On April 10, at the Okayama University Division Liaison Meeting, presentations were given by the teams that were awarded the 2023 Okayama University SDGs Promotion Awards. For the fiscal year 2023, awards were given in four categories: "Education Field," "Research Field," "Other Workplace Contributions," and "Student Group Field," with recipients selected through a nomination process. On February 21, presentations were held for initiatives in the "Student Group Field," and presentations for initiatives in the "Education Field" and "Research Field" are scheduled to follow.

During the event, the academic research laboratory of Associate Professor TENNOJIYA Tatsumasa of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (Economics) and the Industry-Academia Collaboration Section of the Research and Innovation Co-creation Management Department, led by Section Manager FUNAKURA Ryuma, were honored with the Excellence Award in the "Other Workplace Contributions" category. Prior to their presentations, the awardees engaged in discussions with President NASU Yasutomo about the challenges and future prospects of their initiatives.

Representing the laboratory and the department, Associate Professor Tennoji, Section Manager Funakura, and students from the laboratory—FUKUSHIMA Yuki (4th year, School of Economics), NANBA　Hayato (4th year, School of Economics), and YATAGAI Shinji (4th year, School of Economics)—delivered the presentation. In their initiative, they tackled the visualization of greenhouse gas emissions at the product level, as a first step toward achieving carbon neutrality, through "Carbon Footprint (CFP) calculation." President Nasu expressed his hopes that initiatives like this, where faculty, staff, and students collaborate to address societal issues, will become more widespread throughout the university.