About US｜Animal SDGs

Let's take a closer. Look at the Earth.

The Animal Conference on the Environment (ACE) project started in 1997 when the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was held in Kyoto (COP3). In its main story, animals who come from all over the world hold a conference on familiar environmental problems, which main goal is to provoke children’s interests and raise their awareness of environmental issues. The theme deals with Forest, Garbage, Cars, Energy, Food, Water, Life, and the Earth. The animal characters of ACE are all very unique, each representing their respective national and cultural backgrounds. And, they are involved in heated discussions while sometimes revealing their ignorance, selfishness, and prejudice toward other cultures.

We would like our children to be interested in things different from their own and experience the importance and joy of understanding others. Ultimately, we want each of them to become a person who think and act for the sake of the earth environment. Sharing such hopes, the animals are going to think and talk with the children.

Created by Marie Loo and IAN
of NURUE R&D Inc.

HISTORY

1997: Animal Environment Conference to be held on HORIBA's website GAIAPRESS at the same time as the Kyoto Conference on Climate Change (COP3).

2000: Renewed scenario and characters for the publication of the picture book series Animal Environment Conference. Horiba was the official partner and Hakushindo (Niigata City) was the project partner for the publication.

2002: Picture Book Magazine The Animal Conference on the Environment Vol.1 Theme: Forest Published.
Picture Book Magazine The Animal Conference on the Environment Vol.2 Theme: Garbage Issued.

2003: Serialization in the monthly magazine SOTOKOTO (published by Kigarakusha) begins.
Picture Book Magazine The Animal Conference on the Environment Vol.3 Theme: Cars Issued.
Published in Korea by Daniel's Stone Publishing.

2004: Tarojiro-sha Editas to sell The Animal Conference on the Environment series nationwide.
Taiwanese version of The Animal Conference on the Environment released from Taiwan's Xiaotianxia Publishing Co.
The Animal Conference on the Environment series, Selected Books by the National Council of School Libraries.

2005: EXPO 2005 AICHI, JAPAN.
Picture Book Magazine The Animal Conference on the Environment Vol.3 Theme: Energy Issued.

2007: Exhibited at Tokyo Contents Market (TCM) 2007.
TCM Award 2007 Encouragement Award in the Still Image Category.
［Organized by: Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation, Japan Co-organized by: Kanto Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry］

2008: 10th Anniversary Exhibition The Animal Conference on the Environment at Roppongi Stripe House Gallery.
Selected as a company that supports industrial clusters [Kanto Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry].
Films selected for TIFFCOM/TPG2008, an event related to the Tokyo International Film Festival [METI].

2009: Invited by the organizers of Forum International Cinéma & Littérature. [Principality of Monaco]
Production of the animated version of “The Animal Conference on the Environment (5 minutes per episode, 20 episodes) begins.
［A Japan-China co-production by NHK International, Ima Group and Nurue R&D.]

2010: National terrestrial broadcasting started on NHK Educational TV (from March).
Animation to be shown at COP10 Nagoya Conference on Biodiversity.
NHK Eco Channel, a video site for environmental information, will distribute seven animated films.

2011: Awarded Children's Earth Vision Prize at the 19th Global Environmental Film Festival
Received the Excellence Award in the Business Category of the Shinjuku Eco-One Grand Prix.[Shinjuku City].
3.11 Great East Japan Earthquake
A video titled Shinjuku City and the Council for Animal Welfare ask you to save electricity will be aired 10,000 times on Shinjuku ALTA VISION for one year [Shinjuku City].
A classroom version of the The Animal Conference on the Environment was held at a Toshima Ward elementary school [Toshima City].

2012: NHK DVD teaching material The Animal Conference on the Environment was released [NHK Enterprises].
Workshop with children from four countries [OISCA].
Exhibited works at Mifa, Annecy International Animation Fair.

2013: OISCA produced an electronic picture-story show Stories of the World's Forests on the theme of forests in four countries: Fiji, Thailand, Indonesia and Japan.

2014: Selected as the 2nd ESD Environmental Study Model Program [Ministry of the Environment].
Workshop at the Decade of ESD and Global Citizenship Conference 2014 [United Nations University].
The 15th anniversary of the activity. Production of activity guidebook.

2015: The World ! The Animal Conference on the Environment method workshop for students from Niigata University, Aoyama Gakuin University and Tokyo Fuji University.
Business exchange with animation-related companies in Quebec, Canada [Nerima Animation / JETRO].
Producing instructor training workbooks for children and adults.

2016: Workshop with Children from Myanmar, Mongolia and Japan: “World ! The Animal Conference on the Environment in Nerima Art Museum” [OISCA, Nerima-ku].
Character Learning Method (CLM), an activity for university students and adults, begins.
Workshop started in Regional Activation System Theory, a university-wide general course at Dokkyo University.

2017: Received the Minister of State for Consumer Affairs Award for Excellence at the 11th Kids Design Awards [Kids Design Council].
from KAI Japanese Language School World ! The Animal Conference on the Environment in Okubo was held.
Workshop by children from Indonesia and Myanmar and Aoyama Gakuin University students World ! The Animal Conference on the Environment in Minami-Izu was held [OISCA Izu UNESCO Club].
Joint research with Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology on the theme of mental health.［TAT Health Care Center / Tokyo Metropolitan Small and Medium Enterprise Promotion Corporation]

2018: The World ! Animal Conference on the Environment in SDGs Future City UBE Begins [Ube City, Yamaguchi Prefecture].

2019: The creation of a zoo program to interact with the animals at Tokiwa Zoo has begun. [Tokiwa Zoo].

2020: Four programs were completed: the classroom program ROOM, the zoo program ZOO, the plenary session TOO, and the instructor training course DOO.
The creation of a non-face-to-face program has begun as a measure against coronavirus [Shinjuku City].

2021: Establishment of the subcommittee Fostering Leaders of a Sustainable Society through Dialogue with Animals in the Public-Private Partnership Platform for Local Development SDGs [Cabinet Office].
Mitaka Network University and Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology started a joint research project Mitaka ! Animal Conference on the Environment started [Mitaka City].
Planning and production of the concept book Animal SDGs.