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In Asian megacities, not only climate change but also heat island phenomena are expected to pose air temperature increase. Therefore, effective adaptation measures to alleviate health damage caused by temperature increase are becoming more crucial. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of air conditioner on health damages using disability-adjusted life year（DALY）and considering an adverse effect from temperature increase accompanied by exhaust heating from outdoor units and uncertainty of the effect caused by interannual variability in temperature in Jakarta, Indonesia. Health damages to be assessed were sleep disturbance and fatigue. By increasing the usage rate of air conditioners, it was estimated that the DALY reduction per person per month in August of the average temperature year is 2.48 × 10^-4 years for sleep disturbance, 1.43 × 10^-5 years for fatigue, and totally 2.62 × 10^-4 years. It corresponded with 29.8% reduction from the present situation. The effect of interannual variability in temperature was not large, which was 7.94 × 10^-5 years at most. Air conditioner will be one of effective adaptations throughout the year considering small monthly variability in temperature and the residents’thermal perception.

Sharing the information of product environmental performances among multi stakeholders is critically important to promote eco-design by producers and replacement of ordinary products to eco-products in the society. These results of assessment should be based on scientific approach and these results should also be comprehensive to cover the significant environmental impacts as far as possible. The authors developed an environmental hotspot analysis method which integrate the following three methods; an updated Japanese inventory database（IDEAv2）, waste input output analysis（WIO）which includes downstream processes of products and services, and Japanese impact assessment method including weighting among endpoints（LIME2）. We carried out hotspot analysis for 100 products and services in Japan using the method developed in this research project. These calculated results are shared with program holders of TypeI ecolabel and TypeIII ecolabel and these results are expected to increase the reliability of evaluation criteria in these programs.

Environmental hotspot analysis attracts attention as a tool to identify the important aspect of products and services. In addition, not only evaluation of only climate change (carbon footprint) but also the importance of evaluation in consideration of other environmental impact category is increasing. Inventory data with a elementary flow sufficiently is an indispensable element for these evaluations, but there is an elementary flow that is deficient even in Japan’s largest database, IDEA, thus the evaluation cannot fully achieve. Therefore, the aim of this study is to prepare inventory data for environmental hotspot analysis, focusing mainly on 17 impact categories (global warming, ozone depletion, water resource consumption, land use, air pollution, photochemical oxidant, acidification, eutrophication, noise, forest resource consumption, fossil fuel consumption, mineral resources consumption, waste, human toxicity, ecotoxicity, indoor air quality contamination, ionizing radiation). We have expanded elementary flows related to the impact category to each unit process of IDEA for multi criteria analysis. In addition, we integrated with elementary flows of IDEA’s 1895-unit processes, the I/O table including wastes for environmental hotspot analysis. This paper outlines the database construction method.

In this article, the distinct characteristics of waste input-output table are explained. Following that, the estimation method for the construction of the 2011 Waste Input-Output Table for Japan is described, which was compiled for hotspots analyses of Japanese products and for economic and environmental analyses of regional material cycles and waste management. The methods of use of data in official reports are also mentioned; these data were collected by local governments in Japan for waste-management purposes, and their role in the improved estimation method for the table is significant.

This article reports examination for Eco Mark to utilize hotspot analysis method as type I ecolabelling of ISO14024. The Eco Mark started certification program as a Japanese eco-labelling in 1989. The Eco Mark reaches 30 years in this year. The Eco Mark revised the “Guidelines for Eco Mark Program Implementation” in 1996. The revision followed ISO14020 and ISO14024, and this was because it introduced the structure which evaluated environmental impact through the life cycle of the product. The evaluation method of the product life cycle has many a way of thinking and commonalities of the hotspot analysis. For the purpose of strengthening the scientific grounds of the Eco Mark certification criteria, The Eco Mark program use hotspot analysis by the development of the Eco Mark certification criteria. I considered that Eco Mark utilized this hotspot analysis.

The aim of this paper is to organize information on various environmental aspects and to explore how to utilize hotspot analysis in Type III Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) and how to declare it. Looking at trends such as the Natural Capital Coalition, the EU Environmental Footprint, the project on hotspot analysis of UNEP / SETAC Life Cycle Initiative, and a variety of other private schemes, it has been suggested, as the evaluation scheme of various environmental aspects of products and so forth, the balance between corporate identity and common rules is important, and EPD can be used to be one of the key performance indicators (KPI) for efforts on environmental issues.

Railway is an environment-friendly transportation system and important for a low-carbon society. However, the deficit-ridden railway lines have been abolished and replaced with other transportation modes. The benefit-cost （B/C） analysis has been used as the criteria of abolishment, however, it is not favorable from the perspective of the effect on the surrounding roads or right to transport. In this work, authors presented the new criteria of social significance evaluation of the railway lines by the calculation of the change of traffic caused by abolishment, and economic / environmental impact. Authors investigated the change of traffic and CO₂ emissions in the surrounding roads by the abolition of railway lines. And authors compared the railway deficit and road improvement costs. These estimations were applied for 2 abolished lines and 13 existing lines with low management stability. In the case of 2 abolished lines, the traffic congestion didn’t change if 80% of passengers converted to passenger cars. These results agreed well with the actual situation after the abolition. In the case of the existing 13 lines, 7 lines will cause the traffic jam by their abolition, and 6 of them cause heavy traffic jam. The railway deficit of these 6 lines are smaller than road improvement costs of surrounding roads. The CO₂ emissions can be reduced by the railway operation except ASA Seaside Railway with smallest number of passengers in Japan. These results suggest that above a certain number of passengers is required to reduce the CO₂ emissions by railway operation, and the reduction ability of CO₂ emission have weak correlation with management stability. Through this work, it is suggested that the independent evaluation of the change of traffic and economic / environmental impact can be the new criteria of the railway lines’ social significance.

The present paper proposes a simple method to estimate time-varying statistics for the lifespan distribution of products using only stock and flow data. From among the possible average product ages that are consistent with the given stock and flow data, this method gives the minimum value. Notably, the output of this method does not depend on the period of available sales data. The paper shows that the estimated statistics of lifespan distribution of products provide useful information to estimate the true values based on tests using a simple hypothetical data set and Japanese vehicle market data.

This paper assesses the alternative sugarcane-based industrial systems concerning changes in productivity, the greenhouse gas （GHG） emission intensities of products and the reduction potential of GHG emission compared with the current sugar producing system. The following two systems are assessed; （Case A） Conventionally proposed system to produce ethanol from molasses without changing raw materials and sugar milling processes, （Case B） Inversion system that enhances the production of sugar, ethanol and electricity using a high-yielding sugarcane variety and the Inversion process. As a result, with Case A, ethanol production increased, but electricity output decreased, increasing the direct GHG emissions by 1.3% from the current level while the net GHG emission reduction was estimated to be 0.72 t-CO_2-eq./（ha･year） in the overall system. With Case B, the productivity of sugar, ethanol and electricity all increased at the same time. Despite an increase in the GHG emissions by 16.7%, it was estimated that there was a net reduction potential of 1.49 t-CO_2-eq./（ha･year） achieved by an enhanced avoided emission. Comparison with the past researches confirmed the validity of the results. The study demonstrated the advantages of the Inversion system in the model area quantitatively.

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