental Law
Industrial waste management for fiscal 2003 is announced, revealing increase of generation to more than 400 million tons

Trend and News

Asbestos
Small- to medium-sized companies should understand the asbestos regulations well to use special loans by local governments

Environmental scandal
Police raid of a company for illegal Ferrosilt distribution underlines the needs for standards to avoid recycling of inappropriate materials

Preventing global warming
CDM with energy-saving products is to be reported in the COP/MOP1

Nature conservation
Sanbanse tidal flats cannot join the Ramsar Convention sites

ISO 14001
A consulting company makes a rapid growth by focusing on maintenance and management

Environmental tax
Proposal is turned down for two consecutive years; the tax reform for fiscal 2007 holds the key for third time lucky

Energy conservation
Is Boeing to fly fuel cell airplanes?

Chemical substance control
Fujitsu issues RoHS “risk map”

Official development assistance
Is the non-powered sediment removal system proposed by JICA going to show a solution for the dam sediment problem?

CSR Frontline

More European consumer groups use CSR standards to test product quality

Ford expands hybrid vehicle production with an aim at 250,000 cars in 2010


Kyoto Mechanism
Q and A to understand the Kyoto Mechanism

Q: Why does CDM take so much time?
A: Improvement of the evaluation system by the U.N. is awaited


ECO Interview
Steven French, senior vice president and managing partner of the Natural Marketing Institute (NMI); “LOHAS people are severe critics for corporations but still attractive consumers”


ECO Column

Kankan Gakugaku (Active Argument over Environmental Issues)
Ryo Ikeuchi, astrophysicist and professor of the School of International Liberal Studies in Waseda University

Takuro Morinaga’s ECO Lifestyle
Can market mechanism solve environmental problems?

Fieldwork Japan
Nature restoration projects proceed in Azame Shallows to return natural flow to the river

Report

Achieve the Top Sales with Eco Products!
Sapporo Breweries Ltd. / “POLAIRE Clear Dry” wine

Inside-Out
[Asbestos waste management Part 1] Failure by the national government invites illegal waste management

WorldWatch Institute
Public and private sectors cooperate to seek community-oriented business management in order to stabilize the economy, the lynchpin of environmental conservation

ECO Seminar

How to Make the Best Use of ISO
[Horiba, Ltd. Part 1] Combined with ISO 9001, environmental management can improve operation efficiency

New Environmental Study
[Green Investment Scheme (GIS)] GIS mobilizes emission rights of Central and Eastern European nations

Quick Guide to Environmental Key Words
Environmental labels

Practical Examples of Environmental Communication
Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd.

World Trend

From EU
While street cars and other environment-friendly modes of transport draw attention, influence of the principle of market mechanism on the transportation systems is concerned

From UK
G8 calls for investment and loans for global warming prevention projects and asks the World Bank to lead framework building

From USA
Facing the pressing need to reduce greenhouse gas emission from aircrafts, airlines eagerly look for technologies to develop

From Germany
Practical guidebook is issued to support smaller companies to publish CSR report

From China
Increasing waste in urban areas accelerates construction of waste-fueled power generation

Nikkei BP EcoManagement Forum

[ECO graph]

[Report from illegal waste dumping sites] Officials from the authorities work hard to eradicate illegal dumping as the tricks become more sophisticated