Shibuya is a place where new cultures and trends are born. The theme of the event was “Sustainable and Stylish Food.” The concept of sustainability has also been gaining importance in the world of food with the Michelin Guide introducing the green star category in 2020. The Shibuya event offered a variety of unique advanced content, including a talk session aimed at the sustainability-native Generation Z (or more commonly “Gen Z”) led by “Earth hacks,” a platform of decarbonization actions, and the provision of special menus by next-generation food creators who are conscious of our impact on the global environment.
Post-event report on the Shibuya venue
Sustainable and Smart Foods
(Earth hacks)
A platform to promote decarbonization actions by consumers.
They enable consumers to contribute to decarbonization while having fun, rather than the more traditional system of following guidelines by the government or companies. They promote the dissemination of the “Decarbonization Score” which indicates the CO2 emission reduction rate (%) of products and services.
What is a “Decarbonization Score”?
The score serves as one of the new standards when choosing food!
With the Decarbonization Score, you can see at a glance that production of the food or product or service was achieved along with a reduction in CO2 emissions.
(What is the Decarbonization Score?)
In Japanese, we call the Decarbonization Score “Decabo Score” for short. The score is designed to make it easy to understand and contribute to decarbonization in our daily life. It is said that one-third of greenhouse gas sources are related to food. Now that there are calls for the reform of the food system, with the Decarbonization Score we can contribute to it in an easy and fun way.
Let’s think of “Sustainable and Stylish Food” in Shibuya
The Shibuya venue “JINNAN HOUSE” is a minimalist complex that houses “SAKUU” where you can enjoy healthy set menus and Japanese tea in a lush garden setting, and is also home to the editorial department of the food culture magazine “RiCE.”
On Saturday May 20 and Sunday May 21, creators who are blazing trails in the food business from a view point of sustainability gathered to celebrate and promote their success stories, including “OKARAT” which upcycles Okara, or soy pulp, “Ethical Spirits,” the world’s first circular distillation venture, and “ovgo Baker,” a vegan-friendly bake shop.
Visitors enjoyed the two-day event cheerfully talking about “sustainability,” an indispensable concept for the future of the food business. Although the theme may feel a little oppressive, they managed to give the event a more light-hearted spin by pairing it with the opportunity to taste fashionable cocktails and other dishes.
A large Gen Z crowd talked about decarbonization and food.
From 13:00 to 14:00 on the first day, a talk event led by Earth hacks and digital-native and sustainable-native Gen Zers was held to encourage sustainability in daily matters.
Earth hacks is a platform for decarbonization actions that introduces a system to voluntarily reduce CO2 emissions while having fun, rather than more passively being led by the government or companies. CEO Sekine Sumito, who appeared on stage, said that the ideal should not be “let’s do this to achieve decarbonization,” but instead that should be flipped to “decarbonization as a by-product of a wonderful life.” To this end, he said, Earth hacks aims to popularize the Decarbonization Score, a new standard that indicates how much CO2 emissions have been reduced when purchasing products or services, making it easier for everyone to understand and feel part of a system contributing to decarbonization in our daily lives.
Sekine introduced Asahina Hikari as a powerful supporter in the talk event. She is the CEO of seamint. Co., Ltd. (having changed its name from Neorare Co., Ltd.), which plans and markets for the Generation Z demographic. She founded the company when she was in her third year of university. Born in 1998, Asahina is a representative of Gen Z, being a digital-native as well as a sustainability-native who studied sustainability and SDGs as part of her school education.
Know your carbon footprint!
After discovering more about the Decarbonization Score through a quiz format with Sekine nimbly facilitating, each participant tried to calculate the amount of carbon dioxide they emit in one year with the “Lifestyle Calculator.”（https://www.lifestylecalculator.com/earth-hacks）
By simply scanning a QR code with their smartphones and answering 12 lifestyle questions (about four minutes), they were able to find out their carbon footprint.
While the average Japanese person is said to be responsible for around eight tons of carbon dioxide emissions, there were two participants who fell into the three-ton range! A man who determined he was responsible for 3.09 tons said, “I live in a share house, so I try to have only limited belongings.” A woman who calculated her emissions to be 3.42 tons said, “I try to get around by bicycle or walk as much as possible.” They indicated a high level of awareness of their carbon load.
Sekine rewarded participants who could claim low emissions with a DEW “CORN Mask” made of corn starch (polylactic acid).
In the latter half of the event, a talk session about food, sweets, alcohol, fashion, etc. was held focusing on decarbonization. A Gen Z participant said he was concerned about food loss. He mentioned a system to allow students to turn leftover foods from school cafeteria lunches into box lunches and purchase them from a shared refrigerator. Another participant made a comment on SDGs, explaining that she makes her own edible spoons so that she does not have to use plastic cutlery when buying sweets. Sekine seemed to be impressed with each comment.
“You measured your own CO2 emissions, and most of you emitted less than I,” he said with a laugh. “I feel that many things that everyone is already doing or takes for granted are actually leading to significant CO2 reductions. By visualizing them, we can increase other people’s awareness and voluntary actions. So, I would like to continue to work so that people can realize their own contribution in the future,” said Sekine.
Decarbonization with eating after talking about decarbonization
After learning about the importance of the Decarbonization Score that indicates how much CO2 emissions have been reduced, the next-generation food creators representing the theme of the Shibuya venue “Sustainable and Stylish Food” were introduced along with their respective Decarbonization Scores.
SAKUU, a café during the day and a restaurant serving char grilled dishes at night, offered two kinds of sustainable collaboration menus.
The first one was a “Decarbonization Lunch Plate with Baguette,” which is limited to 25 plates a day. The dish was developed in collaboration with Fishlle! which sells fish that is typically not used as it is considered non-standard for various reasons, none of which are to do with taste or nutritional value, as a meal kit. It is a sustainable dish of unused fish herb oil confit with sun-dried salt made by natural power from Shark Bay, Australia.
While more usually categorized as unusable, several kinds of fish were served, and visitors felt the richness of the texture and taste with every bite. Fishlle! was awarded a Decarbonization Score of 88% thanks to the use of meal kits.
The second one was “Decarbonization Gâteau au Chocolat with Shark Bay Salt,” another collaboration using Australia’s Shark Bay Salt, which is especially concerned about environmentally-friendly salt making, applying a sun-dried salt manufacturing method that crystallizes natural seawater.
The rich chocolate sweetness was harmonized with the mild saltiness of Shark Bay Salt, giving it an addictive sweet and salty flavor. Different from Japanese salt that is once cooked in a pan, Shark Bay salt is dried in the sun using only the power of the sun, wind and human labor. Even taking into account the energy needed to transport it to Japan, it earns a Decarbonization Score of 60%.
“ovgo Baker,” a bake shop using only plant-based (vegetable) ingredients made in Japan, sold American-style cookies suitable for small children, vegetarians, vegans and people who must follow a gluten-free diet. They used rice oil and barley milk, in place of butter and eggs, and their Decarbonization Score was 80%.
They offered attractive lineups including coconut chai, ginger sesame oatmeal, cinnamon double chocolate, etc. The customers were keen to select the products. Some even bought large quantities!
“Ethical Spirits” offered cocktails using three types of gin used at their restaurant, inviting popular bartender Nomura Soran. For this event, he selected oranges based on the idea of using all the parts of the fruit for the cocktail.
Three types of cocktails using all the parts of an orange including its juice and the white peel called the husk after squeezing included:
“Freedom,” an orange juice-based transparent cocktail with the taste and aroma preserved by adding gelatin to the juice to absorb only the pigment; “Desire,” made by pickling the peel called the husk after squeezing the juice with spices and herbs and blending it into gin; and “Revival,” a cocktail with the peel made into a candy after blanching the peel used for pickling, drying it, and then turning it into powder to a candy.
They offered an exciting new taste experience, which provided an opportunity to pair sustainability with an element of fun.
“In the bartending industry as well, a movement to properly revive the peel or husk after squeezing juice, rather than simply disposing of them, is becoming mainstream," said Nomura. The Decarbonization Score of Ethical Spirits was 21% because it distils disposable ingredients (unused materials) such as sake lees and beer with nearing expiration dates, which would otherwise be discarded in the process of Japanese sake brewing.
The okara (soy pulp) specialty brand “OKARAT” offered okara cookies and three retort pouch foods that caught the eye with their cute packaging. Among them was the OKARAT CURRY using okara in place of rice. Soy products have low environmental impact consuming 1/8 of water during production and their greenhouse gas emissions being 1/85 (CO2 equivalent) compared to emissions and water required for raising cows, resulting in the Decarbonization Score of 20%.
In fact, only 1% of the okara produced is used as food. About 700,000 tons of okara are discarded every year because it is perishable and bacteria can multiply in it, and tofu shops cannot do anything with it. OKARAT purchases okara from tofu shops to reintroduce it as a food as it is not only low in environmental impact but also low in sugar and contains plenty of dietary fiber. If the number of regular purchasers reaches 800 people, the use of okara for food will increase from 1% to 5%.
We are in an era in which delicious food, stylish packaging and topical items can generate interest and we can voluntarily choose sustainable items. It was a two-day experience of a positive chain in which by making good use of the Decarbonization Score and the sense of contributing to the greater good, each action continues and spreads, giving us even further options and improving our lives as well.
