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Nikkei Ecology

June 2005 Issue

Cover Story 1

How to make the best use of NPOs
Learn from the collaborative approach of Toyota, NEC and SONY

Case No. 1: Toyota x Japan Environmental Education Forum
Collaboratively operating a nature school

Case No. 2: NEC x Asaza Fund
Seeking new usages for radio sensors

Case No. 3: SONY Semiconductor Kyushu x Kumamoto Environmental Net-Work
Conserving underground water, an essential resource for semiconductor businesses

Case No. 4: Sagawa Express x WWF
The international NGO supports the corporate efforts to reduce CO₂ emission

Summary: Collaboration with environmental NGOs helps improve the corporate value

Supplement: Questionnaire survey for corporations on environmental NGOs and NPOs

Cover Story 2

Diesel cars are not that bad; European people treat them as environment-friendly, luxury-model passenger cars

Technology Frontline

Products
[Hot water heater with heat-pump for business use] New flash-heater models do not require a storage tank

Elements
[Soil-purifying plants] The soil can be purified with half the cost

Trend
[LPG fuel cells] Generation capacity is close to that of city gas

Technology & people
[Hideyuki Suzuki: Professor, School of Engineering, Tokyo University] Developing special floats to support offshore windmills

“ Honor students” in recycling
[Carpet tiles] Cutting technology for metal processing is adopted to recycle PVC

Technology News Clips

Learn about environmental laws

Easy-to-understand Environmental Law
[Revised Waste Disposal Law] More stringent regulations are implemented to prevent the recurrences of large-scale illegal damping and illegal export of waste

Environmental Laws Q & A
Are the simplified waste export procedures going to invite more troubles?

This Month’s Environmental Law
Enforcement regulations for the Waste Disposal Law are revised

Kenichiro Sato’s Report from the Diet
The patients of the Minamata disease, the original issue of environmental movements, should be supported with expanded criteria for patient certification and implementation of special law

Trend and News

Waste management
The Ministry of the Environment relaxes the applicable criteria for the Waste Disposal Law

Nature conservation
An NPO is organized to give Mt. Fuji another try to be listed as a World Heritage site

Recycling
The Japan Containers and Packaging Recycling Association reveals the bidding results, showing unexpected “zero success” by Teijin

Waste management
As refuse-derived fuels is specified as “designated flammable material” under the Fire Service Law, large-scale storages of RDF and RPF face new conditions and requirements to meet

Recycling
The newly implemented Law Concerning the Protection of Personal Information may be endangering office paper recycling

Fuel cell
After all these years, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry establishes a research center for the basic study of fuel cells; what is the real reason?


CSR Frontline

CSR is actively discussed to see whether or not its boom is only temporary

Ten years have passed since Shell’s misjudgment, and now legal compliance appears insufficient to fulfill corporate responsibility


Kyoto Mechanism
Q and A to understand the Kyoto Mechanism
Do we have to give up the portion of the emission rights to the government for free, if it is used to achieve the voluntary action plan? How should the emission rights treated in the accounting book?


ECO Interview
Mamoru Mitsumoto, president of Takeei Co., Ltd. and Recycle-Peer Co., Ltd.: “The revision of the Waste Disposal Law creates business opportunities”


ECO Column

Kankan Gakugaku (Active Argument over Environmental Issues)
Shigeaki Hinohara, Honorary President of St. Luke’s International Hospital

Takuro Morinaga’s ECO Lifestyle
EXPO 2005 Aichi, Japan is friendly to the environment but harsh on the humans

Fieldwork Japan
Urban spaces can inspire people to go into agriculture


Report

Vice-Rector Itaru Yasui’s “Eco Michelin” (Final of the series)
Photo printing

Achieve the Top Sales with Eco Products!
Sekisui Chemical Co., Ltd. / “Zero-energy-cost houses”

Inside-Out

[Is recycling all good? – part 2] A large amount of industrial-waste-mixed compost is dumped into agricultural fields

WorldWatch Institute
The State of California, U.S., takes challenge to construct “hydrogen highways”

ECO Seminar

How to make the best use of ISO
[Canon Inc. - part 2] Losses during the production processes are converted into monetary values, while employee awareness is raised by introducing accounting approaches

New Environmental Study
[Evolution of environmental accounting - part 2] Application of environmental accounting to the internal management is demanded, while accumulated experience by corporations is needed to establish it as a solid accounting practice

Quick Guide to Environmental Key Words
NPOs and NGOs

Learn from Environmental Reports of Companies Overseas (Final of the series)
Novo Nordisk A/S (Denmark)

World Trend

From EU
The “Directive on Establishing a Framework for the Setting of Eco-design Requirements for Energy-using Products” is about to be adopted

From UK
Water businesses attract investors’ attention; the U.S. investment may exceed ¥30 trillion in the next 15 years

From USA
The outdoor industry finally raises its awareness and delivers goods and services with higher environmental consciousness, including outfits made with natural materials and activities to contribute to the local communities

From Germany
Greener events and more responsible live marketing are demanded

From China
Highly advanced processing technologies of Japan are called for in China, where low-quality waste plastic recycling persists

Nikkei BP EcoManagement Forum

[ECO graph]
Japan’s measures for global warming prevention are discussed by a total of 21 corporate executives and politicians