2017 Volume 17 Issue 1 Pages 63-75
Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) are expected to lead the local economy and contribute to local society by implementing changes. The Hokkaido Green Fund (HGF) was established in 1999. Since 2001, 18 citizen-financed windmills have been built, which are operating in Hokkaido, Aomori, Akita, Chiba, Ibaraki, and Ishikawa prefectures. The HGF’s policy and business model, as expressed in its “Community Wind Farm Projects” in regional areas, has caused changes in the social structure, making it possible to form “collaborative networks and platforms” between public and private sectors and integrate the divergent renewable energy policies of the national and local governments. Its major challenge is to simultaneously secure profits and maintain autonomy. People have a chance to establish a sustainable living standard by purchasing HGF’s product, i.e., wind-power generated energy. The HGF’s practical case provides local governments with useful knowledge in reforming their own local economic system. It is a sustainable local management model developed by an NPO working with other sectors that incorporates a new local economy into the existing political and economic system.
