The Environmental Planner

The recycle-oriented society is often discussed recently in various fields. Its central theme is the environmental issues. Nonprofit organization of Environmental Research Institute "Arena" researches the recycle-oriented society from various angles.

The NPO Environmental Institute "Arena" newly started the authorization of the training courses of the "environmental recycle manager" and the preparation for the "environmental planner" to educate people for the realization of the recycle-oriented society.

We would like to introduce to you the training curriculum of the environmental recycle manager and environmental planner.

The NPO Environmental Institute "Arena"

Environmental Institute "Arena" is a nonprofit organization (NPO) which carries out the projects that socially contribute toward environmental conservation. The head director is Mr. Yasuho Ema, a certified public tax accountant. One of its important projects is the education of people to contribute to environmental conservation. To achieve this aim, this organization governs two certification systems at present.

Environmental recycle manager

Every organization must change the idea of consumerism of the 20th century to build a recycle-oriented society. The objective is to educate, evaluate, and enroll those who can build the system based on the idea of recycle-oriented society. The supervisor of the curriculum is Professor Katsuya Nagata of Waseda University, who is a leading expert of the material flow research in Japan.

Steering committee members:

Chairman:

Katsuya Nagata

Professor, the Department of Science and Engineering, Waseda University

Commissioners:

Keizo Yamaji

President of Nihon Tetra Pack KK

Ex-managing director of Canon Ltd.

Tatsuyoshi Mikami

Ex-supreme advisor of Japan Management Association

Kazuhiro Ueda

Professor, Graduate School of Economics, Kyoto University

Minoru Obayashi

Professor, the Department of Economics, Ryukoku University

Jiro Uchida

Corporate officer of Techno-Research Institute

Noboru Yumoto

Corporate officer of YN International

Award board members:

Chairman:

Minoru Obayashi

Professor, the Department of Economics, Ryukoku University

Corporate director of the NPO of Environmental Research Institute "Arena"

Commissioners:

Sadao Takahashi

Certified public tax accountant

Exective director of Tokyo Certified Public Tax Accountants' Association

Administration officer of Japan Federation of Certified Public Tax Accountants' Associations

Ayako Nakamura

Corporate officer of Eito Kensetsu Inc.

Proctor of the NPO of Environmental Research Institute "Arena"

Environmental Planner

In the 21st century- styled enterprises, all the workers must aim at coping with both business and environment. John Elkington of SustainAbility Ltd., a British company, insists that only the business enterprises that satisfy Triple Bottom Line (TBL) of economic prosperity, the environmental sustainability, and the society ethics can survive. It means all the organization need drastic strategies to survive in the 21st century. Environmental planners are those who consider both business and environment, including the estimate of the risks. The education course of environmental planners will be started with the cooperation of the NPO The Promotional Advancement Institute of Wearable Environmental Information Networks. The main theme of the course is system environmental studies in association with environmental management including environmental reports and environmental accounting. The supervisor of the curriculum is Professor Kiyoshi Itao of the University of Tokyo.

Steering committee members:

Chairman:

Kiyoshi Itao

Chief commissioner of the NPO The Promotional Advancement Institute of Wearable Environmental Information Networks (Award chairman)

Professor, the University of Tokyo

Commissioners:

Kenzo Fujisue

Commissioner of the NPO The Promotional Advancement Institute of Wearable Environmental Information Networks (Award commission member)

Associate Professor of the University of Tokyo

Shiro Yoshida

Corporate officer of NP Press

Jiro Uchida

Corporate officer of Techno-Research Institute

Noboru Yumoto

Corporate officer of YN International

Katsuhiko Otaki

Corporate officer of Proact International

Masahito Iso

Corporate officer of Hantec Securities & Futures Ltd.

Mizue Unno

Corporate officer of So-Tech Japan, Inc.

Overall management

Yasuho Ema

Administrative director of the NPO of Environmental Research Institute "Arena"

Certified public tax accountant

Yoshihito Hirabayashi

Executive director of Technofer

Head judge of ISO14001

The basic curriculum of the training courses of the environmental recycle manager and environmental planner

Section 1 Recycle-oriented society compendium

Chapter 1 Environmental issues and waste and recycle problems

Chapter 2 Environmental studies

Chapter 3 Dismantling, collection, division and distribution

Chapter 4 Reverse manufacturing and DPE

Chapter 5 Container and package studies

Chapter 6 ISO14001 environmental management system

Section 2 Laws related to waste recycle

Chapter 1 The Basic Environment Law

Chapter 2 The Basic Law For Establishing The Recycling-based Society

Chapter 3 Wastes Disposal and Public Cleaning Law

Chapter 4 Resources Usage Promoting Law

Chapter 5 Containers and Packaging Recycling Law

Chapter 6 Construction Material Recycling Law

Chapter 7 Food Resources Recycle Promoting Law

Chapter 8 Electric Appliance Recycling Law

Section 3 Support technique

Chapter 1 Life cycle assessment (LCA)

Chapter 2 Environmental performance evaluation (EPE)

Chapter 3 Environmental accounting

Chapter 4 Environmental reports

Chapter 5 Nature purchase

Chapter 6 Environmental label

Organization for authorized education and training

The training course curriculum of Technofer, which is an authorized organization of the NPO of Environmental Research Institute "Arena", is authorized. Related to this training course, a course is established from April 2000 at the University of Tokyo. These training courses will proceed the education of environmental planners. The curriculum of the course at the University of Tokyo is scheduled as follows:

Subject and objective

Environmental studies need the compound knowledge of engineering, science, medical science, agriculture, economics, law, etc. while the systematization of these studies is still developing. This course aims at proposing a comprehensive study to know the environmental problems at each industrial field by information technologies. Furthermore, environmental accounting and management are lectured on. The objective of this lecture is to educate students who can cope with environmental planning at the enterprise management in the future.

Content

1. Environmental administration theory

2. Living environment network theory

3. Nature Interface theory

4. Agribusiness and environment

5. Waste disposal theory

6. Environmental device compendium

7. Life cycle assessment

8. Environmental management system

9. Environmental design theory (inverse manufacturing)

10. Disassembly engineering

11. Environmental energy theory

12. Risk management

13. Traffic environment theory

14. Compendium of environmental laws

15. Environmental accounting theory

The contents of the training course curriculum

We would like to introduce the "Environmental management system" to you as the first on-line lecture. The instructor is Mr. Koichiro Sonobe, Managing Director of Technofer.

What is ISO?

We sometimes hear about "ISO9000" or "ISO14000" these days. ISO9001 means the international standard of the quality management system and ISO14001 the environmental management system. Both of them handle "system", not "things". This is different from the other major ISO standard.

ISO (International Standardization Organization, the headquarters: Swiss, Geneva) is a NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) that typical standardization organizations of some 130 countries belong to. ISO establishes international standards of dimension, performance, and safety of products so that the business at the international market may be smoothly done. The standards of ISO are not compulsory like a law.

The background of the publish of ISO 14001 EMS

ISO 14001 Environmental Management System was published in September 1996, but the preparation already started in 1991.

Considering how the industrial circles should work on environmental issues, Business Council for Sustainable Development (BCSD) asked an international standardization of environmental management to ISO to make the "United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED)" successful. BCSD insisted that we must aim at sustainable development in its report "Changing Course".

Environmental issues that had become more serious were in its background: the ozone depletion, global warming, acid rain, transboundary movement of the hazardous waste, endangered species, increasing waste and destruction of nature.

Environmental management system based on ISO14001 EMS

Environmental management system of an organization conforms to the 52 requirements (the criteria to be satisfied) of ISO14001 EMS. The organization will make environmental objectives and establish systems to achieve them, and improve through the plan-do-check-action (PDCA) cycle.

Organizations should especially manage the elements that have relatively harmful impacts on environments among the activities, production, and service of the organization. Therefore, a project to achieve the environmental objectives should be formed, procedures for operation are made if necessary and the system should be checked and improved.

ISO 14001 requirements only indicates "what" an organization should do. "How" the organization should do is decided by the organization. Top-down management, bottom-up participation, documentation of the results, and continuity are some of the features of ISO 14001 EMS. The participation of the executives is required because ISO 14001 EMS is related to the management.

EMS assessment and registration

The number of organizations that finished the assessment and registration of ISO14001 EMS became almost 5000 in Japan at the end of 2000. The types of business are various such as manufacturing industry, construction industry, service business, a university, publishing house, public administrations, etc. If an organization wants an ISO 14001 certification, it should require a certification body for audit. If the organization passes the audit, it will be registered and its registration is officially announced.

Industrial pollution was tackled directly by the low during the high economic growth period. Recently, indirect regulation such as imposing environmental taxes is considered. ISO14001 EMS was established so that organizations would independently work on the environmental management. It aims at building a recycle-oriented society through the development of the environmental management system.

It is meaningless if an organization establishes an environmental management system only for the registration to ISO 14001. An organization needs to establish a system suitable for itself and aim at reducing the effects on the environment.