What we do
- Promoting the Joint Education Program in Sustainability Science
- Promoting and supporting practical measures through research and development projects
- Support for public outreach activities, such as seminars and symposiums
- Communications, publications and dissemination
1. Promoting the Joint Education Program in Sustainability Science
The Joint Education Program in Sustainability Science is a program to develop specialists capable of functioning internationally toward sustainable community development.
The program sends people into the world with a strong understanding of the diversity, internationalism, and interdisciplinarity that are inherent to the concept of sustainability and who are capable of working to achieve sustainability through real-world social initiatives. It is intended as the benchmark for sustainability education in universities around the world.
Joint Education Program description and completion certificate requirements
The SSC Joint Education Program not only provides broad cross-disciplinary coverage of the diverse disciplines of sustainability science but also combines distinctive curricula developed by individual universities to leverage their particular strengths, thus offering an education program that provides a wide range of options while continually evolving. The education program includes a core subject common to all participating universities and a component that the participating universities conduct themselves.
Common core subject (one subject)
- Lectures are conducted using a remote lecture system connecting each region
- Lectures on cutting-edge sustainability science are conducted by top runners in their respective sustainability-related disciplines
Component conducted by participating universities
- Universities participating in the SSC Joint Education Program also conduct their own sustainability education programs (majors and/or minors).
- The following subjects in these programs are counted as joint program subjects: Holistic subjects (two subjects), Sustainability-related subjects (two subjects)
How to participate in the Joint Education Program
Requirements for universities wishing to participate in the Joint Education Program are currently being developed and should be available by end of the current fiscal year. The requirements will be posted on the website once they have been determined.
2. Promoting and supporting practical measures through research and development projects
We support practical measures through active exchange with foreign and domestic academic societies, economic, trade, and industrial sectors, governmental agencies, citizens, NPO/NGOs, and others in an effort to promote sustainability-related joint research and joint development projects.
Examples of SSC research and development topics
- SSC member universities, research institutes, and corporations collaborate on a long-term vision for a local government seeking to build a low-carbon city, developing a bold future scenario based on local conditions, the results of which are widely disseminated throughout society.
- In collaboration with local government, corporations, agriculture and forestry interests, NPOs, and others, SSC proposes a new regional management system for an agricultural region to aid in the development of a master plan by the SSC-member local government to revitalize the region through local production for local consumption.
Examples of affiliated university initiative topics
| The University of Tokyo | Structuring issues and knowledge to build global sustainability strategies |
|---|---|
| Kyoto University | Socio-economic reorganization and technological strategies |
| Osaka University | Designing a closed-loop society with eco-industrial technology |
| Hokkaido University | Regional governance and a sustainable bio-production zone |
| Ibaraki University | Adapting to climate change in Asia and the Pacific |
| Toyo University | Constructing an eco-philosophy |
| National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) | Long-term scenarios for sustainable community development |
| Tohoku University | Constructing regional sustainability from the perspective of health risk |
| Chiba University | Constructing regional sustainability from the perspective of food and health |
| Waseda University | Political decision-making and the role of journalism |
| Ritsumeikan University | Strategic innovations for building a balanced society |
| United Nations University | Building global meta-networks centered on developing nations |
3. Support for public outreach activities, such as seminars and symposiums
We engage in activities, including communications, to support the planning and organization of public seminars, symposiums, etc. for the purposes of public outreach on sustainability science.
4. Communications, publications and dissemination
We publicize trends and event information, publish work, and disseminate publications related to sustainability science.