Going Green in Japan

Miyako Ecology centre in Kyoto City, Japan, was created in 2002 to commemorate the 3rd session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP3).

The centre offers citizens opportunities to participate in environmental conservation activities. City management has established the eco-schools district support centre at Miyako so that primary school children can become involved in combatting climate change, and be in the vanguard of going green in Japan.

The centre recently invited local Kyoto children to a food education programme. The students and their parents learned how reduce food waste by cooking with ‘Okara’, which is soy pulp, a leftover by-product of soy production.

Schoolchildren have also partnered with businesses and universities to promote suburban agriculture. At Nakajima Farm, sweet potatoes are being cultivated with the help of compost made from food waste.

Kyoto City: going green in Japan

The entire city of Kyoto benefits from the environmental projects spearheaded by the Miyako Centre, the goal of which is to transform the life cycles in harmony with the environment. Kyoto city planners encourage residents to use traditional methods combined with cutting edge ecological methods to reduce waste and practice sustainability.

It currently has the lowest waste output of any major city in Japan. In order to create a prosperous Kyoto in which future generations can live, the city has stated its commitment to a 46% reduction by 2030 and a 100% reduction by 2050.

‘Even within Kyoto City, there are many different aspects, such as the mountainous areas in the north and the urban area in the south, the farmlands adjacent to the urban area and the watersheds of the ‘Katsura’, ‘Uji’ and ‘Kamo’ rivers’’, said Takashi Otsuka recently.

He is the Japanese advisor to Local Governments for Sustainability, a global network of more than 2500 local and regional governments committed to sustainable urban development. Otsuka added that this diversity within Kyoto City gives schoolchildren offers children many opportunities to learn about climate change.