Since its inception, Tokyo Waterfront City has been equipped with a district heating and cooling system. This system supplies chilled water and hot water produced at heat-producing plants in the Daiba, Aomi, and Ariake-Minami areas for space cooling and heating and for hot water supply through pipes in a utility tunnel extending across the area. Further, the plants in the Daiba and Ariake-Minami areas use exhaust heat and steam generated at local waste incineration plants to help curb global warming, reduce CO2 emissions, and conserve energy. In addition to these city-wide efforts, facility-specific initiatives are also under way.

Tokyo Big Sight, Japan’s largest convention and exhibition center, is working to help achieve SDGs. For Goal 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), Tokyo Big Sight is shifting to LED lighting for its exhibition halls to reduce power consumption and CO2 emissions. It also promotes renewable energy use, with solar panels installed for South Exhibition Halls. To help achieve Goal 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), Tokyo Big Sight has set waste reduction as one of its goals, working to promote the recycling of waste generated during exhibitions, to promote resource recycling such as by turning kitchen waste from its restaurants into livestock feed, and to prevent illegal waste disposal and other acts through supervision for adequate waste disposal.

This area is known to have long been home to a station house (umaya) and continues to thrive as a vibrant gateway to Tokyo, with Shinagawa Station serving as the closest hub station from Haneda Airport and Takanawa Gateway Station having opened in 2020. The area also abounds with facilities with beautiful traditional Japanese gardens, Buddhist temples, and other cultural resources. Against the backdrop of a high level of public interest in transmitting traditional culture and protecting the environment, DMO Gateway Shin-Shinagawa is promoting SDGs initiatives.

In addition to implementing progressive initiatives, such as introducing digital transformation (DX) into MICE events and conducting verification tests for the Green Slow Mobility (GSM) initiative, businesses in the area are also engaged in various other activities. These include their respective efforts to minimize food loss, their inter-regional collaboration to utilize fruits and other farm products sourced from other prefectures that cannot be sold in the market due to their deviation from standards, and their activities to preserve traditional culture through local elementary school lessons.

Along with initiatives undertaken individually by businesses, Hops Community Activities were launched as a community initiative in 2021. This initiative aims to bring together businesses, school operators, and residents in the Takanawa Gateway Station area to grow hops, an ingredient of beer, to promote exchanges and cooperation through greenery. DMO Gateway Shin-Shinagawa is committed to promoting sustainable MICE activities by making the most of the characteristics of businesses in the area while strengthening initiatives that involve the local community and beyond.

The Tachikawa area holds the Tama River Cleanup Activity, a new type of activity program in which participants pick up waste discarded in the water and along the banks while rafting down the Tama River amidst the natural splendor of Okutama. People can easily participate in the program with nothing more than a change of clothes. Out on the river, those picking up waste are often greeted with shouts of “Nice find!” from other participants. Organizers encourage participants to rethink the global environment and their lifestyles while unwittingly competing with other teams over the amount of waste collected. First-time rafters and non-swimmers can also participate with peace of mind because the rafting is preceded by a lecture by an instructor who was once a member of Japan’s national team and took second place in a World Rafting Championship. After the river cleanup, a lecture is given about efforts to conserve the environment and preserve the water conservation forests in Okutama, which are managed to protect this Tokyo water supply source. The program reminds the participants of the significance of keeping the Tama River clean and the great contribution the river cleanup activity in which they participated makes to protect the global environment.

Website: https://mice.tokyo-tachikawa.org/experience/1162/

DMO SHIBA, Tokyo Bay covers an area encompassing Hamamatsucho, Takeshiba, and Shibaura, an area acclaimed for its environmental diversity, including places for cruises and tidal flats. Many of its members are keenly interested in the environment and work to promote environmental sustainability.

The Tokyo Portcity Takeshiba building is known for its initiative for biodiversity conservation in the form of Takeshiba's New Eight Sceneries,which comprise the eight views of sky, bees, rice paddy, vegetable garden, smell, water, island, and rain. Visitors can experience biodiversity that is in harmony with aspects of Japanese culture through hands-on experiences of planting and harvesting rice, vegetables, and herbs in the rice paddy and the vegetable garden, as well as through workshops on environmental conservation. Tokyo Portcity Takeshiba Port Hall and Port Studio have participated in the CO2 Zero MICE initiative advocated by JTB Communication Design, Inc. The initiative attracts the attention of MICE organizers as it enables the replacement of electricity used at a venue during an event with renewable energy, thereby reducing the net carbon emissions of the event to practically zero.

Takeshiba Tidal Flat developed in WATERS takeshiba represents an initiative aimed at restoring and preserving the environment where shellfish, crustaceans, and various other creatures that once inhabited Tokyo Bay can thrive. The tidal flat offers visitors an opportunity to observe creatures there and enjoy fishing. Together with cruises to and from Takeshiba, the tidal flat is also available for MICE programs that trace the history of the area that has developed along with the waterfront environment.