IDEAS FOR GOOD Business Design Lab hosts “Upcycle the City: Umekita Urban Upcyclers Kick-off – Where Sustainability Meets Creativity”

IDEAS FOR GOOD Business Design Lab, a co-creation-type business development lab operated by our company to make society better, will hold an event “Upcycle the City: Umekita Urban Upcyclers Kick-off – Where Sustainability Meets Creativity” at PLAT UMEKITA, a hands-on co-creation center in Umeda, Osaka on September 18, 2024.

PLAT UMEKITA is an experiential co-creation platform operated by TOPPAN Inc. This platform will continuously implement work programs that create co-creation between consumers and companies by incorporating ethical, sustainable, wellbeing, and other new age values into daily life in an enjoyable way.

PLAT UMEKITA’s opening event and hands-on exhibition “Upcycled Animals” will be held from September 6 to 29, and this event is one of the launch events of the “PLAT UMEKITA” work program.

Overview

The area on the north side of Osaka Station, known as “Umekita,” has supported Osaka’s vibrant economic development to the extent that it was once known as “Umeda Freight Station” where many things gathered and was called “Shiodome in the east and Umeda in the west” during the period of high economic growth. However, as the world reevaluates the nature of the economy, which involves mass production, mass consumption, and mass disposal, Umekita is also undergoing a rebirth.

Umeda, Osaka, which has flourished as the economic and commercial center of Japan, is the perfect place to create a new, sustainable economy. We, the operator of “IDEAS FOR GOOD,” a magazine of ideas for creative solutions to social issues, will open a new experiential co-creation center “PLAT UMEKITA” in UMEKITA as a base to explore and practice a new economy and city for a sustainable future from UMEKITA.

The theme of the program is “Umekita Urban Upcyclers.” It is said to be responsible for 3/4 of natural resources, more than half of waste, and 60-80% of CO2 emissions, and is also a factor in various environmental problems. This program is designed to help people regain the “creative confidence” that they can change their own future and that of society by themselves.

The keywords of the program are “sustainability” and “creativity,” and IDEAS FOR GOOD aims to make Umekita a crossroads of sustainability and creativity, a crossroads where diverse people can meet and interact, and a testing ground for realizing an exciting future in which each individual can exercise his or her creativity.

To commemorate the start of the program, Umekita Urban Upcyclers, a group of people who share a common desire to create such an Umekita together, will gather for a kick-off event to “upcycle” the city together.

The guest speaker will be Sachiyo Kojima, a native of Osaka who graduated from Osaka University of Arts, started several companies in the creative field, and opened “Rinne.bar” in Kuramae, Tokyo, where people can enjoy DIY upcycling of scrap while having drinks under the theme of creative reuse. We will also invite Masayuki Terai, who was involved in the promotion of the circular economy at Hamada CO.,LTD., an industrial waste disposal company in Osaka, and now serves as the head of the “Garbage School,” a community that aims to “create an exciting society by making the most of garbage.”

The theme of the discussion will be “Sustainability and Creativity,” and we will discuss the possibility of upcycling as an action that brings out the creativity hidden within each of us, and how we can transform the large amount of waste and unused resources generated in cities into protagonists that will shape the future of our cities. How can we turn waste and unused resources generated in large quantities in cities into protagonists that will shape the future of cities?

In the cross-talk session in the latter half of the session, we will think about the future of Umekita that we want to create together with the participants. Each of us will be excited to creatively imagine a sustainable future for Umekita. Each person’s excitement will make Umekita a more exciting place. Umekita, which used to be a place where things gathered and consumption began, will become a place where people gather and excitement circulates. We hope to be the starting line of this new change.

At the end of the event, we will also introduce “Umekita Urban Upcyclers,” a school-style program that will be developed at PLAT UMEKITA in the future with the theme of sustainability x creativity.

If you’re interested in exploring the future of Umekita, urban upcycling, sustainability, or creating art and products from waste materials, feel free to join us.

Event Time / Date: 6:30 pm- / September 18

[Reference] Umekita Urban Upcyclers Kick-off Event | PLAT UMEKITA (in Japanese)
[Related Site] IDEAS FOR GOOD (in Japanese)