Think the Earth

Are you familiar with the program of the Forestry Agency in Japan that promotes active use of domestic timber, called "Kidukai (which has a double meaning - "using wood" and "taking care of forests")? This program began back in 2005, and a wide scale promotional campaign is being conducted this October. The key visual element used in the events and campaigns conducted nationwide is the "3.9% greenstyle" mark. This figure refers to the amount of greenhouse gas emissions forests are estimated to absorb, which amounts to 2/3 of the total 6% greenhouse gas reductions Japan has committed to reducing with the Kyoto Protocol.

But in reality, this figure, 3.9%, has been readjusted to 3.8% since the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions have increased. And as there are misgivings about whether Japan will be able to hit the target set by the Kyoto Protocol, the local governments and companies all over Japan who are taking part in this program that help promote the use of wood have generated ideas and reinforced their publicity efforts to make it become widely known that there are a lot of ill-kept rugged forests in Japan.

The Japan Wood-Products Information & Research Center, which plays a central role in this program, introduces how purchases of products made using domestic wood can contributed to the healthy maintenance of forests in Japan using its own unique point system (1P =1 cubic centimeter of timber volume). According to this system, even if you don't make a very expensive purchase, like a house, if you purchase, for example a pen holder, this would amount to 440 points, a cutting board to 2,200 points, and planters 78,000 points. So you can see how even products that are more every-day-things make quite a contribution to this end. There is a need to increase the annual usage of forests to 23 million cubic meters, and to reach this target, we still need to find use for 6 million cubic meters of forests. The annual target the Japan Wood-Products Information & Research Center has set is 50,000 points per citizen.