Preface: Toward the new stage of EcoDesign

Summary form only given, as follows. Welcome to the "EcoDesign 2005: Forth International Symposium on Environmentally Conscious Design and Inverse Manufacturing!" This symposium is organized by the Union of EcoDesigners, Japan, under the unified subtitle "Going Green" that is commonly used among IEEE International Symposium on Electronics and the Environment, CARE/Electronics Goes Green, and EcoDesign. The aim of EcoDesign is to construct the sustainable society by developing and deploying various environmentally conscious societies, businesses, services, and products. As the forth symposium, EcoDesign 2005 holds up two special themes; "EcoDesign of social systems" and "EcoDesign in Asia." The former is based on our recognition that, while various EcoDesign activities progress, reaching the sustainability is still far away and even the path toward the sustainability lies deep in fog. Therefore, in addition to various EcoDesign activities, we need to orchestrate these EcoDesign activities toward EcoDesign of the sustainable social systems and to draw visions. "EcoDesign in Asia" reflects the current situation of rapid industrialization, expansion of markets, and increase of living standards in Asia. Directing Asia toward environmental conscious societies is one of the central issues of EcoDesign. In addition to these special themes, EcoDesign 2005 includes a variety of topics such as environmentally conscious design, business, social system, infrastructure and life cycle management. The symposium consists of plenary sessions of eminent speakers and a lot of presentations related to one or more aspects of these topics; practice, theory, strategy, and enabling technology, from not only technical viewpoints, but also social, legal, economic, cultural viewpoints. We sincerely hope that EcoDesign 2005 becomes a good stimulation for discussing and exchanging ideas toward the new stage of EcoDesign among participants from various countries, various backgrounds, and various professions.