Did you know that the idea of ?sustainability? was actually created over 30 years ago?

According to John Elkington, an organization called SustainAbility was founded in 1987, and had spread the idea.

I think when I heard the word ?sustainability? for the first time was 2016 summer, and still many Japanese people are not familiar with its concept.

I learned about the idea actually in the UK, not in Japan, at international relations class in summer school held in University of Cambridge.

After Paris climate accord was signed, Japanese government, media and corporations started to promote the idea.

There are 192 articles related to sustainability on Japanese most famous newspaper company?s website,

http://sitesearch.asahi.com/.cgi/ajwsitesearch/sitesearch.pl?Keywords=SDGs+&tvsubmit=Search

There is an organization working to promote the idea,

https://sustainablejapan.jp/news

There is also a student organization trying to connect business and students who are interested in sustainability related topics.

https://twitter.com/tb4s_info

However, unfortunately in Japan, we have no opportunity to learn about this concept until you enter university ( at least in my generation, I graduated high school in 2016 so hopefully it might be changed), and if you?re not majoring in science, you usually don?t have courses about sustainability in your faculty( for example I?m majoring in law so basically I cannot take courses about sustainability or climate change). I think this is why many Japanese people don?t know about this concept.

Please share when was your first time to hear the word ? sustainability,? and how you learned its concept and idea!