No.28 Looking Back at Eco Products 2013

(Inagi Newsletter February 15, 2014 issue)

From December 12 to 14 last year, the largest environmental exhibition in Japan, "Eco Products 2013," was held at Tokyo Big Sight, and I visited on the first day.
This exhibition has been held since 1999 to confront the issue of global warming and to realize a sustainable society on a global scale, and this is the 15th time it has been held.
Currently, the "environment" has become an essential perspective for economic growth, and Japan's advanced environmental technologies are said to hold the potential to contribute to sustainable economic development both domestically and internationally.
By the way, we are implementing the "Greenery Tokyo Climate Change Prevention Project" as a joint initiative of all 62 cities and wards in Tokyo. This project addresses the significant challenges of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, preserving greenery, and maintaining biodiversity, with all municipalities in Tokyo collaborating and working together.
At Eco Products 2013, we exhibited the "Tokyo Eco Forest" booth through this joint project. It introduces the unique environmental activities of 27 municipalities in a friendly manner through panel displays, workshops, stage shows, and stamp rallies.
On the day of the event, children from Inagi Dai 1 Elementary School and Inagi Dai 2 Elementary School participated in this booth and energetically presented the results of their environmental learning, incorporating ESD perspectives, using slides. Including these efforts, the "Tokyo Eco Forest" booth was able to receive the Excellence Award (second place) in the Eco & Design Booth Awards.
ESD stands for "Education for Sustainable Development," and each Elementary and Junior High School in Inagi City is working on classes that incorporate this perspective.
This was decided at the United Nations General Assembly in 2002, based on a proposal from our country, to designate the decade from 2005 to 2014 as the "Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)" and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was appointed as the promoting agency.
In Inagi City, currently, 11 Elementary and Junior High Schools have been designated as UNESCO Schools, and applications have already been submitted for the remaining 6 schools to receive designation as well.