INAX Sustainable Style Project

The activities of the INAX Sustainable Style Project, which we worked on for 6 years from 2002 to 2007, are described below. This project aimed to create technology, products, and services for a sustainable society that is in harmony with the global environment based on material recycling - a society that lives with new values. Having set 2020 as the year by which to create a sustainable society in terms of the basic actions of everyday life bathing, eating, and elimination, we imagined what each of these areas of life would be like and how people would live their lives in this age, and we developed products and services that would become necessary. Conventional ideas of “advanced design” are based on predictions of what society and the technologywill be like in 3 to 5 year's time. This can more accurately be termed “forecasting”. It is highly effective when looking at the near future, but if there are large changes that have remained hidden and are waiting to happen, it can lead to extremely dangerous choices. On the other hand, in order to prevent making the wrong choice over the long term, it is important to establish goals to work toward. This is the “sustainable design” method that is based on such a sustainable future. It involves establishing what a sustainable society of the future should look like and then to look back from this future to the present and to think about what needs to be done by when. This method is known as “backcasting”. We believe that the actions that make us happy in the present may not necessarily lead to happiness going into the future. What really makes us, our families, and our friends happy? Our hope for this project was to find a wayto work for our happiness in the present and the happiness of future generations.