Lifestyle and Nature

Environmental constraints are becoming increasingly severe, and now more than ever it is time that we confront head-on the change from an "underground resources" type of civilization to one with a new way of life and technology that embraces a sense of nature. To do so, we need to understand the process of the civilization change. We must change our way of thinking to backcasting in order to design future lifestyles and learn from the elderly who lived with nature under severe environmental constraints more than 70 years ago. We must also learn from nature directly, the only sustainable society on earth. This book introduces Bio-TRIZ and ontology engineering to match and find technologies needed for spiritually affluent lifestyles. It provides many examples of Japanese cities that conducted lifestyle design projects based on nature technology. The book is a great reference for graduate-level students of environmental studies and engineering and for researchers in innovation, social science, engineering, and public policy, especially those with an interest in lifestyle change for a sustainable society.

Ryuzo Furukawa is a professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies, Tokyo City University. He received a BS in 1996 and an MS in 1998 from the University of Tokyo. From 1998 to 2005, he served as a researcher in the Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc., during which time he got interested in innovation research. He received a PhD in innovation research from the Department of Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Tokyo, in 2005. From then on, he has been at the Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku University, and developing new methodologies such as lifestyle design by backcasting, nature technology, lifestyle analysis by using ontology engineering, and solution creation methods. He has interviewed more than 500 90-year-old people to research old lifestyles and find sustainable ones and is dedicated to finding a framework of lifestyle innovation that makes possible a sustainable society living in harmony with nature. He is also the founder of "Mirai no Kurashi Sozo Juku," an association for learning about social innovation. It is running several projects with the local government (Toyooka City, Akita City, Kitakami City, Yuzawa City, Shima City, Okinoerabu Island, Suginami-ku in Tokyo, etc.) and companies. Prof. Furukawa has authored or coauthored more than 48 academic papers and 17 books and won 9 awards.

Environmental Degradation and the Need to Change Our Lifestyles. Nature Technology Creation System. How Japan Found a Way of Life Producing Spiritual Affluence from Limited Resources. Lifestyle Design by Backcasting. Extracting Technologies from Future Lifestyles. Matching Lifestyle to Technology. Bio-TRIZ. Creating a Fountain of Future Lifestyle Ideas. Creating Local Flavor and Passing It Down. Developing Needs-Oriented Technologies with Bio-TRIZ. Trends and Characteristics of Biomimetic Technology. Nature Technology as a Contributor to Sustainable Social Innovation.