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Sustain Sci (2008) 3:241–247 DOI 10.1007/s11625-008-0054-0 TECHNICAL REPORT Urban horticulture: its significance to environmental conservation Katsumi Ohyama Æ Michiko Takagaki Æ Hidefumi Kurasaka Received: 30 January 2008 / Accepted: 4 June 2008 / Published online: 13 August 2008 Integrated Research System for Sustainability Science and Springer 2008 Abstract Urban horticulture, defined as plant production Introduction activities that are conducted in a city or suburb that pro- duce horticultural plants that are wholly or partially edible, Following plant production in agriculture and horticulture, and which are economically viable, has the potential to the produce (e.g., vegetables, fruits, etc.) is transported reduce CO2 emissions caused by the transportation of to areas where it will be consumed. In the transportation produce. Moreover, to increase productivity in limited process, fossil fuels (e.g., gasoline, light oil, liquefied areas and use limited resources effectively, closed or semi- natural gas, etc.) are consumed, resulting in the emission of closed systems (i.e., greenhouses) are considered more CO2 gas, which is a major cause of global warming. advantageous than open systems (i.e., fields) from which In Japan, as elsewhere, there is increasing concern about resources can easily escape into the surrounding environ- global warming, particularly CO2 gas emissions. There are ment. In this paper the significance of urban horticulture in two reasons for this. First, after the production sector, the reducing CO2 emissions in the transportation process is transportation sector is currently Japan’s second largest discussed with reference to simple case studies. In the emitter of CO2 gas. In