NEWS

Annual E-weeks (ICU Environment Awareness Week) Starts

Update: April 28, 2016

April 25 (Mon.) was the opening day of E-weeks (ICU Environment Awareness Week), an event that has been held every year since 2013.

The event was first held in 2013 as a campaign to promote the use of recyclable containers called "Re-repacks," introduced at the Dining Hall then, and has since been continued to be held marking its fourth time. Under this year's theme "Be Aware of Unawareness - What we can do from this green lush campus," lectures on environmental issues and various other events will be held up to May 11 (Wed.). The events are organized mainly by SUSTENA, a students' group aiming to improve the campus environment and raise environmental awareness among ICU students, along with other environmental and social action groups.

On the first day "E-weeks Opening Lecture" was started with a greeting speech by Dean of Students, Tatsuo Nunoshiba (Major: Biology, Environmental Studies), followed by a presentation by Ms. Komomo Niwa (4th year student) of ICU ELABEL, a student volunteer group that promotes fairtrade-certified products and produces ICU alumni original goods using fairtrade-certified cotton. She talked about the outline of fairtrade, the background of why she became engaged in the promotion of fairtrade-certified products, how she negotiated with the on-campus Sanseido Book Store to introduce a fairtrade-certified ice cream brand from the U.S., and how she started producing alumni original goods.

After the presentation, one of the audience asked, "What were the hardships you faced through your activities and what did you learn from such experience?" /en/news/160428_n_1.htmlAnswering that question, Ms. Niwa commented "What I can do alone is limited. My activities today would not have been possible if it was not for all the support I have received. I learned that, in order to involve and obtain support from the people around you, you need to explain not just that you want to do something, but why you want to do it and what exactly you want to achieve, repeatedly and faithfully, so that the listener can understand. ICU offers a warm supportive environment for people who really want to achieve something. So please have the courage to take a little step forward and put your ideas into action."

At the end of the lecture, taking Ms. Niwa's activities and the process of how "Re-repacks" were introduced to the cafeteria as examples, Professor Nunoshiba added a comment to reinforce the message of how important it is to act on ideas. "We need to identify challenges that hinder the realization of our ideas, and overcome such challenges one by one. This means that the act of drawing up a project plan and negotiating based on that plan, in other words, projecting the idea onto the real world is important. Let's take the adoption of "Re-repacks" as an example. A group of students first drew up a project plan and consulted the cafeteria staff. They met with the staff over and over again and it was through this process that the students learned about the requirements that needed to be cleared in order for the project to be realized. They learned that take-out containers have to be compact, easy to serve meals, won't cause any additional work for the staff such as cleaning, and be low cost. There are also skills and learnings that can only be gained through action. I have heard from the students involved in this process, that they were not only able to experience success by making their idea come true, but were able to learn the importance of the PDCA (Plan/Do/Check/Act) cycle and teamwork required when trying to get something done."

On 26 (Tues.), the second day the E-weeks, Professor Takehiko Kamito (Major: Biology, Environmental Studies) took around 20 students on a guided walking tour to observe the vegetation inhabiting the campus while actually touching the plants.

The participants not only observed the plants, but listened to the explanations Professor Kamito gave about why a plant inhabits a certain place and how it protects itself from enemies, occasionally asking questions and amazed to find how rich the natural environment of ICU is.