NEWS
ICU student wins Excellence Award and Judges' Special Award at SDGs Student Essay Award
Update: January 17, 2022
Mr. Kaoru Oda (3rd year student, College of Liberal Arts; major: Environmental Studies) won the Excellence Award and Judges' Special Award at the 7th SDGs Student Essay Award. The Award is held by Sumitomo Riko to solicit essays from university students and the like on companies' initiatives toward achieving the SDGs. This year's theme was "What companies can change society pushed by green and digital transformation?" Concrete approaches on what initiatives companies should take to achieve the SDGs goals were proposed based on students' unique perspectives.
Mr. Oda's essay was highly evaluated for "seeking to create a hub for farmers in the region leveraging connections with local farmers and getting to the heart of agriculture, a field that has a large impact on Japanese society, from a unique perspective" as well as for "trying to depict a business model from multiple perspectives." These aspects led to the winning of the two awards.
This year, the awarding ceremony was not held in person due to the COVID-19 pandemic but instead, an opportunity was provided to the award winners to exchange views with the judges.
Outline of the essay
Title: Toward Planet- and People-Friendly Farming - Cool Agriculture Passing On to the Future
In a society of growing uncertainty, green and digital transformation provide directions for the future society. The vision is to create a new style of agriculture by combining agriculture and IT through the initiative of an agricultural equipment manufacturer.
The service aims to share "smart farming equipment" among farmers by leasing cutting-edge equipment incorporating information technology. Farmers can rent the equipment only when necessary, which will help them improve productivity at low cost. Mr. Oda also proposed other businesses that would contribute to decarbonization, such as agrivoltaics and measures to prevent food loss.
Comment from Mr. Oda
It is a great honor for me to receive these awards in the 7th SDGs Student Essay Award. I became interested in environmental issues after entering ICU and have since learned about them through classes and books. Being a major cause of global warming, agriculture has decarbonization as its issue. On the other hand, a new wave of agriculture that makes use of IT skills--called "smart agriculture"--is expanding. I wrote the essay to think of businesses that will not only achieve decarbonization in agriculture, but also deal with the aging problem of farmers with information technology skills. As I formed my ideas to write the essay, I was able to link what I had learned at ICU with my own experience and knowledge, and further deepen understanding about decarbonization and digital transformation of agriculture. I feel I was able to leverage the mindset to think from multiple perspectives, an important part of what I had learned at ICU, in writing the essay. With these awards as encouragement, I will continue studying and strive to contribute to achieving the SDGs.