Nature Technology: Creating a Fresh Approach to Technology and Lifestyle

182 Pages·2013·4.722 MB·English

by  Emile H. Ishida, Ryuzo Furukawa (auth.)

Emile H. Ishida · Ryuzo Furukawa
Nature
Technology
Creating a Fresh Approach to Technology
and Lifestyle
Nature Technology

Emile H. Ishida (cid:129) Ryuzo Furukawa
Nature Technology
Creating a Fresh Approach
to Technology and Lifestyle
Emile H. Ishida Ryuzo Furukawa
Tohoku University Tohoku University
Sendai, Miyagi , Japan Sendai, Miyagi, Japan
ISBN 978-4-431-54612-2 ISBN 978-4-431-54613-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-4-431-54613-9
Springer Tokyo Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013955227
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Pref ace
Starting in 1978, I worked 26 years for the INAX Corporation, a private company.
In the latter half of this period, I concurrently held the posts of Chair of the
Environmental Strategy Committee and the Technical Strategy Committee of
the company and served as Chief Technical Offi cer, thus expending much energy on
the question of how to balance the environment with economic performance in a
corporation. I was, however, unable to come up with a satisfactory answer to this
question. Not only did I have trouble fi nding the right answer; being unable to over-
come the contradiction between environment and economy, I found myself being
pulled ever deeper into the negative spiral created by this paradox. At the same time,
I shuddered at the thought that without an answer to this question, manufacturing in
Japan would have no viable future.
In order to search for an answer, I quit the company and took up a position at
Tohoku University in 2004. Nine years have passed since then. Have I found an
answer? Unfortunately, not yet, but I have started to get a feeling for where the
doors are that must be opened to arrive at an answer.
On March 11, 2011, an earthquake of unprecedented scale struck the Tohoku
Region where I work and live. If we think of civilization as the aggregation of tech-
nology, the dramatic way in which the cosmetic surface of civilization peeled off in
an instant made me reconsider numerous issues. What does it mean to face the
global environmental issue squarely? How can we contemplate the issue of living
wholesome, fulfi lling lives? And, what is the role of technology—now so urgently
questioned—in contributing to these two issues? It struck me that fi nding solutions
to these issues is the responsibility of the survivors of the horrible earthquake and
also one way of paying respect to those who lost their lives. Here, indeed, lies the
answer to the question of how to balance the environment and the economy.
One solution, undoubtedly, is to be found in a Nature Technology development
system which intelligently harnesses the amazing powers of nature. In 2009, as the
notion of “Nature Technology”, if still vague, started taking shape, I published a
book from Tohoku University Press entitled Channeling the Forces of Nature , with
the help of two colleagues. In this book, I had not yet discovered the lifestyle
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vi Preface
approach which was one of the doors to answering the questions at hand, nor could
I envision the actual methodologies required to design such lifestyles. Later, with
the help of Dr. Ryuzo Furukawa, who has worked with me since 2005, and other
colleagues, our research made signifi cant progress, and the contours of a Nature
Technology development systems started emerging. I feel as if the fog has rapidly
started clearing. It is thus fair to say that the book you are holding in your hands is
a reexamination of the philosophy of a Nature Technology development system and
the actual approaches and methodologies involved.
The development of Nature Technology involves using a backcasting approach
to envision lifestyles that are wholesome and fulfi lling even under severe environ-
mental constraints; identifying the technologies required to enable such lifestyles;
searching in nature for the seeds of such technologies; and then—through the fi lter
of sustainability—redesigning these as applicable technologies.
In our analysis of the lifestyles envisioned with backcasting, we found that many
people strongly, yet often unconsciously, yearn for nature and enjoyment in their
daily lives. We have also learned that in the development of technologies to enable
such lifestyles, the notion of i ki —described in detail in Chap. 1 0 — which takes
nature as its point of departure, is of the utmost importance.
There are still several hurdles we need to overcome in order to complete a system
for the development of Nature Technology. It is, however, my sincere hope that the
methodologies and research results presented in this book may help share new ways
of thinking about how to shape exciting, wholesome, and fulfi lling lifestyles even in
the face of rapidly intensifying environmental constraints, thus also laying a few
stones in the path to a new civilization based on a fresh set of values which do not
merely extrapolate from the past.
Sendai , Japan Emile H. Ishida
Okinoerabu Island of Amami Islands
2013.08
Acknowledgements
Is it possible to arrive at a balance between the environment and the economy? In
this book, we have pulled together the outcome of our pursuit over the last 10 years
of an answer to that question.
In September 2004, I initiated research at the Graduate School of Environmental
Studies at Tohoku University on the issue of how to balance the environment and
the economy from the viewpoint of Nature Technology. Regarding worldviews and
civilization, I gained much insight participating as a research fellow in the Twenty-
First Century Environment, Economy and Civilization Project headed by Professor
Yoshinori Yasuda (presently professor emeritus at the International Research Center
for Japanese Studies). In 2005, Dr. Ryuzo Furukawa (presently associate professor
at the Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku University) started
participating in my research—fi rst as a researcher from a private think tank.
Dr. Furukawa has actively pursued new research methods such as lifestyle design
based on backcasting or interviews with people in their nineties, and he plays a
central role in the lifestyle research which forms the backbone of Nature Technology
development. In 2009, we were given the opportunity to set up a Nature
Technology Research Consortium as part of the Japan Manufacturing Conference
(MONODZUKURI Nippon Conference), which, with Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun as
secretariat, enjoys the participation of more than 2,000 corporations. In this forum,
we have been able to discuss the relationship between new technologies and ways
of living and to promote concrete, new business initiatives. Meanwhile, the SEMSaT
Course (Strategic Environmental Management and Sustainable Technology
Solution), which I initiated in 2005 at the Graduate School for Environmental
Studies—a course which mainly targets people already in work—allowed us to
embark on numerous trials of the actual creation and implementation of business
systems based on the notion of Nature Technology in the context of corporations,
government organizations, and non-governmental organizations. While undertaking
such activities, we received many valuable insights and inspirations from people in
corporations that helped drive our research forward. Furthermore, in 2012 I had the
opportunity to participate as a representative of researchers in the Innovative
Materials Engineering Based on Biological Diversity Project (a new academic fi eld
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viii Acknowledgements
under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and
Technology) initiated by Professor Masatsugu Shimomura (Professor, Advanced
Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University)—one of Japan’s foremost
biomimetics researchers—and thus was able to experience biomimetics research
fi rsthand. At the same time, I was able to gain many valuable ideas and opinions on
the new methodologies required to implement Nature Technology in society, and
several concrete joint research projects were commenced. I wish to sincerely thank
the many friends who were so kind as to participate in these activities.
I also wish to express my gratitude to the team of people who supported our
efforts on a day-to-day basis: Dr. Ryuzo Furukawa, Dr. Yuko Suto, Dr. Hirotaka
Maeda (presently at the Nagoya Institute of Technology), research assistant Koichi
Okada, research assistant Tomoko Monobe, research assistant Noriko Konno, and
the many students who have been affi liated with my research lab. I am most grateful
for their dedicated and tireless efforts.
I also wish to thank my friend Peter David Pedersen, who provided much advice
as we were setting up SEMSaT and who supervised the translation into English. I also
thank Springer Japan for giving me the opportunity to publish this work. Without
the understanding and great effort of the staff at Springer, it would not have been
possible to share the fi ndings of this book with a wider, international audience.
Finally, I wish to express my gratitude to my partner, Ako, who always takes
great care to create the best possible environment for me to work in.
Sendai, Japan Emile H. Ishida
Contents
1 Where Are We Heading? ........................................................................ 1
1.1 What the Great East Japan Earthquake Taught Us .......................... 1
1.2 Contemplating the Nature of Prosperity .......................................... 4
1.3 Where Are We Heading? ................................................................. 7
Bibliography ............................................................................................. 10
2 The Eco-Dilemma .................................................................................... 11
2.1 The Global Environmental Problem
and Our Way of Living .................................................................... 11
2.2 The Nature of the Eco-dilemma ....................................................... 12
2.3 Eco-products May Lower Corporate Brand Value ........................... 18
Bibliography ............................................................................................. 19
3 The True Nature of the Global Environmental Problem .................... 21
3.1 Is Global Warming a Global Environmental Problem? ................... 21
3.2 Technological Progress Involves Trade-Offs ................................... 24
3.3 The Global Environmental Problem Is Rooted
in the Bloating of Human Activity .................................................. 25
3.4 The Expansion of Human Activity .................................................. 27
Bibliography ............................................................................................. 30
4 A New Way of Manufacturing and Living ............................................ 31
4.1 Manufacturing and Living with Consideration for People .............. 32
4.2 Manufacturing and Living with Consideration for the Earth ........... 34
4.3 Ways of Living (Lifestyles) Incorporating Nature ........................... 35
Bibliography ............................................................................................. 39
5 Forecasting and Backcasting ................................................................. 41
5.1 Lifestyles Based on Forecasting ...................................................... 41
5.2 Measuring the Impact of Forecasting............................................... 43
5.3 The Dominance of Forecasting ........................................................ 44
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