Panasonic's New Smart Town Can Teach Business a Thing or Two About Smart Growth

Tech companies are going to new lengths to showcase their innovations, and here's the latest case in point: a consortium called Fujisawa SST Council will develop an entire "Sustainable Smart Town" for 3,000 souls in Fujisawa City, Japan, under the leadership of Panasonic Corporation.

The town, named Fujisawa SST (SST stands for Sustainable Smart Town) had its grand opening last week, and completion of construction is expected by 2018. The stated goal is to create a smart growth community that can support sustainable development for at least 100 years. That's a pretty tall order in Japan, which has become known for its build 'em up, tear 'em down approach to housing.

Going by the artist rendering, Fujisawa doesn't impress much at first glance. Aside from the rooftop solar panels it looks more like an old school U.S. suburb rather than a cutting edge showcase for smart growth. However, when you peel back the skin you can find some interesting lessons for residential communities and other self-contained sites including office and industrial parks, school campuses, corporate campuses, and military facilities.

Smart Town, Smart Growth 101

Panasonic and its team have started off by identifying several basic priorities for sustainability: energy, security, mobility, healthcare and community.

Within these familiar themes, Fujisawa SST offers an interesting twist on smart growth.

Fujisawa SST is designed to leverage the community center theme to its fullest extent. Recast as self-described "landmark" named the Fujisawa SST SQUARE, this community center will offer familiar programming including crafts, cookery, educational events, and cultural events:

The aim is to make the combined site a place that will foster enriched lifestyles by maximizing its value to the people who gather there, including not only the town residents but also people living in the vicinity and visiting from elsewhere.

One thing that makes the SQUARE different from a traditional American-style community center is that it also doubles as the location of the town's governing body, the The Fujisawa SST Management Company.

That would be the company responsible for delivering on the aforementioned energy, security, mobility, healthcare and community services. In other words, the town is a planned community that has business built into its DNA. Furthering the business angle, the SQUARE also serves triple duty as a welcome center for visitors and a promotional showcase:

The SQUARE plays a pivotal role in promoting the town’s growth through its functions of managing the town, welcoming guests and fostering community.

A smart town that's too smart growthy for its own good...

At this point, some of you may be feeling a little Stepford Wivesy tingle go up your back. If you are familiar with Celebration, the New Urbanism community engineered by Disney that broke ground in Florida about 20 years ago, then you're excused.

While Celebration boasted some elements of smart growth before it was cool -- walkability and a strong dose of local community-building activities, for example -- it suffered after the 2008 economic crisis just like any other community, and it has always been eyed with suspicion in some quarters.

Here's a quick take from our friends over at Gizmodo:

...most of us can't shake the idea that behind those neocolonial shutters lurks something sinister, whether as simple as tax evasion or as truly nightmarish as a violent cult. In other words, Celebration is not only a victim of its own marketing, but a victim of a public that perceives planned communities as deeply creepy—which is how Celebration is described again and again.

...But not too smart for a good office park.

To be fair, no community is immune from hard times and human nature. Compared to Celebration, one significant smart growth attribute that Fujisawa SST has going for it is that it brings the community theme together with potentially sustainable employment opportunities.

Far from being a bedroom community, Fujisawa SST is an ambitious attempt to create a community of brainstormers who live and breathe innovation. In addition to housing, part of the land will be set aside for use by Panasonic and its partners for this (breaks added):

...the new venue will be used as a place to generate new innovations, validating next-generation mobility for the practical use and verifying next-generation lifestyles with show homes. By using the state-of-the-art equipment and services that take shape here to create future towns, Fujisawa SST Council will pick up the pace of its efforts to realize the Fujisawa model, a town that can develop sustainably for 100 years.

As far as housing goes, the creep factor could work against the Fujisawa SST concept in the U.S., but in more general terms it does indicate a sustainable pathway for office parks, industrial parks, and other commercial facilities along with academic institutions, military bases, and other government or nonprofit campuses.

The SQUARE, for example, could translate into a lifelong learning, wellness, and career development center as well as a site for events that help to foster community in the workplace.

The main idea would be to enhance employee performance and reduce turnover. In addition, the center could serve as a clearinghouse that helps employees access the information they need to make sustainable choices at work, and at home.

Some of those elements are already at work in individual, forward-thinking U.S. companies. The challenge would be to make that happen in a commercial park inhabited by different businesses.

One way forward is illustrated by the Philadelphia Navy Yard, which has been repurposed as a sustainable business community in support of the city's green branding initiatives.

Panasonic isn't the first company to try its hand at creating a sustainable corporate community -- SAP's sustainable campus in Bangalore comes to mind, and U.S. military bases provide another interesting example -- but Fujisawa SST is definitely on track to take it to the next level.

Image: Courtesy of Panasonic.

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