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More than 10 years have passed since the proposal of environmental education incorporating the concept of life cycle thinking (LCT). Some of the related teaching materials have already become implemented as a part of the educational content at schools. On the other hand, there is concern that teachers are constantly busy because various tasks inside and outside the school are increasing in addition to the usual educational activities. In this situation, it is not easy for teachers to introduce new teaching materials that require a lot of tasks to teach new concepts. In 2020, the influences of the new coronavirus have placed a number of restrictions on school activities. As a result, the barriers to introducing new teaching materials have become higher. However, the next one to two years is also a period in which we can expect substantial changes in education at schools due to changes in the social environment. This paper presents some issues in introducing LCT-based environmental education to schools based on the author's experience in its education and research. Then, I discuss the possibility that LCT-based environmental education will contribute to the changes in education that are currently underway or are about to be promoted in schools.

The Consumer Education Promotion Act, enacted in 2012, explicitly refers to fostering consumers who contribute to the formation and development of a “consumer citizen society,” which progressively participates in building of a sustainable society. In addition, it proclaims sustainable consumption as one of its keywords. In this respect, its intersection with the LCT（Life Cycle Thinking）-based environmental education seems to have become apparent. With this in view, this paper looks at domestic and international trends to clarify the current state of the position of LCT environmental education in consumer education. It then considers the implications of positioning LCT environmental education within consumer education aimed at forming a “consumer citizen society,” as well as the issues encountered and the final outlook.

In order to develop the qualities and abilities required in the new curriculum guideline, Kanagawa Prefectural Board of Education has established ICT environments for the realization of "independent and interactive deep learning" and promoted curriculum organization based on inquiry-based learning as represented by a new subject "a period for inquiry-based cross-disciplinary study". The Board has also made efforts to enhance the learning outcome presentation are being promoted in a stepwise manner.

The era called Society 5.0 is considered to be unpredictable because the upcoming social structure and employment environment will be changing rapidly. There are also many issues such as global environmental problems, natural disasters, and other worldwide issues such as the new coronavirus infection. We thought that it is important to realize the idea of “a curriculum open to society” for the development of the qualities and abilities necessary for children who create the future. Kanagawa Prefecture is making various efforts to achieve the SDGs as important measures and policies. In this respect, there are schools where the 17 goals of the SDGs are considered as a task in inquiry-based learning in Kanagawa Prefecture. We hope that this commentary will contribute to the practical incorporation of life cycle thinking （LCT） and LCA information into educational activities in high schools.

The perspective of life cycle thinking （LCT） is expected to become increasingly important in the global agreement to create a sustainable society. This article reports the example of e-learning method of environmental education that incorporates LCT as high school student’s homework. The specialized contents, that individual learners download from the website, are prepared by NPO, whereas the school gives their students the learning task and study instruction. In this manner, it was shown that e-learning is one of the solution to implement environmental education for a large number of students without significantly increasing the preparations and burdens of teachers. Moreover, its educational effects, such as perception of LCT concept or more environmentally responsible consumption, could be expected. On the other hand, since the IT infrastructures of students vary, it is necessary to provide technical trouble shooting and support.

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