Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
DOI 10.1007/s11625-006-0007-4
EDITORIAL
The impetus for this journal linked to political agendas, raising concerns about the
solidity of its analytical basis; as a consequence the
In scientific and academic circles worldwide, the scientific and technological underpinnings of the
opportunity to develop the emerging discipline of concept remain unclear to many (Cohen et al. 1998).
sustainability science has never been greater. This new During the 1990s, the International Council for
science has its origins in the concept of sustainable Science (ICSU) initiated studies of science and tech-
development proposed by the World Commission on nology for sustainable development. There were,
Environment and Development (1987) (WCED, also increasingly, calls for a science of sustainability pred-
known as the Brundtland Commission). Defining sus- icated on recognition of the fundamental link between
tainable development as ‘‘development that meets the science and economy while remaining free from
needs of the present without compromising the ability political bias of the sort seen, for example, when
of future generations to meet their own needs’’, the North–South issues are raised in debates over sus-
WCED gained worldwide support for its argument that tainable development (Kates et al. 2001; ICSU 2002;
development must ensure the coexistence of economy Clark and Dickson 2003).
and the environment. Today, ‘‘sustainability’’ is rec- At the University of Tokyo, located in Asia, the
ognized the world over as a key issue facing twenty- need for a new academic discipline of sustainability
first century society. science has become increasingly evident during our
It has, however, also been remarked that the idea of ten years of collaborative research and education
sustainable development increasingly seems to be initiatives through the Alliance for Global Sustain-
ability (AGS) with the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT), the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology (ETH), and Chalmers University of
Technology in Sweden. We have been fortunate to
receive support from the Special Coordination Funds
Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is
available to authorised users in the online version of this article
for Promoting Science and Technology of Japan’s
at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11625-006-0007-4. Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and
Technology (MEXT) for the purpose of forming a
H. Komiyama sustainability science network in Japan and working
The University of Tokyo, Integrated Research System
toward sustainability from a global perspective, par-
for Sustainability Science (IR3S), 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku,
Tokyo 113-8654, Japan ticularly in Asia. In August 2005, the University of
Tokyo inaugurated the Integrated Research System
K. Takeuchi (&) for Sustainability Science (IR3S) and invited univer-
Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences,
sities throughout Japan to participate, thus launching
The University of Tokyo, IR3S, 7-3-1 Hongo,
Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8654, Japan a full-scale effort to set up a nationwide research
e-mail: takeuchi@ir3s.u-tokyo.ac.jp network.
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themselves grown increasingly fragmented in recent enables us to replace the current piecemeal approach
years, so much research is conducted from a highly with one that can develop and apply comprehensive
restricted perspective with regard to both phenomena solutions to these problems.
identification and problem solving. Structuring knowledge in this manner will stimulate
The fundamental cause of the current crisis in sus- existing disciplines and mechanisms, contribute to the
tainability is the industrialization that followed the development of scenarios for a better future, and point
industrial revolution and the rapid economic growth it the way to new inventions (Komiyama et al. 2004).
fostered. One result was the burgeoning consumption Knowledge structuring is thus of critical value in
of fossil fuels and other nonrenewable resources, a le- identifying problems and responding to the needs of
vel of consumption that has led some to call the academia and industry. But nowhere is its effect more
twentieth century the ‘‘century of explosive expan- likely to be felt than in the field of sustainability sci-
sion’’. Pollution, which first emerged as a severe ence.
problem in specific localities, also grew into the global One example of knowledge structuring at work is
issue recognized today. As environmental and other the Tokyo Half Project (Fig. 2), a collaborative inter-
problems become global in scale, their causes and ef- national research project by the AGS (Krains et al.
fects grow increasingly complex—pollution generated 2001). The purpose of the project is to construct a
in one part of the world, for example, may do its worst model for computing total carbon dioxide emissions
damage in an entirely different region. This complexity from Tokyo by quantifying the emission processes of
hampers both the effort to identify problems and the the variety of sources of CO2 in the metropolis and
search for solutions. compiling data on emissions from these sources on a
For scholars, knowledge structuring is an essential common platform. This model can also be used to
first step in the effort to acquire a comprehensive view evaluate the effect of efforts to reduce emissions from
of sustainability issues. The problems that sustainabil- individual sources on total CO2 emissions from Tokyo.
ity science confronts are not only complex but also It also serves to identify which measures would be re-
interconnected. If we are to find solutions to them, we quired of consumers and industry to reduce CO2
must first clarify the relationships among them, i.e. emissions by half, a target often cited in the post-Kyoto
engage in problem structuring. Next, we must assemble Protocol debate.
a platform of knowledge that not only affords an By means of this journal we intend to strive for
overview of the entire web of problems but also, by precisely this structuring of knowledge in the field of
systematically organizing disparate fields of inquiry, sustainability science with the objective of achieving a
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Sustain Sci (2006) 1:1–6 5
comprehensive overview of this new discipline. The One problem unique to sustainability science lies in
information technology revolution provides the means the process of shifting from the stage of phenomena
for integrating our exponentially growing knowledge identification and analysis to that of problem solving.
base, so we look forward to the publication in these For sustainability science this process necessarily dif-
pages of the results of research utilizing such technol- fers from the conventional transition from basic to
ogy. It is our belief that this research can help resolve applied research, because solutions to problems may
one of the fundamental dilemmas of contemporary have to be sought before those problems have been
scholarship—the inability of our overly specialized sufficiently analyzed or even identified. Global warm-
disciplines to offer comprehensive solutions to the ing is the prime example of this dilemma. Future sce-
conditions that threaten the sustainability of global, narios predicted by various models of global warming
social, and human systems. remain unverifiable, yet the search for solutions cannot
wait.
The principle that must be applied here is the pre-
A transdisciplinary approach cautionary approach. But acceptance and implemen-
tation of this approach requires a framework for
Precisely because sustainability science includes glo- gaining the agreement of all sectors of society, and that
bal, social, and human systems in its purview, and is where interaction between scientists and the public is
because the problems it addresses involve disparate of the essence. What is demanded of sustainability
elements—from science and technology, to politics science is not only the development of scientifically
and economics, to human lifestyles and behavior—this sound models for predicting future scenarios and
new discipline must necessarily embrace the social evaluating the effects of different countermeasures and
and natural sciences (Mihelcic et al. 2003). But as the solutions but also effective management of the process
body of academic and scientific research continues to by which these forecasts and evaluations are accepted
grow, and as the disciplines engaged in this research by society, to generate the social reforms necessary to
continue to fragment, it becomes almost impossible ensure global sustainability.
for the individual researcher or research group to gain If sustainability science is to contribute practical
access to and utilize this vast accumulation of data. solutions to the problems we face, cooperation among
We need, therefore, to construct a framework within researchers, industry, and the general public is imper-
which individual disciplines can provide quantifiable ative. Only when society at large is inspired to act on
criteria and indicators related to sustainability. By the basis of their research and conclusions can sus-
integrating these criteria we can structure our tainability scientists lay the foundation for construction
knowledge, our methods, and our grasp of the issues of a sustainable society. With that in mind, the editors
we confront. This is the first step we must take if we of this journal welcome articles presenting possibilities
are to progress from identifying problems to solving for major reforms of industrial structures and con-
them. sumer lifestyles. Examples include the design and
It is important to note that while these criteria and implementation of new industrial technology in har-
indicators must conform to scientific standards of mony with the environment, or of other systems of
objectivity, they must not be expected to yield a sin- sustainable production and consumption for a re-
gular solution to any given problem. Indeed, a diversity source-circulating society.
of solutions should be sought in accordance with the In closing we would like to emphasize the key role
particular environmental and cultural conditions of of education in this process. Sustainability science must
each nation or region. Any attempt to impose uniform nurture a generation of leaders who are capable of
solutions of global environmental problems will appreciating the significance of changes in global, so-
threaten the diversity of the earth’s regions and cul- cial, and human systems that occur over the extremely
tures in the same way that economic globalization does long term, and who choose the path of sustainability in
now. Destroying this diversity will, in turn, prevent the implementing policies on the basis of this understand-
realization of a society that is truly sustainable in the ing. It is particularly crucial that concern with sus-
sense that it embraces human fulfillment, not merely tainability issues and a desire to act on them be
survival. If the process of structuring sustainability-re- instilled in the generation that comes of age in the mid-
lated scholarship and its knowledge base yields differ- twenty-first century, when limits on energy and other
ent structuring models for different regions and resources and the global environment in general are
nations, then structuring itself can be a driving force predicted to reach crisis point. This journal is therefore
for greater diversity. also interested in examining the development of edu-
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cational programs that recognize the need for both Krains SB, Wallace DR, Iwafune Y, Yoshida Y, Aramaki T,
global and local approaches to sustainability. Kato K, Hanaki K, Ishitani H, Matsuo T, Takahashi H,
Yamada K, Yamaji K, Yanagisawa Y, Komiyama H (2001)
An integrated computational infrastructure for a virtual
Tokyo: concepts and examples. J Ind Ecol 5:35–54
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