Toshimitsu Kumazawa

A simulation system to support the establishment of circulated business

In a traditional business, although products are supplied to consumers, essentially services or functions are supplied. The supply of services or functions to consumers does not necessarily involve the sale of a product. In such a situation, it is possible to reduce environmental loads by reusing a product without the consumer owning a product. In this study, we developed a life cycle simulation system for establishing a business in which a product is reused. By using this simulation system, environmental and economic evaluation based on material flow and cash flow can be executed. In this paper, a reuse business is defined as a business model in which products are collected and reused, and a sales business is defined as a current business model in which products are sold and not recovered. For supporting an actual business, an evaluation model of mixed business in a transition state from a sales business to a reuse business in which reused products are launched into different market segments is implemented. The usefulness of the developed system is shown by the application example of reusing personal computers.

Green behavior generation: A digital approach to reduce consumption

In this paper, we proposes a new approach called green behavior generation (GBG), which is designed to reduce the environmental burden without mental stress in daily life. A GBG system consists of sensing, modeling, and service elements. For sensing various kinds of data, a sensor home is constructed. The network system of the sensor home is based on advanced information and communication technology (ICT), such as networked home electric appliances and a ubiquitous sensor network, which are applied to collect energy consumption and context data simultaneously. An experimental example and the usefulness of the sensing environment are shown.