Twenty-seven students and three professors of Vancouver Island University (VIU, Canada) visited Kitakyushu City, where KUC provided a two-day programme on the theme of circular economy.
On the first day, the students visited three sites: Well Create Co Ltd, operating food waste recycling business throughout Japan; Hibikinada Biotope, which is involved in the production of locally produced beer for local consumption; and Nature, a farm where delicious, sweet tomatoes are grown by natural farming methods. The unique initiatives at each of the sites they visited attracted endless interest from the business and management students, who asked questions until the very last minute. On the way back, the students took a short detour to Iwaya Beach in Wakamatsu Ward, where they also helped clean up the beach.
On the second day, the participants experienced the “Circularity Deck” with students of the English Department at Seinan Jogakuin University. This card game uses 51 cards to generate business ideas based on five resource strategies. The students were divided into four groups and tried to create a new business model that could contribute to the circular economy. In the end, the four professors judged which business they would like to invest in if they were investors, and the moment when the answers – yes or no – were given was a great moment of excitement.
We hope that the VIU students will be able to make use of what they have learnt in Kitakyushu City somewhere in the future.
