A CLOSER LOOK -- Ahead of the curve
Some small-business owners ventured into the market for green goods and services well before the environment became a hot issue; now they are reaping the benefits
Taking a stand
Hiroaki Kamei, a 44-year-old brick maker in Kasahara, Gifu Prefecture, had to break with family business to find his niche. He is the son of a ceramic-tile manufacturer, but he had long held reservations about the pollution he had seen produced by the company and others just like it -- Kasahara is the center of Japan's ceramic-tile industry. Kamei saw materials dug from the sides of mountains, liquid waste flowing down mountain streams and flue gas released from kilns.
He joined a task force in the town to tackle industrial waste in 1992, but meanwhile he was quickly working on his own project: making unbaked bricks out of 13 sorts of solidified waste and a little cement. In 1995, Kamei became president of the family business. In late 1997, after five years of research and experiments, he finally made the brick he had dreamed about.
Now his suppliers include a Toyota Motor Corp. factory, its parts supplier, public incinerating facilities, sewage-treatment plants and thermal-power plants. Sales of the recycled bricks accounted for half of the company's total sales in the fiscal year ended last June.
"Half of our clients chose the product because of its environmental friendliness," Kamei said. "The rest buy it just because it is competitively priced and compares well with conventional baked bricks."
Hiroaki Kamei
experimented for five years before finally creating his unbaked bricks made of 13 types of waste and a little cement.
(THE NIKKEI WEEKLY, January 31, 2000)
