Tokyo Gas to build zero-carbon town near city’s new fish market

TOKYO Gas Co. will embark on a large-scale redevelopment of land it owns near the city’s new fish market, in a bid to create a town with virtually zero carbon dioxide emissions.

The company will spend tens of billions of yen to make Shin-Toyosu a “circular future city” that captures and reuses carbon emitted from electricity and heat supply, said Takashi Anamizu, president of the utility’s real estate unit. It will formulate a plan in the current fiscal year.

The area — encompassing about 200,000 square meters (2.2 million square feet) adjacent to Toyosu Market — will be developed in phases, with offices, commercial facilities and residences. The first stage is expected to be completed around 2030.

Environmental considerations are becoming more important in real estate development. There is a growing trend to decarbonize the power supply of buildings by installing features including solar panels, energy-saving equipment and storage batteries. According to Tokyo Gas, this will be the first time in Japan that entire buildings, including the heat supply, will be decarbonized.

Anamizu aims to expand the Shin-Toyosu initiative to other areas. “We would like to take this one step further than a demonstration project and one step closer to practical application,” he said.

Shin-Toyosu used to house a plant of Tokyo Gas, which produced gas from coal, as well as a thermal power plant. With the relocation of the Tsukiji fish market, the company sold part of the former site and exchanged it for adjacent land owned by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, leading to its current ownership of the development area. — Bloomberg