Case Study presentation: Ecological and Fashionable Community Revitalization by the Youth-led NPO 'Tabula Rasa'
Ms. Yayoi Torigoe, RCE Okayama
11th Global RCE Conference
7-9 December, 2018
Cebu, the Philippines
2. ‘Tabula Rasa’, means ‘a white board’
or ‘a situation in which there are
no fixed ideas’ in Latin.
We in their 20s and 30s as a youth-led
Non-profit organization make continuous efforts
to make our city of Okayama more sustainable
in an ecological, enjoyable and fashionable manner.
NPO Tabula Rasa is one of the 284 members (as of September 2018) of the
'Okayama ESD Project’, and promotes ESD with special focus on youths.
Background / Objectives
▷ Project / Result
▷ Future Perspectives
5. ・ Waste Reduction
・ Promote youth engagement in vitalizing community
We deal with the following two issues:
Background / Objectives
▷ Project / Result
▷ Future Perspectives
6. Most of the waste is single-use eating utensils
After events, much waste is generated.
Background / Objectives
▷ Project / Result
▷ Future Perspectives
7. Most of the waste is single-use eating utensils
After events, much waste is generated.
Background / Objectives
▷ Project / Result
▷ Future Perspectives
producing much garbage is ‘uncool’.
We make efforts to reduce waste
and promote ‘cool’ lifestyle !
8. Our main target is youths
who have little interest in their town, society and environment,
and who love fashionable way of living.
Background / Objectives
▷ Project / Result
▷ Future Perspectives
9. Our main target is youths
who have little interest in their town, society and environment,
and who love fashionable way of living.
producing much garbage is ‘uncool’.
We make efforts to reduce waste
and ‘cool’ lifestyle !
Background / Objectives
▷ Project / Result
▷ Future Perspectives
10. We conduct mainly the following two projects:
Happy Share Candle Project
and Candle Night
EC[H]O-SMA Project
Background / Objectives
▷ Project / Result
▷ Future Perspectives
11. EC[H]O-SMA Project
in home-games of the local football team,
‘FAZIAO’.
Background / Objectives
▷ Project / Result
▷ Future Perspectives
in music festivals
12. Happy Share Candle Project
and Candle Night
Background / Objectives
▷ Project / Result
▷ Future Perspectives
13. Happy Share Candle Project
and Candle Night
Background / Objectives
▷ Project / Result
▷ Future Perspectives
14. We share our experiences to local people and youths.
Background / Objectives
▷ Project / Result
▷ Future Perspectives
lectures at universities
‘Youth Challenge Project’
Thank you for your introduction.
I’m Yayoi Torigoe from NPO Tabula Rasa.
‘Tabula Rasa’, means ‘a white board’ or ‘a situation in which there are no fixed ideas’ in Latin.
We are a youth-led Non-profit organization in their 20s and 30s, and make continuous efforts to make our city more sustainable in an ecological, enjoyable and fashionable manner.
NPO Tabula Rasa is one of the members of the 'Okayama ESD Project’.
We promotes ESD with special focus on youths.
The area where NPO Tabula Rasa conducts projects is mainly the downtown of Okayama City.
A green park is established along Nishigawa Irrigation Canal which flows in the urban area, and 100 different types of trees are planted.
This park is used as recreation area.
The street along the Nishigawa Green Park regularly used as a pedestrian’s paradise, and citizens enjoy various performances and delicious food.
Most young people are not much interested in local history and culture, and local issues.
To vitalize the downtown, many events are organized throughout the year.
Reduction of waste generated through events is one of the crucial issues.
We deal with the following two issues
Firstly, Waste Reduction
and secondly, Promote youth engagement in vitalizing community
Much waste is generated after events, especially, single-use eating utensils, such as cups, plates and chopsticks.
To reduce negative impacts on environment, and to raise citizens’ awareness of ecological lifestyle, an alternative way must be demonstrated.
We recognize producing much garbage as ‘uncool’.
Therefore, we make efforts to reduce waste to inspire people to enjoy ecological and ‘cool’ lifestyle.
Our main target is youths who have little interest in their town, society and environment, but who love fashionable way of living.
To reach more youths, we present NPO Tabula Rasa as a group promoting fashionable town development, not as an ‘environmental group’.
We conduct mainly the following two projects:
Firstly, EC[H]O-SMA Project
In this project, we rental re-use eating utensils instead of using single-use ones.
For example we rent them about 20 times every year in various occasions from small-sized local events to big-sized music festivals.
We also collaborated with Okayama City, and conducted ‘Reuse Cup Challenge’ in home game of Okayama’s football team.
In two games in 2017, totally about 4,000 re-use cups was used instead of paper cups.
As results, more than 300kg CO2 emission was reduced.
Secondly, Happy Share Candle Project and Candle Night
We recycle wedding candles thrown away after ceremonies.
We collect them and create new candles called ‘Happy Share Candle’.
We also organize candle workshops.
Furthermore, we organize ‘Candle Night’ events in various places, such as Nishigawa Canal Park and Okayama Korakuen Park, to let citizens enjoy beautiful atmosphere, and to raise awareness of slow and ecological lifestyles.
Nishigawa Candle Night is continuously coordinated by NPO Tabula Rasa since 2006 in cooperation with various stakeholders such as Okayama City and local companies including restaurants.
We celebrated the 15th Candle Night in 2018, which attracted more than 3,000 people.
About 100 youths were involved in operating the event.
Some of them were engage also in planning, coordination, collecting sponsorship money, conducting PR of the events.
The youths got empowered to collaborate with various stakeholders to realize youth-driven projects.
We also support youths’ engagement in sustainable town development.
In 2014, we conducted ‘Youth Challenge Project’ entrusted by Okayama Prefecture.
In addition, we give lectures at some universities on town development to share our experiences.
Many people stay away from social issues, such as NPOs, community engagement and ecological lifestyle.
We need appropriate approaches depending on interests and needs of each target group.
Youth-driven projects can attract youths most effectively.
Peer-to-peer approach and taking action together is empowering, inspirational and joyful.
Youths can create new ways to foster sustainable lifestyles in a fashionable manner.
For continuous operation of a voluntary based NPO, it is important that people who are involved in our projects enjoy the activities.
若い世代と関わり続けたい
そんな人たちがいずれはESDユースのリーダーになるかもしれない。
