FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 21, 2007

2007 BLUE PLANET PRIZE:
ANNOUNCEMENT OF PRIZE WINNERS
Professor Joseph L. Sax (U.S.A.)
For drafting the world’s first modern environmental law based on public trust doctrine supporting citizen
action for protection of the environment, and for his pioneering contributions in development of thetheory of environmental protection law and in establishing environmental laws internationally
Dr. Amory B. Lovins (U.S.A.)
For his contributions to leading global energy strategy for protection of the global environment byefficient utilization of energy through his advocacy of the concept of the “soft energy path” and inventionof the Hypercar.

This year marks the 16th awarding of the Blue Planet Prize, the international environmental award sponsoredby the Asahi Glass Foundation, chaired by Hiromichi Seya. Two Blue Planet Prizes are awarded to individuals
or organizations each year that make outstanding achievements in scientific research and its application, andin so doing help to solve global environmental problems. The Board of Directors and Councillors selected thefollowing recipients for this year.
1. Professor Joseph L. Sax (U.S.A.)
Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley
Professor Sax has been and still is the leading environmental law scholar in the United States and the world,
and is a pioneer of various environmental laws in the U.S. such as the law on water rights, the development of
citizens-right litigation strategies, and environmental impact assessment laws. In particular, he is famous for
the Michigan Environment Protection Act, popularly known as the "Sax Act," the world’s first modern
environmental law drafted on the basis of public trust doctrine. And not only in the United States, but alsointernationally, he has supported many governments and multi-national organizations such as the United
Nations, has been influential in the development of theory on environmental protection for international law
and has articulated many ideas on issues in international environmental law. Recently, he is serving importantroles and making active contributions not only to protection of the environment but also of cultural properties,
arguing the need for implementation of public trust doctrine in protection of cultural treasures and historicaland archaeological resources.

2. Dr. Amory B. Lovins (U.S.A.)
Chairman and Chief Scientist, Rocky Mountain InstituteFor the last 40 years and through work in more than 50 countries, Dr. Lovins has contributed to the efficientuse of energy and the transition to renewable energy sources in order to protect the global environment. Since
the 1970s, when he first advocated the concept of the “soft energy path” that forms the basis of theseobjectives, he has consistently advocated and implemented pioneering ideas in energy and other fields.
Among his achievements is the invention of the ultralight, ultra-energy-efficient Hypercar devised forsignificant reduction of the burden on the natural environment and the design of buildings with little or no net
use of energy. In co-authored works Factor Four: Doubling Wealth—Halving Resource Use (1997) andNatural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution (1999) showed how to double wealth and halve
resource use by quadrupling resource productivity (production of goods and services per unit of resource
input), and the importance of natural resources and the ecosystem. The broad reach of his activities shows theway towards resolving today’s intricately intertwined issues of energy, environment, resources, development,
and security.

Both recipients will be awarded a certificate of merit, a commemorative trophy and a supplementary award of
50 million yen.
The awards ceremony will be held on October 17, 2007 (Wednesday), at the Tokyo Kaikan (Chiyoda Ward,
Tokyo). The commemorative lectures by the prize recipients will be held at the United Nations University(Shibuya Ward, Tokyo) the next day, on October 18 (Thursday).
*This press release may also be viewed on the Internet from June 21, 2007 at www.af-info.or.jp.

Report on the Selection Process (16th Annual Prize, 2007)
A total of 1,050 nominators from Japan and 1,350 nominators from other countries
recommended 121 candidates. The fields represented by the candidates, in order of number,were ecology (40), environmental economics and policy making (23) and atmospheric and earthsciences (20).
The candidates represented 29 countries; 15 persons, 12 percent of the total, were fromdeveloping countries.
After individual evaluation of the 121 candidates by each Selection Committee member, thecommittee was convened to narrow down the field. The results of their deliberation were
examined by the Presentation Committee, which forwarded its recommendations to the Board of
Directors and Councilors. The Board formally resolved to award the Prize to Professor Joseph
L. Sax, and Dr. Amory B. Lovins.

For more information, please contact: Shunichi Samejima
THE ASAHI GLASS FOUNDATION
2nd Floor, Science Plaza, 5-3 Yonbancho Chiyoda-ku,
Tokyo 102-0081 Japan
Phone +81-3-5275-0620 Fax +81-3-5275-0871
e-mail: post@af-info.or.jp
URL: http://www.af-info.or.jp
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Attachment

Profile of the 2007 Blue Planet Prize Recipient
Professor Joseph L. Sax (U.S.A.)
Professor Sax has shown with pioneering views the basis of how environmental preservation
could be promoted theoretically from the point of law. He is a pioneer of various environmental
laws in the U.S. such as the law on water rights, the development of citizens-right litigation
strategies, and environmental impact assessment laws, and the Michigan Environment
Protection Act which is known as the "Sax Act" the world’s first modern environmental law
drafted on the basis of public trust doctrine. He has been giving continuing advice and assistancefor major environmental groups in the U.S. that are trying to improve the implementation andenforcement of national or international environmental laws. He also has been active andcontributed in helping governments, and multilateral organizations (such as the U.N. agencies)
improve the role of environmental law in contending with continuing ecological degradation,
pollution, and diminishing water and natural resources stocks.
Professor Sax was born in Illinois, U.S.A. in 1936, graduated from Harvard University in 1957,
and earned the degree of Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago in 1959. Then, afterworking as an attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., he began toteach law at the University of Colorado in 1962. In 1966, he moved to the University ofMichigan, where he became the Philip A. Hart Distinguished University Professor. He joined
the Boalt faculty of the University of California at Berkeley in 1986, and at present is theHouse & Hurd Professor of Environmental Regulation, Emeritus.
Sax began his work on environmental protection in the mid-1960s, when environmental
law as a legal category did not exist. Series of lawsuits were raised against pesticide
spraying encouraged by Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring" and he participated in a trial where hesought an injunction against the spraying of Dieldrin in Michigan and elsewhere. Although all
lawsuits were wholly unsuccessful, he was drawn to the area and further engaged himself inthe field of environmental law through them when he observed that courts rejected efforts
by concerned citizens to protect natural resources on the ground that they had nolegal status, such as ownership of property or rights under a contract. At the sametime he observed that the laws themselves rarely contained environmental
protections.
In 1969, Sax learned of a lawsuit opposing the construction of an apartment building along thebank of the Potomac River in Washington D.C. The basis for the suit was the public trust
doctrine, and here he found the legal basis to advance environmental conservation causes. The
public trust doctrine limits private use of certain public natural resource, and in Sax’s view,
private property in such resources is fundamentally restricted, and it presupposes that anindividual does not have a right which is contrary to public interest. This is central to Sax’s
conception of environmental law.
Michigan Environment Protection Act which was adopted in 1970 by the Michigan Legislatureas the “Sax Act” was drafted by Professor Sax in the 1960s. It was groundbreaking in that it
authorized environmental citizen suits and ensured standing in environmental litigation. In it, it
states “any person, partnership, corporation, association, organization or other legal entity may
maintain an action in the circuit court for the protection of the air, water and other natural
resources and the public trust therein from pollution, impairment or destruction." A primary3

feature of the law was its recognition that every person is legally entitled to thebenefits of legal protection against pollution and other environmentally destructive
activities, and that the courts were to be empowered to grant relief against suchactivities. These provisions became the model for equivalent citizen suit provisions in federal
environmental laws and set in motion the authorization of “private attorneys general” to advanceenvironmental values in courts of law.
The Act was called an “April Fool’s Day Joke” with the submission date being April 1, and thefact also enables us to recognize how significant an impact it had then. The “Sax Act” later
became the model for similar statutes in more than a dozen other states.
In 1970, Sax published “The Public Trust Doctrine in Natural Resource Law: Effective Judicial
Intervention.” This landmark article argued that the U.S. courts has the authority andresponsibility to prevent legislatures and administrative agencies from damaging, selling, or
giving away environmental features, such as coastlines and wetlands, that were entrusted to theownership of the people as a whole. More than any other work in the history of environmental
law, this article has been cited countless times as the leading discussion of the public trust
principle, and it has initiated an entire literature on the limits of governments in America todamage environmental resources held in trust for all people.
Sax served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Interior Department and as legal counsel to
the Secretary, Bruce Babbitt between 1994 and 1996, and after he returned to academia, hecontinued to give advice on environmental issues to the Clinton Administration. Moreover, he
has served as a consultant to various U.S. federal and state organizations, and to thegovernments of a number of other nations including Japan.
Sax attended an international symposium held in Tokyo in 1970 to discuss pollution problems
and initiated the concept of “Environmental Right”, which became the conclusion of thesymposium and proposed to the world.
Sax is author of five books on environmental law issues, the co-author of nine other books, andthe author of about 150 law review articles. He has also published many magazine articles,
newspaper essays, and reports emphasizing the need for improving environmental protection in
the U.S. and the world. He did more than write. He led the creation of the Environmental Law
Institute, and the launch of the Environmental Law Reporter. Many academics and professionals
were inspired by Sax’s innovative scholarship in multiple contexts addressing numerous criticalenvironmental issues. To the extent much of international environmental law followed patterns
established by American law, Professor Sax has also been influential in the development ofinternational legal principle and has shown many ideas toward various issues international
environmental law targets.
In seeking to explain the appropriate limits of private property, and the legitimate
interests of the public, Sax has in recent years sought to draw provocative
analogies between the need to protect the natural world’s treasures, and the wellaccepted understanding of the need to protect cultural treasures, such as great
works of art and historical and archaeological resources. He has therefore written
about “cultural property” as another example of the need for a public trust concept,
and to illustrate the importance of appreciating the limits of what can be claimed in
the name of private property.

4Professor Sax has been and still is the leading environmental law scholar in the United States
and the world, and he has repeatedly created new legal innovations to expand the realms ofenvironmental and natural resources protection laws, and has directly or indirectly influenced
the ideas of scholars in many other countries. He has also been actively involved in publicaffairs as they relate to environmental protection and conservation issues, and contributed to theworld.
Biographical Summary
1936
Born in Illinois
1957
A.B., Harvard University
1959
J.D. University of Chicago
1962-66
Professor of Law, University of Colorado
1966-86
Philip A. Hart Distinguished University Professor, University of Michigan
1986James H. House & Hiram H. Hurd Professor (emeritus),
School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California (Berkeley)
1994-96
Counselor to the Secretary of the Interior,
Deputy Assistant Secretary of the InteriorAwards
1976
1977
1984
1985
2004

Environmental Quality Award, U.S. E.P.A
Elizabeth Haub Award, Free Univ. Brussels
Wm. O. Douglas Legal Achievement Award, The Sierra Club
Environmental Law Institute Award
Distinguished Water Attorney Award

Dr. Amory B. Lovins (U.S.A.)
From the early 1970s, Dr. Lovins has greatly contributed to the world by making policy proposals anddeveloping technologies based on his original theory on energy, with consideration to protection of thenatural environment. He has advocated a concept called the “soft energy path” with dispersed energy
system at the core, integrating far more efficient use of energy with a transition to appropriate renewablesources. He has invented the Hypercar®, which is ultralight and ultra-energy-efficient, enabling asignificant reduction in the burden on the natural environment. He has also shown how to designbuildings that use little or no net energy at comparable or lower cost. Moreover, he has proposed aroadmap for profitably ending global oil dependence. Showing the way forward by explaining his
innovative concepts, he has demonstrated technically feasible practices and realistic policies, thus
gaining high acclaim.
Dr. Lovins was born in Washington, DC in 1947. From his high-school days, he showed talent in physics,
music, classics, and mathematics. He entered Harvard College in 1964. After two years of study, hetransferred in 1967 to Magdalen College, Oxford, England. He became a Junior Research Fellow of
Merton College, Oxford, in 1969, receiving a master of arts (M.A.) degree in 1971.
During his 14 years in the U.K., Dr. Lovins was fascinated by Snowdonia National Park in North Wales,
and in 1971, was asked by David R. Brower (1998 BP Prize winner), who was then the chairman ofFriends of the Earth, to write a book about these endangered Welsh wildlands. Dr. Lovins then served forten years as British Representative for Friends of the Earth. While taking interest in nature and5environment, he became involved increasingly in energy strategy, initially through his research on
climate. He wrote his first books on energy “World Energy Strategies” in 1974.
The energy crisis in 1973 drew more people to Dr. Lovins’s ideas, and in 1976, he published agroundbreaking essay "Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken?" in Foreign Affairs. It redefined theenergy problem from “how to supply more energy” to how to provide just the amount, type, and scale ofenergy that would do each task in the cheapest way, and there he put forward the concept of the "softenergy path." The concept points out to a new system with efficient use of energy and the use of "softenergy technologies" based on such resources as solar, wind force, bio-fuel and geothermal heat. This is
opposite to the "hard energy path" which points out to an existing huge centralized power generation
system utilizing fossil fuel and nuclear power. He envisaged this approach as a “master key” to unlock
the intertwined puzzles of energy, environment, resources, development, and security. Dr. Lovins
suggested that soft energy paths are possible, profitable, environmentally benign, and supportive of fair
global development without the hard path’s prohibitive costs and risks.
The soft-path concept initially attracted huge criticism from traditional energy suppliers. The power
generation trade association devoted an entire issue of its trade journal to attacking the Foreign Affairs
essay. Some critics dismissed Dr. Lovins as a social idealist; others attacked the economic or technicalfeasibility of his ideas, charging that he slants his analyses. But even his critics conceded that he wassomething of a genius. Nowadays, efficient use and soft energy technologies are being adopted
worldwide through competition in the marketplace, and it can be said that his pioneering views havebeen proven.
Dr. Lovins continued earnestly to write books (six by 1978) and technical papers elaborating his analysesof energy and security alternatives. He also consulted widely to industry, and was active in energy affairs
in some 15 countries (later 50) as a policy advisor. He and his first wife L. Hunter Sheldon co-founded
Rocky Mountain Institute in 1982 to foster the efficient and restorative use of resources. In 1982–84 theybuilt their home and the original headquarters of Rocky Mountain Institute, still one of the world’s mostefficient buildings. It uses roughly 1% the space- and water-heating energy, 10% the household
electricity, and half the water of a normal house, and its passive-solar interior “jungle” has produced 28
banana crops with no central heating system in outdoor temperatures as low as –44˚C. The essence of it
construction is that in order to thoroughly utilize the solar heat, it uses high performance insulation andglass, and takes notice on the heat intake and prevention of its dissipation. Yet through integrative design—optimizing the whole building as a system for multiple benefits, rather than isolated components for
single benefits—its extra construction cost was only $16/m2, repaid from energy savings in ten months
with 1984 technologies (today’s are much better).
Radical energy efficiency has always been a key goal at Rocky Mountain Institute, examining in great
detail nearly every use and emphasizing the most important ones. In 1991, Dr. Lovins invented theHypercar®, recognizing the synergistic benefits of closely integrating two known and demonstrated
techniques—ultralight, ultra-aerodynamic construction and hybrid-electric drive (invented in 1900)—in aradically simplified, software-rich vehicle design. From 1991 to 1993, he reviewed and developed theconcept in depth with major automakers and other experts. In 1993, he publicly released the “Hypercar”
concept, which received the Nissan Prize. Compared to then-existing cars, Hypercar-class vehicles could
triple fuel economy with equal or better performance, safety, and affordability. The hybrid-electric
powertrain will initially be powered by an internal combustion engine, but the design favors a fuel cellusing compressed hydrogen gas, redoubling the vehicles’ fuel economy.
In 1997, the Lovinses and Prof. E.U. von Weizsaecker wrote Factor Four: Doubling Wealth—Halving
Resource Use, whose 50 examples show how to double wealth and halve resource use by quadrupling
resource productivity (production of goods and service per unit of resource input). And in 1999, withPaul Hawken, the Lovinses published the book Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial
Revolution, and described the importance of "natural capital" which has immense economic value, which
also is the total sum of natural resource and ecosystem bearing such functions as air and water
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purification, climate stabilization, detoxification of waste, and are indispensable to the society and allliving things.
In 2004, Dr. Lovins published his 29th book, Winning the Oil Endgame. It provides a detailed roadmap
for eliminating U.S. oil use by the 2040s, led by business for profit. He proposed that combining
innovative technologies with new competitive strategies and innovative public policies would acceleratea transition to a new order and would enable an end to oil dependence.
Dr. Lovins with his remarkable foresight has patiently and consistently proposed and implemented
pioneering concepts since the 1970s in the energy field and many others. Inefficient energy use hascreated many economic and security issues and most of the world’s environmental problems, so he has
designed compelling technological, business, and policy innovations to solve them. At the same time, he
has shown how to achieve a society where high energy efficiency and sustainable energy supplies canlead to a safer, environmentally healthier, climate-stabilized, and more rewarding future.
Biographical Summary
1947
Born in Washington DC
1964-67
Harvard University
1967-69
Magdalen College, Oxford, England
1969-71
Junior Research Fellow, Merton College, Oxford, England
Received a master of arts (M.A.) degree 1971
1982
Co-founded Rocky Mountain Institute; currently Chairman & Chief Scientist
1999
Established Hypercar, Inc. (Chairman 1999-2007), now Fiberforge, Inc.
1968Consulted for governments and the industries in the U.S. and worldwide

Awards
1982
1983
1989
1993
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2005
2006
2007

Mitchell Prize
Right Livelihood Award
Delphi Prize
Nissan Prize, ISATA; MacArthur Fellow
Heinz Award for the Environment
Lindbergh Award
World Technology AwardTime Heroes for the Planet Award
Shingo Prize
Jean Meyer Award
Benjamin Franklin Medal and Life Fellow, Royal Society of Arts (London)
Honorary Member, American Institute of Architects7Remarks from the Award Recipients upon Notification of their Selection
Professor Joseph L. Sax
I am deeply honored to have been awarded the Blue Planet Prize presented by the Asahi Glass Foundation.
The Prize, in recognition that environmental conservation is among the most urgent global issues, provides
encouragement to all those who work seeking resolution of environmental problems. It is particularly
gratifying for me that the Foundation, which through the Prize, recognizes achievements in scientific research,has on this occasion chosen to acknowledge the role that the rule of law plays in implementation of scientificachievement in the governance of our societies, and in assuring justice to those who have sufferedenvironmental harm.
The receipt of this distinguished prize gives me the opportunity to return again to Japan, where I
have on three previous occasions come to work on environmental issues with Japanese colleagues who did
pioneering work in the field of environmental law at a time when it was dismissed by many as a passing fad.
In that regard, I would like to take this occasion to pay tribute to the late Professor Shigeto Tsuru, who formany years inspired and encouraged my work.

Dr. Amory B. Lovins
Most environmental problems, and many development and security challenges, are caused by the overuse andmisuse of energy. Energy is a master key to unlock these intertwined puzzles, and teaches new thinking thatcan solve other problems like water.
In 1976 I realized the energy problem wasn’t just finding where to get more energy, of any kind, from any
source, at any price. Nobody wanted raw kilowatt-hours or barrels of black goo, but rather services like hotbaths and cold beer, mobility and visibility, comfort and cooked food. So how much energy, of what quality
and scale, from what sources, could do each task in the cheapest way?
This new question led to better answers. Today virtually any country, even already-efficient Japan, can wring
several times more work from its energy and need only renewable sources. Since these shifts make sense andmake money, business can lead them for profit, thereby solving many other problems too.
I have had the privilege of making this energy transition my lifeswork, collaborating with treasured colleagues
around the world. This honorable prize recognizes and encourages all who share this mission, so crucial to thesurvival of our blue planet.

8Message to the Japanese public
Professor Joseph L. Sax
I am greatly honored to receive the Asahi Glass Foundation’s Blue Planet Prize, which seeks toencourage research into understanding and protecting our natural environment.
Acknowledgment of the importance of work designed to reduce adverse human impacts on theplanet is today more timely and urgent than ever. It is especially gratifying for me that the vitalrole of the law in implementing scientific achievement is being recognized this year. I am alsodelighted to return to Tokyo, where, nearly forty years ago, I attended one of the firstinternational meetings ever devoted to environmental protection.

Dr. Amory B. Lovins
Japan’s flag bears the sun. Traditional Japanese buildings blend into nature. Japan judges
technology not just on functionality but on harmonious [kansei] user experience. Japan leads theworld in efficient cars, industrial processes, and solar cells. Japanese industrial genius invented
the most powerful tools for eliminating waste. And once Japanese society forms a newconsensus, it can cheerfully change course with no regrets—and move faster than anyone.

Japan can therefore lead the global transition to efficient energy use and renewable energy
sources. These can meet all Japan’s needs cost-effectively, because Japan, though poor in fossil
fuel, is rich in renewable energy, human energy, ingenuity, and traditional wisdom. Thus it isespecially fitting, and humbling, that my efforts should be recognized in Japan, from whose
extraordinary culture I have learned so much.

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