Designing Future Society: Osaka Expo 2025 emphasizes sustainability, climate and women

The Osaka World Expo, now in its 55^one Years and the first global event there since the pandemic, shows the art, technology and sustainability-Scherper innovations of the countries. The website mentions the “goals of Expo 2025 Osaka Kansai” as“”To contribute to achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs); And reaching the Japanese National Strategy Society 5.0. “It continues until October 25, 2025.

Japan is the fourth largest economy in the world, according to the International Monetary Fund, and nowadays has a population of around 123 million people.

To find out what the exhibition reveals, I spoke with Yvonne Burton, CEO of Burton International ConsultingWho is now there on her umpteenth visit and lived in Japan for several years in the past. Her company specializes in helping Japanese and American entrepreneurs to do business together.

A personal tour through the sustainability lens

Burton described the exhibition in detail on one exclusive interview Recently on Electric Ladies Podcast, starting with the Osaka World Expo theme: “Design Society for Future Lives.”

She said that that theme penetrates every aspect of the exhibition, from the literal basis of the Expo buildings and pavilions to the exhibitions. “Every country (IS) presents what they do for our future in technology, health care, sustainable life, energy production and conservability,” said Burton. The similarities to participate in the expo includes sustainability -related requirements.

The Japan “Pavilion itself is about the circular economy,” she explained, “and the theme is between life and life. So the pavilion and the circular structure are about life and how everything is connected and flows, again, the circular economy.”

Here are a few highlights of the Osaka World Expo Burton that can inspire innovation – or a visit:

• Unique wooden structures without nails: “There is the large ring, a wooden structure that the main body of the Exhibition”Which she described as” about six floors high, made entirely of wood that will be recycled after and reused after the exhibition is over. “It also has’ a raised walkway ‘, which’ most of it is built with Japanese traditional joinery. So no nails are used.” She added that “the pavilions, especially the Japanese pavilion I have been, is really focused on sustainability. What Japan does, it actually uses a factory that is used to use the use of almsas. To reduce CO2 emissions, she said.
• Recycling made easy: “Only recycling has always been whole, very complicated in Japan, even in the house, and because it is a community-based society, everyone does what they have to do. So through the site there are recycling holders who are very, very specific so that everything is maintained and separated in accordance with all rules.” Those rules are quite strict, Burton said, even those who demand that the labels of plastic water bottles are broken down and placed in a separate container.
• Lots of wind and solar technology: Japan and other countries embrace renewable energy, as Burton saw first -hand on the Osaka World Expo. “There is a lot around wind and natural, solar energy. I was surprised by some of the pavilions where that was shown. Of course, all Japanese pavilions, many of the Europeans who have always been about wind energy,” she noticed. But even the ‘desert countries’, she noted that they showed their strategies for solar energy and nature conservation.

“Saudi -Arabia has a spectacular pavilion and a large part of their exhibition shows how they naturally use the power of the sun,” she explained. They show how they are called them Neom green hydrogen complex Owned by a company with the same name (NGHC), powered by wind and solar plants, and invoices itself as “the world’s largest factory that produces green hydrogen-based ammonia through renewable energy.” Burton said that smaller and less prosperous countries also show their strategies for the preservation of country and environmental protection.

• Evocative demonstration of the impact of climate change in real time: One of the pavilions that emphasized Burton because it generates a more visceral reaction is the demonstration of Brazil about what happens to the environment when the planet warms up. “It is a bit scary,” she said and described a bit of how it works in this way (and gave more details in the podcast): “There is a huge screen that represents the sun and the planet and it goes through different colors when everything is green, everything is completely falcated and in harmony, the top of the soil. Walk through it, a bit shocking.” Who also hang on the ceiling, she said. “Then you go through the color changes … it’s just extraordinary.” She also said that the staff is there to explain what is happening.

• Focused on “soft materials” because they do better in earthquakes and disasters: Burton explained that the Japan “Pavilion itself is about the circular economy … and the theme is between life and life. So the pavilion and the circular structure are about life and how everything is connected and flows, again, the circular economy.” She reminded us that Japan is ‘susceptible to earthquakes and natural disasters, (so they) focus on soft materials’, because ‘soft is durable, soft is flexible and easy to repair’, including bamboo, who bends, but does not break.

This includes the omnipresent use of “Cross -gelaminated wood, CLT, … (that is) easy to dismantle and will be reused.” She said it is now ‘included in international building codes, … including’ sustainable alternatives for walls, roofs, floors and ceilings. It is fire -resistant and is very durable during seismic events. “

• An extensive women’s spavilion that emphasizes the lives of women with events: The Expo also has a large ladies spavilion, sponsored by Cartier, of which Burton said it tells the stories of various women and activists, “has statistics about the state of gender equality around the world” and hosts well -attended events.

We have every desk

Especially the Osaka Expo Japanese Pavilion also emphasizes that we have every desk, be Burton, which is a good memory, especially in these chaotic times.

“Of course it asks you to be part of this circular solution. And it says, once you leave this pavilion, remember that it all starts with you and the decisions you make every day … It is all our responsibility for the sustainability of the earth.”