Launching the SFC Sustainability Project | Tomohiro Ichinose, Dean of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies
2023.03.07
March has arrived, and the campus is now filled with the feeling of spring. Spring is a season of farewells and new encounters. The faculty graduation ceremony is scheduled for March 23. Meanwhile, the general entrance examination was held on February 18, and on the 25th, the results for the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies were announced along with those for the Faculty of Policy Management. Together with those who had already been admitted through AO admissions and other means, the roster of students who will be enrolling in April has been finalized. The campus is quiet now during the spring break, but preparations for the new academic year are steadily underway. The big news for SFC this spring is the opening of H-Village , the first student dormitory to be established on campus at Keio University. However, I will leave the details to Professor Fumitoshi Kato, who will likely introduce it in next week's Okashira Diary, so please look forward to that.
Now, what I would like to introduce today is the SFC Sustainability Project, which we are planning to launch in April. In an Okashira Diary entry published early last November , I wrote about making SFC carbon neutral, and subsequently, at the SFC Open Research Forum (ORF) on November 20, we announced our carbon neutrality goal for 2030 . At the same time, our campus joined the Renewable Energy University League. This was the first time a Keio University campus had announced a carbon neutrality goal, and while the university as a whole is currently considering its own goals, SFC has taken the lead in moving these efforts forward. However, the initiative for carbon neutrality does not end with a declaration; we have only just reached the starting line. In early February, I visited Chiba University of Commerce, which leads the Renewable Energy University League, along with Keio University Vice-President Hideshi Okada, Shonan Fujisawa Campus Administrative Director Hideyuki Nakamine, and Associate Professor Sachiko Tsukahara of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies. Chiba University of Commerce is scheduled to achieve 100% renewable energy in fiscal year 2023. President Yukihiko Harashina gave us a tour of the campus, and we heard about the various projects they are advancing together with students, faculty, and staff.
At SFC, we are also planning to start a project this spring that students, faculty, and staff can advance together. We hope to make it a broader sustainability project, not limited to carbon neutrality, but also encompassing resource circulation, conservation of the natural environment, and even food, agriculture, health, and behavioral change. Our goal should not be limited to simply reducing carbon dioxide. We must maintain sustainability and ultimately connect it to the improvement of well-being. This is a perfect theme for SFC, which excels at interdisciplinary approaches. We have only just begun preparations, but we plan to release information as it becomes available. I have no idea how many students read this Okashira Diary, but I hope to receive proposals and participation from all of you.