Popularizing an Environmental Education Project: A Case Study of the Eco-Picture Diary in Yokohama City, Japan

A. EEDEEP Design

EDEEP informs students, their family members, and other citizens about particular socio-environmental issues as well as strategies that can address these issues, such as promoting the 3Rs, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and working towards one or more of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Classroom teachers instruct their students to create eco-picture diaries of writings and drawings expressing how they want their city to be in the future and what they can do to realize this ideal future. This includes discussions with family members about socio-environmental issues as well as elaborating on and expressing strategies to address these issues (Recycle Design 2019). Application forms to participate in the project are distributed in all elementary schools in Yokohama at the end of June. If teachers agree to participate in the project, their students are asked to prepare the diaries as homework during the summer break. Approximately 20,000 students, primarily in the fourth grade, participate annually in the program.

The completed eco-picture diaries are evaluated by stakeholders selected during the annual citizen selection meeting. Employees from many Yokohama-based companies also participate in evaluating the content of eco-picture diaries and in the award ceremonies for the project. Evaluated diaries are returned to schools at the beginning of September. The most highly rated diaries are exhibited at  various venues, such as events hosted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the  United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Associated School Conferences, as well as at eco-related meetings, which provides other members of the public an opportunity to consider the students’ diaries (Recycle Design 2019). 

EDEEP was designed using distinct educational approaches, including place-based education, eco-pedagogy, reflective learning, and backcasting.

• Eco-picture diaries as a place-based approach: Eco-picture diaries feature place-based education, as they help nurture the students’ sense of place. The project emphasizes inclusion of the community in the resolution of socio-environmental issues (Efird 2015). This is important because people are more concerned about environmental issues in areas where they reside compared to other places.
• Eco-picture diaries as an eco-pedagogical approach: An explicit aim of eco-picture diaries is social transformation (Recycle Design 2019), also a goal of eco-pedagogy which is focused on the reflective assessment of social structures to identify, challenge, and transform them (Morrow 1994). Eco-picture diaries help learners analyze the underlying gap between current situations and desirable futures. This approach can address socio-environmental issues through critical reflection and action (Misiaszek 2016).
• Eco-picture diaries as a reflective approach: Eco-picture diaries are also positioned as a type of reflective journaling. For instance, the eco-picture diaries include images as well as text. The interaction of using both writing and drawing helps learners activate multiple cognitive abilities that are important for effective reflective learning (Mayer and Sims 1994) and differentiates the eco-picture diary from basic journal writing.
• Eco-picture diaries as a backcasting approach: EDEEP was designed to exemplify a form of backcasting to help envision, plan, and realize a desirable sustainable society. Backcasting is an approach that generates an image of “a desirable future, and then works backwards from that future to the present” (Vergragt and Quist 2011, 747) to conceptualize steps to get to that future.

B. EEDEP Implementation
Recycle Design initially developed EDEEP in 2000 in response to a focus group with Yokohama city personnel that identified shrinking landfill space as a major issue confronting the city. Fewer than 1,000 students participated annually in the program’s early years due in part to competition from many other individuals and organizations that introduced similar projects in the community. But Recycle Design persisted with implementation, adapting EDEEP’s implementation process to accommodate changing socio-environmental issue priorities, educational requirements, city policies, participation in national and international projects, and recognition by national and international programs and organizations. As one elementary principal stakeholder said, “Persistence is the key to success. If a project continues for several years consecutively, it makes us think if we should do it again the following year.”  Recycle Design’s flexible and adaptable implementation process resulted in growing participation and popularity over nearly two decades, with an annual participation of more than 25,000 students by 2015.
As mentioned earlier, Recycle Design initially established EDEEP in 2000 in response to a Yokohama City personnel focus group discussion that identified solid waste as an important socio-environmental issue. The following key events over the subsequent two decades were important drivers for the changes Recycle Design made to EDEEP’s programming and design:

1. 2000: The Ministry of Education, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) introduced Integrated Studies (IS) into the school curriculum to help students become more aware of environmental problems and to help them identify potential solutions. IS was mandatory for all primary and secondary schools requiring several hours of environmental and other education instruction each week.
2. 2003: Yokohama City established the G-30 program to reduce garbage waste production by promoting the 3Rs. A member of the Board of Education reported that all teachers were required to teach the 3Rs as part of the IS program. While many teachers did not have related expertise, the Recycle Design team already had more than three years of experience in the field. At this point, an increasing number of teachers decided to collaborate with Recycle Design and adopt the eco-picture diary as part of their standard instruction.
3. 2008: Yokohama City was designated an Eco-Model City by the government of Japan as part of a national effort to become a carbon neutral society. This led Recycle Design to add GHG emissions reduction to EDEEP’s 3Rs’ theme.
4. 2010: Yokohama City was the only Japanese city recognized as an Eco2 City4 by the World Bank for successful GHG emissions reduction programming. While this recognition did not result in any changes to EDEEP’s programming, it did result in greater visibility and popularity of the program locally, nationally, and internationally.
5. 2011: Yokohama City was designed as an Eco-Future City, an initiative established by the Japanese government in response to the Great East Japan Earthquake, which catalyzed national interest and discussions related to environmental and energy-related issues. While Yokohama City was not directly impacted by the earthquake, it was selected to participate in the program because of its experience addressing socio-environmental issues. This recognition led to the adoption of EDEEP by cities in Japan and internationally.
6. 2015: The United Nations General Assembly agreed upon the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Based on the SDGs, Recycle Design broadened the themes of EDEEP to include multiple socio-environmental issues in addition to the 3Rs and GHG emission reduction. This led to increased interest among the Yokohama City corporate community, as participation in the project counted toward their corporate social responsibility requirements (CSR).5 

2015 saw more than 23,000 students from 281 schools participate in the project, nearly one in six students in Yokohama City’s primary schools. A member of the board of education reported that even teachers who were not very motivated to engage in environmental education started using EDEEP, and it became a kind of social norm. Thanks to an adaptive and innovative implementation process and recognized impacts and outcomes, EDEEP became a very popular education program used throughout Japan and internationally to effectively educate and engage students and communities in identifying and addressing socio-environmental issues.

4 Eco2 Cities are defined as cities that create economic opportunities for their citizens in an inclusive, sustainable, and resource-efficient way, while also protecting and nurturing the local ecology and global public goods, such as the environment, for future generations. (The World Bank) 
5  Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a type of international private business self-regulation that aims to contribute to societal goals of a philanthropic, activist, or charitable nature by engaging in or supporting ethically oriented practices. While once it was possible to describe CSR as an internal organizational policy or a corporate ethic strategy, that time has passed as various international laws have been developed and various organizations have used their authority to push it beyond individual or even industry-wide initiatives. Wikipedia, s.v. last modified April 3, 2021,  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_social_responsibility.

Yamashita Park, Yokohama, Japan, Photo: Shutterstock