第 1 回全国高等専門学校英語プレゼンテーションコンテスト
プレゼンテーション部門発表原稿
富山商船高等専門学校国際流通学科３年
棚田祥太

助田友季奈
山崎早紀子

AREYOUGREEN？

Thank you for introducing us. I’m Shota Tanada from Toyama National College ofMaritime Technology.

I’m Sakiko Yamazaki. I’m Yukina Sukeda.

Nowadays, one of the most talked about topics is the environment and how we need totake care of it.

Do any of you think about environmental problems such as carbon dioxide

emissions, global warming, melting glaciers and extraordinary weather?

Do you think about

these problems, or how to help reduce these problems?
Many people think that the best way to help the environment is to do without something.
We have hard choices to make, and we have to balance these choices between what is goodfor the environment, and what is inconvenient for us.

This creates a big dilemma.

How can we reduce environmental problems?

There are many environmentallyfriendly options, such as hybrid cars, solar-paneled houses, and green taxes.

These ideas

are practical for adults, but they don’t seem to be related to the daily life of a student.
How many of you drove your Toyota Prius today?
Then, what can students do?
Please raise your hands.

Please raise your hand.

Thank you.

Well, how many of you went to a convenience store last week?

Many students went to a convenience store, didn’t they? Thankyou.
How can you help?

Believe it or not, the simple decisions that you make each day arelinked to the solutions of many environmental problems.

Your choices when buying some-thing at a convenience store can affect the environment.

If so, should we stop buying?

No!

By being aware of the environment when shopping and identifying which products areenvironmentally acceptable, you can take a small step towards reducing environmental
problems. These suggestions were put forth by John Elkington and Julia Hailes in a bookcalled “The Green Consumer Guide.”

They state that by choosing better shops and stores,

consumers can play a large role in dealing with environmental problems.

The key is not tostop buying, but to make good choices when buying.
When you do something to help the environment, you are being “green.”
you reduce your negative impact on the environment?
shopping?

So how canWhat criteria can you use when

How can you be a “green-shopper”?

The Green Purchasing Network in Japan proposed four measures; buy only what youneed, choose goods that last a long time, choose goods with environmentally friendly packaging, and choose recycled or recyclable goods.

This is good information, but what can westudents do with it?
To find out these answers, we visited two stores near our college toproducts that were sold there.

research theAt first, we weren’t able to easily find information about green

companies and green products.

However, we realized the packaging tells us many things.

The first thing you can realize is how much packaging is being used.

“Too much” packaging

is a waste of paper, plastic and natural resources.
From sorting garbage at home, everybody knows these marks for paper, plastic, steeland aluminum. These marks tell us whether it is recycled or recyclable.
meanings of the various Eco marks?

But do you know theActually, if you can understand these marks, thepackaging gives us a lot of information.

You can find out whether the manufacturingcompanies are “green” or not.
This brings us the questions: what is the current level of students’ awareness of green
shopping at our college? Are students at Toyama National College of Maritime Technology
actually green-shopping?
First, on Oct. 15 we distributed a questionnaire to our class and got 22 responses. Then,on Nov. 26 we distributed the same questionnaire to the first year class and the second year
class, and got 65 responses.
ping?

The first question was; “what criteria do you use when shop-Students could choose a maximum of three out of the 15 criteria. As you can see,most students care about the taste, price and appearance of the packaging. The nextquestion is: what factors do you consider when buying?

These are the results.

Only 6% of

the students cared about the amount of packaging used.
We found out that consumers are not environmentally conscious or eco-conscious
when purchasing products.

Why?

It is because they aren’t well-informed.

Information is

not readily available at shops, and many people don’t know about eco-labels. Even advertisements on TV are too short to give enough information on green companies. Do you thinkthat all of you are well-informed consumers?

We weren’t before this presentation.

Then what can you do?
What did we do?

We did two small things.

One was to share information on how tobecome a well-informed consumer. The other was to put out recycling boxes for raising
environmental awareness.
Our first step was to promote the idea of eco-awareness to students.

On Oct. 22, andon Nov. 28, we had a presentation in our class and two junior classes, and introduced threeguidelines. Goods using less packaging reduce waste. Recycled goods use fewer naturalresources.

Marks on packaging give a lot of information.

If you keep these easy rules inmind, you too can be a green-shopper.
After the presentation we received many comments from students.
examples; I’ll read the packaging well, next time I shop.

Here are some

Recycling or reading packaging

seems easy to do. I understand why reducing waste is important.

They became better

informed, and they understood more about buying goods. The eco-awareness level wasraised in three classes.
The second plan was to put out recycling boxes at our college.

Of course we recycle athome, but at school we often throw different types of garbage into the same container.

Why?

So we posted colorful posters to show students how recycling was connected to saving
natural resources.

We thought it would help raise students’ eco-awareness through thesimple action of recycling.
About one week after the presentation, we distributed the same questionnaire to threeclasses and got 86 responses. Did students’ purchasing behaviors change? How manyfactors did students consider when shopping?

We summed up the numbers of all criteriastudents used in Question One and got an average.
each student used only 1.1 factors.

Before the presentation, on average,

But after the presentation, each student used 1.6factors.
Let’s look at all the results of the second question before and after.

After thepresentation, 43% of the students chose goods in less packaging, but before the presentation
only 6% of the students cared about this.

The number of the students who chose goods witheco marks on nearly tripled. The number of the students who chose products made byenvironmentally friendly companies almost doubled.

In the after-presentation comments,

32% of the students wrote that they would be a wiser consumer by reading packaging orreducing waste.
Through this research we can conclude that the presentation and recycling boxes atschool were effective at promoting awareness of students’ purchasing behaviors.
Enjoy shopping.
ment.

But, please think about the connection between you and the environ-

Then you can take a small but positive step towards reducing environmental

problems.
The key is not to stop buying, but to start smart-buying.
Thank you for your attention.