As someone who is passionate about the environment, I was excited to attend the Eco-Products Exhibition in Ariake last December. The annual event, hosted by the Japan Environmental Management Association for Industry, is considered one of the largest of its kind, with over 600 companies and organizations on display and more than 160,000 visitors. Its aim was to accelerate the expansion of green markets by exhibiting environmentally friendly products and services, and I looked forward to seeing the technology Japan was pioneering in the areas of clean energy production, waste management and self-sufficiency in food and water.

Wearing my best eco-wear, I trekked out to Tokyo Big Sight to join one of the two free English-guided tours generously supported by Japan For Sustainability (JFS), a nonprofit environmental organization that has developed a solid reputation in Japan since its inception in 2002.

My tour mates and I were escorted by our English-speaking guide to five pre-selected booths. These included Dowa Eco-System, which featured mining technology that not only enables precious metals to be precisely extracted from the Earth, but also from discarded technology such as computers and cellphones; Sharp, which showcased flatscreen TV technology that adjusts to use less energy in a dim room; and Asahi Breweries, who touted their cultivation of an Asahi Forest so you can feel even better about drinking beer. These exhibits whetted my appetite, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was going to leave the eco-exhibition hungry.

After the guided tour, I continued to explore the show on my own. I was inspired by the good work that some of the grassroots environmental organizations were doing, satiated by Be Good Café’s locally-grown organic and vegetarian dishes, and charmed by the interactive booths where you could make a sheet of paper and your own bamboo chopsticks. Nevertheless, I was disheartened by the number of high-tech booths fronted by spokesmen wielding laser pointers and showing diagrams to an attentive audience that appeared awestruck by the ostensibly eco-friendly products on show.

Eco-tip #1: Presentations that are as slick as an oil spill are probably likely to cause one.

To my chagrin, there were also many small companies touting not-so-eco products. When I saw a booth promoting German-made plastic garbage bags, my suspicions were immediately raised. I figured that the transport-related resource costs would be justified because the bags are made of recycled PET bottles. Wrong. These bags were “eco-friendly” because they have drawstring tops, so more rubbish could be packed inside.

Then there was the flooring company that mixed different colored wood to create beautiful patterns “naturally” rather than using stains. The problem is, they use non-sustainable wood.

But the pièce de résistance was the baby clothing company that uses “real” lavender, strawberries, peaches and crystals to dye their baby clothes the most palette-perfect purple, pink, peach and white. Seriously?!? Did I have a big “Eco-Sucker” sticker on my back?

While not all exhibitors had such gumption, the resounding message from the exhibition was buy, buy, buy — even if you don’t need to — because our products are “eco.” Disingenuous companies that use eco-marketing to sell more of their stuff seriously irritate me. They undermine genuine eco-products and reduce the sustainable movement to a simple marketing ploy.

I had come to the exhibition with the hope of learning and seeing the pioneering products and technology that were created to restore balance and minimize impact on our floundering ecosystems, not add to our landfills. I wonder how many of the 30,000 schoolchildren who visited the show and filled their plastic bags with free stuff got the message of what environmental sustainability is and what they could personally do to help protect the environment.

Six hours later, I left the hall with more questions than answers. What exactly are the qualifying criteria for potential exhibitors and their products? Where’s the educational component? Fair-trade? Sweatshop free? Why aren’t exhibitors banned from giving away senseless, plastic whatchamacallits and forests of paper flyers? Why aren’t there quantity and quality requirements for brochures and booths?

It is my feeling that this exhibition has both the responsibility and opportunity to have a significant impact on companies, governments and citizens, but not without consumer education and empowerment and rigorous selection of companies that are engineering effective solutions to end our global crisis.

Be critical and rethink your purchasing behavior and attitudes. Sustainability is not about buying more stuff; it is about reducing consumption and purchasing responsibly when we need to. See you at the Eco-Products Exhibition 2008.

4 Comments

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  Coligny at 01:02 PM JST - 10th May

  Yeah, if you think eco-product as 100% recycle only, sure your in for a bad day... But all these companies move in the right direction. Just not the eco-nazi one for whom nothing should be touched on earth and mankind shall be destroyed to preserve baby bumblebees. More the european style ecologist movement, still doing things, but trying to be a little polluting as possible while still being as much as necessary. (not my words, V.A.G. engineering moto)

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  thedeath at 01:27 PM JST - 10th May

  the resounding message from the exhibition was buy, buy, buy — even if you don’t need to — because our products are “eco.”

  that what i feel here. before i came here i believe that japan is one of the best place for eco lover, after i has been living here for some years i am not thinking the same way anymore!

  environmental program here focus most on selling products. it is very little talking about reuse, and it is every lest talking about reduce! it all about buy buy buy because we are using recycle technology!

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  illsayit at 06:01 PM JST - 10th May

  The problem is that the people and companies that are able to get to and provide an exhibition that would be ecological are not invited, probably dont even have any wind of what is happening, because they dont do sales under the title of ecological. They just are. The ones that are able to economically get there, are usually companies with monies to start off with, and are moving into the ecological stance to get sales.

  Why do you need to go to a Exhibition to find the ecological products? I thought this was common knowledge, the companies exhibiting are all part of support group of each other, not all Japan's ecological based companies.

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  imacat at 11:17 PM JST - 10th May

  Interesting article but not quite balanced. I was at Eco Products 2008 too and there was a great educational presence from NGOs, universities and other concerned groups. I spent a lot of time in that section talking to a lot of great Japanese people doing good work. Maybe the author should have spent more time in that part of the exhibition.

  This IS a "products" fair so I think the author is naive to be shocked that there are lots of companies pushing their eco-friendly wares. And there were some great products that are really worth pushing. I noticed at the December show that there were a lot of companies pushing moss or plant systems to cover roofs and even walls with. Now that is a really great idea that would have a positive effect if it caught on in a big way.

  Lots of good eco-clothing, too. Hemp and bamboo clothes... very nice and also great for people with allergies.

  I really like the Sanyo Eneloop batteries, so much so that I have replaced all my batteries with them. Nice guy from Sanyo gave a lot of interesting background on that product.

  Great talk from C.W. Nicols rounded off what was a very informative and interesting day.

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