Nagoya Facility
Shigeyuki HOSOE, Facility Head
Environmental policy of Nagoya Facility
The Nagoya region has traditionally been a stronghold of manufacturing in sectors such as the automobile and aerospace industries. The Nagoya Facility combines this regional strength with its potential for research, conducting highly-creative research, both basic and applied. The facility moved to Nagoya Science Park in Moriyama district in 1997 and established a collaboration center with Tokai Rubber Industries, Ltd. in 2007. Other research organizations and research support organizations in Nagoya Science Park include the National institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and the Cooperative Research Center.
Thorough sorting of waste
Environmental measures at the Nagoya Facility, which include adjustment of outdoor lighting levels in the car park and installation of biotope, are taken in accordance with policies of the Science Park. We have also invested efforts at the Nagoya Institute into reducing power consumption through measures such as the dimming of corridor lighting and through policies encouraging people to wear lighter clothing in the summer. We also follow Nagoya city regulations and thoroughly sort and separate all waste at the site.
Research and contribution to the environment
At the Nagoya Facility, our contribution to improving the human living environment takes the form of robot technology. At our open day in 2008, we demonstrated a human care robot named ‘RI-MAN’ which can gently lift and carry a person using tactile sensors. Although we unfortunately do not conduct research that directly contributes to solving environmental problems, we nonetheless work hard to generate top-quality results that benefit all of society.
The times are changing: whereas people may once have thought of environmental deterioration as the price to pay for economic affluence, there is today an awareness that environmental improvement results in a better quality of life. While not all researchers and research institutes are in a position to directly contribute to solving environmental challenges, I nonetheless believe that given this social consensus, we as scientists must take on these problems. By collaborating with society and striving to achieve improvements, we must seek to understand these problems from a scientific viewpoint, as problems that affect all of us.