FUJISAWA Masato, presidentApril UCHINO Takashi, director of the Center for Envi-ronmental ManagementAffi liation: Director, Kobe University Center for Environmental Management(2024 academic year) Professor, Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kobe UniversitySpecialization: Synthesis and property research of semiconduc-tors, magnetic materials, superconductors, and their composites2005: Professor, Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe Universitysity2019: Dean, School and Graduate School of Medicine, 2021: President of Kobe UniversityKobe UniversityFebruary 2014: Director, Kobe University HospitalFebruary 2018: Executive assistant to the president, Kobe Univer-April April Kobe University is located in the port city of Kobe, sur-rounded by the natural beauty of the Rokko Mountains and the sparkling Seto Inland Sea. It is a leading compre-hensive research university founded in 1902, with a long history and tradition. Since its establishment, the university has been committed to its mission of creating knowledge of universal value that sows harmony between academic principles and practical application and cultivates leading human resources with a rich sense of humanity through a spirit of sincerity, freedom, and cooperation.The government has announced the goal of achieving carbon neutrality (CN) by 2050, by which time greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced to zero. With the whole country now working towards achieving CN, our university established the Carbon Neutrality Promotion Headquarters in October 2022 and is promoting a plan to tackle this issue across the university through education, research, facility development, etc.Furthermore, the Offi ce for Promoting SDGs established the CN Promotion Project in April 2022. This project will bring together CN-related research from across the univer-sity, create intellectual assets related to CN technology and build a system to add value to such assets.In addition, Kobe University is participating in the Coalition for Achieving Carbon Neutrality (CN Coalition). The CN Coalition was established on July 29, 2021, as a platform for information sharing and dissemination by universities and other organizations that are either actively working to achieve carbon neutrality or considering strengthening Recently, newspapers have been full of articles about ChatGPT and other forms of generative AI. While these present some advantages, there are also concerns about issues such as copyright infringement, leakage of confi-dential information and deepfakes. In addition, there have been recent reports about the huge energy consumption of semiconductors in the process of building data infrastruc-ture for generative AI. There are also concerns that the power consumption associated with technological innova-tion is progressing more than expected, which could have an impact on the government’s energy strategy to promote decarbonization. I don’t intend to discuss the pros and cons of generative AI on this occasion. But it seems obvious that generative AI is unable to solve the complex problems that humanity currently faces, such as ethnic confl icts and environmental their eff orts under the leadership of the Ministry of Educa-tion, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and the Ministry of the Environment. Of the fi ve working groups (WGs) within the CN Coalition, we are participating in the Regional Zero Carbon WG and the Innovation WG. At the CN Coalition general meeting held on September 7, 2023, Kobe Univer-sity became a new managing institution of the Innovation WG, together with Waseda University and Fukui Univer-sity. We will contribute to the further enhancement of the functions and presence of universities in society and to the development of initiatives for achieving carbon neutrality, from universities to local communities, countries and the world, as well as to promoting more positive changes in society through the dissemination of the collective views of the universities involved.Kobe University strives to be a global center for interdisci-plinary collaborative research and education aimed at cre-ating knowledge and developing human resources. It is im-portant that all members of the university are aware of the need for reform and work together to promote collaboration and co-creation without pausing to ensure the university’s continued development. We will create various new foun-dations for growth in basic and applied scientifi c research by mobilizing the university’s untapped capabilities and hope to continue to develop as a research university that is sustainable, rooted in the local community and proud to be a world leader. We look forward to your continued support and cooperation.imagination for the future will remain indispensable. It is precisely because we live in such an age that the role of universities as centers of learning will become increasingly important in the future.At the same time, educational and research activities at universities are no longer unaffected by environmental issues. Today, university faculty and administrative staff members are faced with the challenge of fi nding ways to overcome the apparent contradiction between promoting research activities and achieving energy conservation. This report summarizes the initiatives that our university is taking to solve this problem. The Center for Environmental Management is also striving to make a contribution to solv-ing this problem, however small, through its daily activities. I am aware that there are many areas where our eff orts are insuffi cient and I would be grateful if you could take a look What lies beyond thought and imaginationMessage from the presidentMessage from the director of the Center for Environmental Management
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