Toward a Sustainable Society
The Visitor Center's Pellet Stove
Winters in Urabandai are known for below-freezing temperatures and a cumulative average of 3 meters of snowfall in the mountains. The Urabandai Visitor Center uses an eco-friendly pellet stove that burns compressed wood chips from sustainable sources to help heat the facility during the colder months.
The chips are derived from three sustainable sources: trees cut down for thinning purposes; pruned branches from living trees; and wood scraps from timber production. Forested areas are thinned so the remaining trees can grow to their full potential, and to reduce fire risk. Pruning weak branches improves the structural integrity of a tree and encourages healthy new growth.
The wood chips are mechanically ground, dried, and compressed into pellets as natural fuel for the stove. Using waste wood for the pellets makes them a better alternative to fossil fuels, which have a larger carbon footprint.
The Visitor Center Yukimuro Cooling System
The Urabandai Visitor Center provides information about the lakes, ponds, and wetlands of Urabandai, and the wildlife that inhabits the region. The center reduces its environmental impact by using sustainable cooling and heating systems. The visitor center uses a traditional cooling system in summer with a renewable winter resource: snow. In winter, snow is gathered and piled up inside a yukimuro, or insulated snow storage room, located directly across from the visitor center. Vents in the visitor center direct warm air through a pipe system in the building's framework. The air travels underground and into the yukimuro, where up to 180 tons of snow can be compacted and stored.
As the snow melts, the water collects beneath the storage room, and the surrounding cold air is cycled back into the visitor center. This eco-friendly cooling system is complemented by other sustainable features, such as the center's use of diatomaceous earth as a wall coating. This absorbent, clay-like material made of fossilized plankton helps regulate humidity by absorbing moisture from the air.
Japanese communities living in colder climates have long taken advantage of the natural properties of snow and ice to preserve food. Use of yukimuro as a natural refrigerator is believed to have been widespread during the Edo period (1603–1867), and they are still used for energy-efficient cold storage in alpine regions of Japan.