Cars, Toilets Go Green at Eco-Friendly Summit
Date: 07-Jul-08
Country: JAPAN
Japan has made climate change the overarching theme of this year's meeting of rich nations and reminders to be environmentally aware are everywhere, down to the summit logo depicting a sprouting plant.
LET'S CARBON OFFSET!
Environment-related booths dominate the entrance to the international media centre, including a bank of computer screens headlined "Let's carbon offset!"
With a few keystrokes, you can calculate your emissions from attending this week's summit in northern Japan, then choose a project to contribute to in order to stay "carbon neutral".
A reporter coming from Singapore, flying from Tokyo to Hokkaido and staying in a hotel for five nights, for example, needs to offset 2.72 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
A little more than US$250 of investment in an afforestation project in Hokkaido will pay for three carbon offsets, in this case three trees that will reduce three tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 30 years.
"Not so many" people have stopped by to erase their carbon footprint, admitted Ai Kimura of KPMG AZSA Sustainability, which is running the project on the Japanese government's behalf.
She said Japan plans to offset the entire summit once all the emissions are calculated, with preliminary estimates at around 25,000 tonnes of CO2.
BIRTHDAY BOY
US President George W. Bush, who was initially sceptical of the link between human activity and global warming, arrived in Hokkaido on Sunday.
White House staff gathered in the conference room on Air Force One just before arrival to celebrate his birthday -- Bush turned 62 on Sunday -- with a coconut cake carrying one candle.
"We all said 'surprise' and he dutifully pretended to be surprised," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
Senior staff gave Bush a wooden box made from a scarlet oak that fell on White House grounds in October 2007, Perino said.
SUMMER SNOW
It's summer in Hokkaido but the journalists here writing about global warming are cucumber cool, thanks to the snow.
Japan spent US$30 million to build a temporary media centre for the G8 summit next to a ski resort. During construction, tonnes of snow were scooped up from the resort's carpark and dumped into an insulated area under the floor.
Of the 5.5 metre high bank of snow, more than 4 metres remains and is used to help chill the air circulating around the cavernous two-storey building. Glass panels on the floor show the snow underneath.
The company that designed and built the centre, Takenaka Corp, says 95 percent of the materials will be recycled or reused once the building is torn down after the G8 meeting.
Solar panels also help power the centre and cut emissions.
Senior Takenaka researcher Jun Oishi says the building will produce 6,000 tonnes less carbon dioxide over its short life than a conventionally designed building.
EASY SEGWAY RIDER
With as many as 22 world leaders due to attend different days of this year's G8, security has been no joke and 21,000 police have been deployed in Hokkaido alone.
But even security guards got into the spirit at the press centre, riding around the sprawling complex on two-wheel scooter Segways.
"We are using this because it's environmentally friendly," said security man Mitsugu Kubo, though how a scooter could be better for the environment than two feet was not so clear.
The true reason may well have been more pedestrian.
"Usually, we have to walk, so we get tired, but we don't get tired with this," said Kubo, an employee of Rising Sun Security Service.
ECO-FRIENDLY AUTOS
A fleet of electric plug-ins, hybrids and hydrogen fuel cell cars await those attending the summit for use or test drives, supplied by Japan's top seven car makers.
Many fuel cell cars are still prototypes available only for lease, but commercial sales of some other summit autos, like Mitsubishi Motors' pure electric i-MiEV
