Spatial Pleasure and Shinki Bus Commenced Collaboration to Generate Carbon Credits Based on Environmental Benefits Assessment of Public Transportation

Spatial Pleasure (Operating Company: Spatial Pleasure Co., Ltd.; Head Office: Setagaya-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director: Soma Suzuki) and SHINKI BUS CO.,LTD. (Head Office: Himeji City, Hyogo Prefecture; President: Makoto Nagao; hereinafter "Shinki Bus") have started a collaboration to create carbon credits based on the assessment of environmental benefits of buses.

Background of this Initiative

Transportation accounts for 40%* of the world’s carbon emissions, making the optimization of transportation the highest priority in promoting urban decarbonization. To decarbonize transportation, there is a strong focus on transit-oriented development (TOD), which involves urban development centered around the use of public transportation, such as buses.

In this collaboration, our primary focus will be on buses. While many people perceive buses as carbon emitters, a broader perspective reveals that buses have the potential to significantly reduce urban carbon emissions. By decreasing the reliance on private cars and taxis, buses contribute to a reduction in overall carbon emissions from the city.

*Reference: NJ Greenhouse Gas Sources & Sinks 2018

https://www.nj.gov/dep/climatechange/docs/nj-scientific-report-2020.pdf

The image provided demonstrates a comparison between the number of vehicles required to transport the same number of people, highlighting how bus services can effectively decrease private car usage and taxi trips, leading to a reduction in carbon emissions across the entire city. However, bus companies currently do not receive carbon credits for their environmental benefits, but only for the carbon emissions directly attributable to their buses. As a result, they are compelled to pay offset fees.

This situation further exacerbates the challenges faced by the already struggling bus industry and has a detrimental impact on the region by hindering the maintenance of the public transportation network. This, in turn, leads to an increase in carbon emissions due to the growing reliance on taxi services. Although the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has established carbon credit certification through environmental benefit assessment for Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), the complexity of the measurement methods has impeded the widespread implementation of actual projects.

Spatial Pleasure has initiated a collaboration with Shinki Bus to accurately measure the carbon reduction impact of buses in high-density areas by combining passenger data from Shinki Bus with surrounding traffic data (the product diagram is provided as an illustration).

Comment from Mr. Bando, Business Strategy Department, Shinki Bus

As a public transportation operator, we hold the belief that we should not only provide transportation services but also contribute to community-building and town development. This philosophy resonates strongly with the vision and mission of Spatial Pleasure. Our collaboration with Spatial Pleasure initially began with the goal of calculating and visualizing the carbon emissions associated with various modes of transportation within a specific area. Through thorough analysis and discussions with Spatial Pleasure’s team members, we have come to realize the potential for not only reducing carbon emissions from our bus fleet but also making a significant contribution to CO2 reduction throughout the entire area by optimizing our bus operations.

When we received the proposal from Spatial Pleasure’s CEO, Mr. Suzuki, we were genuinely excited because it presented an ambitious idea that bus operators would have never envisioned. CEO Suzuki passionately stated, “While forests and seaweed naturally absorb carbon as resources, public transportation can serve as an urban resource fulfilling the same role.” Even our upper management has recognized and embraced this concept, which has garnered widespread support within our company. We are fully committed to actively participating and cooperating in this game-changing initiative for regional transportation infrastructure.