Travel provides the opportunity to see a new perspective and to think about what works in different contexts. Not to say that any country necessarily has it all figured out, but there are lessons we can find when we get out of our bubbles, see a place that operates very differently and rethink what’s possible. If you're in the climate analysis or community space, you can't go to a new city or country and not see examples of "what ifs" at every turn. A few weeks ago my wife and I knocked out a bucket list trip to Japan -- which I used as a chance to see what I could learn from a country with per capita GHGs that are roughly half of the US.
I was struck by finding the UN's Sustainable Development Goals displayed in countless places, spying heat pumps everywhere, going from intimidated to pleasantly surprised by transit system, and the notable cleanliness and lack of waste. And while I didn't return home with a check list of ways my hometown or yours can apply the successes I saw in Japan, these observations can help us think through our communities' choices and paths forward.
Sustainability Baked In
We arrived at what should have been well into fall, but like much of the world in 2024, it was the on the tail end of an exceptionally hot and long summer. It was announced that this fall was a record late appearance of the snow cap on Mount Fuji and it seemed like there were constant reminders that this year’s weather was ‘different’. Our trip was timed to take in as many of the chrysanthemum exhibitions as possible. The level of attention that goes into creating these displays is incredible. Unfortunately, so many of them seemed to be behind schedule for flowering, which is triggered by day length as well as temperature. Turns out all the fall color was apparently several weeks behind normal.
I initially thought I’d have to keep my eyes peeled for examples of sustainability beyond the obvious compact and connected communities. It quickly became clear that sustainability was woven into many aspects of life there. Some things were subtle, but there was a general sense of energy awareness in even mundane places.
There were plenty of examples that Japan is resourceful; where traditional regenerative materials had a space among the high-rises. There were systems in place to recover materials from very specific sources and it seemed like they had their priorities straight for what materials to separate out of the waste-to-energy stream.
My biggest and most pleasant surprise was that the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were everywhere! Some of these were in expected places, like a hotel’s water conservation programs, which wasn’t surprising, but then also at a random mattress store display? They were noted on the sides of adorable tiny trash trucks. They popped up again and again at places like the park-and-ride lot as well as on the advertising inside of trains and repeated throughout the Kyoto Train Museum and on the hydrogen buses in the Tokyo metro.
Despite all the talks of heat pump revolution in the United States, they have been the default HVAC choice for heating and cooling in Japan for a while. Many were stuck to buildings wherever they could fit, but also discreetly and artfully incorporated into the streetscape. 
Waste in a Vending Machine Culture
Another ubiquitous piece of the built environment in Japan is vending machines. Many of them boasted about the efficiency of the heat pump keeping all the delightfully weird drinks cold. Maybe once a technology gets as widespread as it is here, you start finding creative ways to take advantage of all the energy you have to work with and maximize the benefits of a “two-way AC”. Since heat pumps just move energy around, why not sell hot drinks too instead of dumping the heat out the back into the streets? It really got me thinking about where the technology could go for the all the things in our homes and buildings that we are trying to either keep cold or hot at the same time.
With vending machines come single use plastic. With nearly every lunch centered around convenience store onigiri, we had a decent amount of plastic to haul around until we found a public waste bin, which was very rare. You’d think this is a situation that would lead to trash everywhere, but the opposite was true. I’d heard it’s a generally clean place, but it is remarkable to experience it firsthand. The day after the remnants of super-typhoon Kong-Rey (one of many in a record-breaking pacific typhoon season) dumped sheets of rain on Kyoto, we were looking at the stormwater flowing though the Kamo river at the heart of the city. First, the water itself looked clean. It wasn’t crystal blue, but it definitely wasn’t brown like I'm used to seeing after a storm. Moreover there was virtually zero trash visible in a river flowing through a city of 1.4 million. All in all, the place seemed to manage the stormwater well, despite being very urban. It was clear, they were also prepared for the possibility of something much more severe with signage noting on the ground where flooding may occur.
Efficiency at the Core of Mobility
Of course, the single biggest difference is the astoundingly efficient transportation systems, especially the trains. The Shinkansen bullet trains are a marvel and one that has been whisking people around the country for 60 years. I did some comparisons on our trip from Tokyo to Osaka and for those familiar with the Northeast Corridor, just imagine if the Accela could get you from Boston as far as Wilmington Delaware in a little over 2 hours, for less than $100 bucks. Even the smaller train lines were comfortable, quick, frequent, and cheap. Limited express trains can get you from one city to another in under 30 minutes in plush “luxury” seats for the price of about ½ mile in a typical rideshare. I could go on about the trains, and I thought a lot about the fact that it is very hard to imagine a train system like that in the US while we rode them.
So often in GHG mitigation, the focus is on the technology and the technical potential of a solution. At the same time, I know from KLA’s work that the real challenge is making sure there are easy onramps for people to adopt it. The Tokyo area rail network is frankly bonkers to look at from a map and it was incredibly intimidating to approach it for the first time and trying to figure out the entire system. It got me thinking about the amount of time and mental energy that goes into the typical wedge analysis. We lay out all the possibilities for getting to a long-term destination instead of figuring out where to begin.
Once inside the famously busy Shinjuku Station, everything made sense thanks to some simple wayfinding. Wherever we needed to make a decision; there was good signage, timetables, and all the information we needed to get to the next step. It wasn’t long before we realized we couldn’t necessarily plan all transfers perfectly, and the best approach was to just get going and take the steps immediately ahead of us. We always ended up where we needed to be. As I've seen so many carefully laid out projections being rethought every time an administration changes, it really makes the opportunity cost of not working on the immediate issues in front of us even more stark.
While I didn’t come back with any transferable knowledge on how to scale up the specific solutions that seem to be making a difference in that fascinating country; with a little patience I found some timeless knowledge that I think can help any community find the way forward from wherever they stand today. Also with a little patience, the chrysanthemums mostly caught up and we got a few good shows that will have to hold us over until next time.
