Research on Eco-Towns in Japan - UNEP

4. Case study2: Kitakyushu Eco-Town
Visitors can learn from the history of pollution and about various environmental issues
occurring now at the center. Environmental volunteers, who played an active role at the
expo, continue to support with environmental education activities for a wide range of the
public from children to adults Eco-tour programmes implemented by the Kitakyushu school
board, also the Environment Museum and Eco-Town area.
4-8 Partnership among Stakeholders
There are various types of partnerships, including small study meetings and business
projects, in the Kitakyushu Eco-Town Project, since the project is promoted under strong
partnership among industry, government and academia.
This chapter introduces partnerships from the viewpoint of industry-government-academia
reactors:
(1) Partnership within the Hibiki Recycling Complex,
(2) Partnership within the integrated environmental complex,
(3) Projects of the Eco-Town Center,
(4) Partnership within the Kitakyushu Eco-Complex.
(1) Partnership within the Hibiki Recycling Complex
Kitakyushu City develops and leases land in the Hibiki Recycling Complex to local SMEs for
a long period of time in order to support expansion of SMEs’ business into the environmental
field. The complex is, in other words, a made-to-order industrial complex for lease, and the
acreage and plots of land are determined by surveys of local companies’ needs and public
offerings and briefings in 1999.
The complex is divided into two zones -a vehicles-recycling zone and a frontier zone.
There are some partnerships in both zones.
1) Partnership within the vehicles recycling zone
Seven companies scrapping old cars moved into the complex from the urban area, and
established “Kitakyushu ELV Cooperative” to fully utilize their technologies and effectively
engage in the vehicles recycling business. Common facilities among the facilities within the
complex are “Press Factory” to process the vehicles, “Joint Storage and Logistics Center” to
store used parts, and “Cooperative Organization Center” to manage tasks of the union.
The organization processes vehicles at the Press Factory in cooperation, and sells valuable
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