In 2019, the Cabinet Office selected the City of Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture as one of the “SDGs Future Cities" leading the municipal efforts to achieve the sustainable development goals in Japan.

On May 14, 2021, a unique-looking Coca-Cola vending machine appeared in Takiko Campus of Nagoya City University. It was a special vending machine installed by Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan that featured the “Protect the Oceans” visual wrapping designed by the students of this university.

On the day, a ceremony to unveil this vending machine was held in front of the key members of Nagoya City University (NCU) including the students in the Faculty of Humanities and Sociology who came up with the idea of this wrapping vending machine collaboration plan as one of their “NCU Global Justice Project” programs and CCBJI representatives consisting of the Head of Central Japan Area Sales and the local sales team members involved in this joint development activity.

■Embodying the shared vision to achieve the SDGs

On May 1 this year, Nagoya City University opened an in-house facility named "NCU SDGs Center". With an aim to promote the activities that contribute to the realization of SDGs, the university uses this center to send out SDGs-related information and promote the collaborative efforts to achieve the SDGs with external stakeholders.

"Let's Protect the Sea!” visual wrapping vending machine that Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan helped co-develop marks the first deliverable completed through a program run by the NCU SDGs Center. The vending machine features an illustration of the underwater world inhabited by a sea turtle and small fishes, and the message “Protect the Oceans!” written in Japanese.

This design was used in one of the programs planned in the "NCU Global Justice Project", a group formed by the students in the Faculty of Humanities and Sociology who won the Most Outstanding Award in "SDGs IDEA FORUM 2020", which was a project hosted by the City of Nagoya and Nagoya City University with an objective to promote the local activities to achieve the SDGs in Nagoya by solving the challenges identified specifically in this city with creative ideas contributed from the students in NCU.

The idea to develop the “Protect the Oceans!” wrapping vending machine materialized as a result of the alignment between the objective of this project aimed at making Nagoya a recycling-oriented city and the vision of Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan to realize a plastic recycling-oriented society.

NCU Global Justice Project members who led the wrapping vending machine joint development program and the representatives from Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan

■Comments on the installation of “Protect the Oceans!” wrapping vending machine

【NCU Global Justice Project members, Yuito Nakatani-san and Yuna Matsui-san (alumni)】

“We were deeply moved when we saw the real vending machine that we designed standing right in front of our eyes. We hope that this vending machine installation site would serve as an on-campus area for students to communicate about SDGs, using this vending machine as a symbolic landmark."

【Yamamoto, Vending Nagoya Higashi Branch, Central Japan Area Sales, CCBJI】

“The efforts to achieve the SDGs, I believe, should not only be in the form of initiatives carried out by organizations but should also be driven by individuals with a high awareness of these goals. I would like to continue supporting the students here by helping provide information related to SDGs and environmental issues through posters designed to be attached on the vending machine, an empty container collection box placed next to the machine and signboards set up nearby."