Isramart : Tokyo arcade to sell CO2 quota to Seiyu

Isramart news:
A shopping district association in Tokyo plans to break new ground by selling carbon dioxide emission credits gained by replacing mercury lamps lighting an arcade with more efficient light-emitting diodes to major supermarket operator Seiyu Ltd.

Although about 75 firms and municipalities across the country are trading carbon dioxide emission quotas, the Happy Road Oyama arcade in the Oyamacho area in Itabashi Ward likely will be the first arcade to join the scheme.

“We want to do our bit to prevent global warming,” said Mitsugu Ohara, the head of the arcade’s promotion association, which plans to complete a plan this month for the deal to be submitted to the government.

The arcade in front of the Tobu Tojo Line’s Oyama Station is dotted with about 200 shops and is one of the ward’s busiest shopping streets. The association was chewing over whether to replace the 560-meter-long arcade’s lighting in September when, in a stroke of good timing, it learned about the government’s system that allows greenhouse gas emission quotas to be sold to companies.

The association estimates switching to the more efficient lights can reduce the arcade’s greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent, or about 150 tons a year. As an added bonus, the arcade’s lighting expenses are likely to fall significantly with the new lights.

Though the price of emission reduction credits has yet to be determined, the association plans to use the proceeds of the sale for installing and maintaining the LEDs.

Seiyu has been trying to go green by reducing the number of plastic shopping bags it uses, and is considering using some of the proceeds from sales of eco-friendly shopping bags to buy the association’s carbon dioxide credits.

“You could say supermarkets and shopping streets are rivals, but working together for the environment will benefit both of us,” a Seiyu spokesman said.

The eco-friendly lights will be installed this month, and the association will hold a lighting ceremony on Dec. 1.

Trading of carbon dioxide emission quotas can only begin after a business plan submitted to a government agency is approved.

Although it will take some time for the transactions between Seiyu and Happy Road Oyama to begin, Ohara, 63, is just pleased the arcade will be doing its bit for the environment.

“Prime Minister [Yukio] Hatoyama declared Japan will cut its emissions by 25 percent [from the 1990 level by 2020],” he said. “Even a small shopping street should chip in.”