Introduction
In 2015, the United Nations Summit adopted the Sustainable Development Goals. The goals are divided into 17 agenda. To achieve these goals, the improvement of the living environment can contribute to many, because it affects a wide range of areas, such as poverty, health, equality, energy, sustainability, and climate change. Hokkaido in Japan is a snowy cold region, so we must tackle this tough climate. Furthermore, local cities in Hokkaido are facing population decreasing problems and exhausted fiscally. In this context, they must use their limited resources properly. Besides, they need the scheme of evaluating environmental policy. Therefore, this research focuses on the economic ripple effects in the regional area as one index of evaluation for environmental measures. Its purpose is to acquire useful knowledge for taking an appropriate political decision.
Method
In this research, we set the Nakasorachi area in Hokkaido as a region for analysis. To calculate economic ripple effects in the area, we made out the regional Input-Output Table (IO) based on the 2005 Hokkaido IO. According to the analysis of the IO, we were able to estimate that wooden construction and wood-biomass energy have a high economic impact on the region.
We selected three collective housing as a model home and analyzed the economic ripple effect on the region by insulation, structure, and heating energy. The types of housing are (1) Thick insulated wooden collective housing, (2) Wooden standard collective housing, and (3) Reinforced-concrete standard collective housing. The U-value of (1) is 0.31. Therefore, (1) should become the standard for collective housing in Hokkaido in the future. (2) is a standard wooden collective housing currently being built in Hokkaido. (U-value=0.46) The U-value of (3) is the same as (2) but the structure is different.
To estimate the economic ripple effect, Firstly, we categorized wood as a building material and as a fuel in three different cases. The Number of the category is three. These are 100% local timber, local and non-local mixed timber, and 100% non-local timber. Secondly, we estimated the economic ripple effect amount by the housing model and compared it with its cost. We set the building operation period as 60 years. Finally, to determine the economic ripple effect magnification, we divided the economic ripple effect amount by its cost.
Conclusion
1) In the case of using Kerosene as fuel and not depending on the 100% non-local timber, the thick insulated wooden housing bore a higher economic ripple effect magnification ratio.
2) In the case of using Pw as fuel, the economic ripple effect magnification ratio was higher when using the 100% local timber. However, in some cases, lower quality housing has a higher effect. According to this result, evaluating an environmental scheme by the one-side view as an economic ripple effect is difficult. Therefore, we need the method of multidimensional evaluation such as the sustainability of the forest industry, human health care, and the self-sufficient ratio of the heating energy.
3) In terms of sustainable forestry, we inferred that there is a limit to the amount of woody biomass energy available in the region. Therefore, the construction of environmentally friendly housing is an appropriate measure for the local economy.
