WIPO GREEN: Increasing number of Japanese Academic Institutions Join As Partner

September 27, 2021

On September 22, 2021, the University of Tokyo has joined WIPO GREEN as a partner, following the participation of Tohoku University in the same month. This brings the total number of WIPO GREEN’s partners from Japan to 33 including 6 Japanese universities. The participation of Japanese academic institutions in WIPO GREEN has been increasingly grown.

WIPO GREEN, an international platform run by WIPO to promote the utilization of green technologies, was created in 2013 for the purpose of helping expand adoption and use of environmentally friendly technologies to aid in the future transfer to a low-carbon world.

WIPO GREEN works to create connections among innovators of environmental technology, seekers of environmental technology, public and private bodies backing environmentally friendly technology, and experts in green innovation and other related fields. The pillar of WIPO GREEN is its database of more than 120,000 registered environmental technologies and more than 1,900 users.

Up to now, WIPO GREEN’s partners includ over 120 government agencies, industrial associations, universities, and other bodies. Since the Tokai National Higher Education and Research System (Gifu University and Nagoya University) announced its participation in WIPO GREEN last November, Yamagata University joined this April, followed by Tohoku University and the University of Tokyo this September, bringing the total number of Japanese universities participating in WIPO GREEN to 6 including Meiji University Center for Polymer Science and Waseda University Environmental Research Institute which had already joined as a partner. This shows that increasing number of Japanese academic institutions have joined WIPO GREEN.

Prof. Toshiya Watanabe, Executive Director and Vice President of the University of Tokyo and Director General of the Division of University Corporate Relations, said about the significance of the participation in a WIPO GREEN partner; “The University of Tokyo wishes to utilize the WIPO GREEN in the context of IP investor relations (IR) and ESG. We will register our diverse green technologies to the WIPO GREEN database with a view to collaborating with companies, which we expect will lead to collaborative projects that contribute to the future of humanity and the planet”.

WIPO GREEN initiative features disseminating environmental conservation technologies as well as promoting open innovation organically by providing database of technologies, needs and experts, which will also contribute to technological collaboration between industry and academia.

WIPO will continue to welcome the participation of many partners from Japan, providing active support for the WIPO GREEN activities and helping to facilitate innovation in environmental technologies and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through the resolution of environmental issues.