The Brief

Concrete is interesting right now!
Concrete that creates roads where electric cars and buses can be recharged while driving.
Resource-recycling concrete created by mixing plant resources such as waste wood and fallen leaves.
Concrete that can be manufactured on the moon's surface, using a catalyst to bond sand directly to each other without using adhesive ingredients.
New construction materials produced by crushing and thermo-compressing discarded fruits and vegetables, such as cabbage peels, iyokan peels, and onion peels.
Concrete is a construction material that is indispensable to our daily lives. Concrete, such a familiar and commonplace material, is now being reexamined as a material with new possibilities to contribute to global warming mitigation and global environmental protection. In addition, its superior fire resistance, sound insulation, heat resistance, and durability are expanding its use in concrete saunas, art, and interior design.
In this way, concrete is undergoing a period of evolution. As described above, we believe that we can build a new future by crossing concrete with various other things.
Magnetized particles x concrete (recharging and CO2 reduction)
Waste materials x concrete (realization of resource recycling)
Catalysts x concrete (elimination of raw material shortages)
Vegetables and fruits x concrete functions (elimination of food loss)
Entertainment x concrete function (wellbeing)
Let's multiply your various perspectives and search together for new possibilities that are not bound by existing concrete!

Category

【Better life & Wellbeing】
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The Background

Ueda Co., Ltd. was founded in Takikawa City in 1925, at the dawn of concrete products, starting with the production and sale of concrete products for irrigation ditches, and has since expanded its business with a focus on concrete products for roads, moving through the three eras of Taisho, Showa, and Heisei eras. In May 2019, we will launch Fuji Infrastructure Technologies, an overseas subsidiary in India, which will begin production of concrete products there in 2022. In Japan, we will expand our product lineup of "Ethical Concrete," which is designed to solve social issues such as carbon neutrality and global resource depletion, in addition to products with labor-saving, safety, and high durability performance. We have been selected as one of the "300 Small and Medium Enterprises" in 2021 (in the demand-generating manufacturing category), and we are aggressively developing products in the disaster prevention business and have started a new initiative to expand our business in the Asian region in the future. Toward 2025, the 100th anniversary of our founding, we aim to make further progress by continuing to change and grow in all business segments while keeping our focus on the concrete products business.

The Challenge

Concrete materials-cement, sand, gravel, and water-have long been used as key materials for infrastructure because they are cheap and easy to obtain in large quantities, and because they are "freely formable" and have a long life span in relation to building construction. It has been used for a long time as a major material for infrastructure because of its excellent earthquake resistance, fire resistance, sound insulation, heat resistance, and durability, as well as its versatility in terms of expression. We have contributed to the development of social infrastructure through the manufacture and sale of concrete products, and have realized safe and comfortable urban development by supporting the foundations of people's lives.
Recently, however, it has become indispensable to respond to the rapidly changing environment even for safe and comfortable urban development. For example, further evolution is required in terms of decarbonization and response to natural disasters. In this context, concrete using volcanic ash that reduces CO2 emissions during the manufacturing process has been developed, as well as concrete technology that absorbs CO2. In addition, the use of concrete for the exterior walls of a submarine restaurant in Norway is contributing to the protection of marine life by allowing bivalves and corals to attach to the concrete. We believe that there are areas where we can contribute, from the resolution of global macro-scale issues as represented by the 17 goals of the SDGs to micro-scale perspectives such as improving the quality of life in our daily lives.
Furthermore, we are also focusing on the development of dual-use products. Products with dual-use features, such as "normally, it can be used for ○○, but in times of emergency, it can be used in this way," are expected to play an active role in disaster management. Recently, portable stoves that do not require an electric power source have gained popularity because they can be used for fishing and camping as well as for disaster prevention. On the other hand, products designed for disaster prevention alone tend to be costly because they are not used on a daily basis, and products and systems that are activated only in the event of a disaster often fail to function in times of emergency.
Concrete is said to be the most widely used material next to water, but there are still many challenges that can be taken on for the future. We believe that the way to realize sustainable urban development will be born from a combination of flexible ideas. We would like to find a new place where concrete can play an active role that has not been the image of concrete up to now. Let's work together to find a new stage where concrete can be useful.

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