Sustainable City in Japan – Toyota
Toyota, a city in Japan has been working to achieve ecological sustainability and has been taking effective measures to strive towards it. Toyota is called the eco-ful town. It has earned its renown for building a life sized model of sustainable living and demonstrating it successfully. Use of renewable energy and achieving energy efficiency has been its prime goal.
Design of Roads in Toyota
The roads laid in the city of Toyota have been paid special attention to. The roads are coated with water retaining and thermal insulation substances to minimize heat emission.
The transportation system has been very well developed in Toyota. It is called as “Demand responsive transportation“.
Three major achievements by the city of Toyota in the race for sustainability:
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Transportation system
They have achieved to make a powerful transportation system
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Smart homes
They have designed smart homes that are energy efficient and are outfitted with solar panels, storage batteries etc. Energy management system has been incorporated into the smart homes in order to achieve the goal of sustainable living.
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Spreading awareness
Spreading awareness regarding sustainability along with doing it practically to showcase it to the world is something we are all looking forward to but very few have been able to actually implement it.
They have constructed a pavilion which houses interactive quizzes and videos to educate the public about the concept of low carbon living and how Toyota has been making attempts to be able to reach there.
Various initiatives taken by the government are discussed with the people to let them know as well as receive their feedback. This attitude has been very helpful since it has helped the government and the designers which include Architects, Town planners, Urban Designers etc, know what is acceptable to the public and what could be avoided.
Designers have vague and sometimes interesting ideas. But it is most important that they are accepted by the people of the city.
“Acceptance of ideas by the public is the measure of the success of sustainability achieved”.
The Mayor of the city wants to bring out an example of low carbon society which would be enjoyable, waste free way of life and one that harnesses the latest environmental technologies.
So, now the goal of the designers in Toyota is to create low carbon sustainable energy systems and society systems that would be able to support them.