Woonerf Inc.

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About Us

Woonerf Philosophy

Philosophy

We aim to build a just, sustainable, and economically prosperous society by enhancing the physical and mental health of our staff, families, and communities through our corporate culture that values diversity.

Origin of the Company Name

Postwar Japan sought to be economically efficient by building straight roads for automobiles to travel faster. The firm belief sustained that extra time created by improving efficiency would enrich people's lives and grow the economy. However, this was not the case. Instead, the expectation of spare time resulting in increased productivity and quantity and the demand for further economic growth has created a stress-filled society.

In the distant past, Lao Tzu quotes, "By nature, the road is undulating." Strolling along a winding path, rather than running in a straight line, allows one to see what was not visible before and sparks new ideas. Walking, in its essence, is thinking.

Today, advanced cities worldwide that aim for sustainability are accelerating the shift from a car-centric city to a more compact people-centric one. This is enabled by creating walkable spaces, bicycle paths, and slow mobility like streetcars. Behind this trend lies the prediction; the transformation from car-centric to people-centric will be as drastic as the transformation from horses and carriages to automobiles and their corresponding eras. We believed that this drastic change would occur in Japan as well.

A shift from concrete-based gray infrastructure to green infrastructure is necessary to transform our cities to be sustainable and compact. We need to introduce a biophilic design that recreates nature in an overly inorganic urban environment, enhances physical and mental health well-being, and builds a connected local community rooted in social equity and justice.

We want to encourage the creation of people-centric spaces and restructure urban environments through consultations for international certifications and broader comprehensive sustainability consulting services. Hence the company was named Woonerf, meaning people-centric street (original meaning: Garden of Life), a concept that originated in Delft, the Netherlands.

Origin of “Woonerf”
Gas Works Park, Seattle
Origin of “Woonerf”
Central Park, New York

Company Overview

Trade name
Woonerf Inc.
Members
President: Hiroki Hiramatsu
Board of Directors: Nobuaki Koyama, Noriko Nagazumi
Number of employees
45(as of July 2024)
Capital
72 million yen
Location

Tokyo Office
N-cross KUDAN 2F, 4-3-26,
Kudan-kita
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0073
Google Map

Osaka Office
WeWork Midosuji Frontier 5F,
1-13-22, Sonezakishinchi, Kita-ku
Osaka-shi, Osaka 530-0002
Google Map

Hamanako Satellite Office
2F 760-2,Washizu
Kosai-shi, Shizuoka 431-0431
Google Map

Contact
Please send your inquiry from the Contact page of this website.
Phone/FAX
PHONE / 03-5213-4832
FAX / 03-5213-4451
Date of Establishment
April 3, 2006
Our Business
  1. Certification Consulting (LEED, WELL, SITES, TRUE, BREEAM, Fitwel, Living Building Challenge, Just)
  2. Sustainability Consulting
    • ESG Assessments
    • Engineering and Technical Solutions (LCA, Energy Analysis, etc.)
  3. Research&Advisory

Affiliated Company

Name
Arc Japan Inc.
Date of Establishment
February 1, 2021
Business Outline
  1. To promote using a platform (Arc) for measuring real estate operations and ESG performance.
  2. Aggregate, analyze, and process data relating to real estate operations and ESG, and provide benchmarking services based on the data accumulated and other related services.

Members

Founder & CEO of Woonerf Inc.
CEO of Arc Japan Inc.

LEED® Fellow, USGBC®Faculty
LEED AP® BD+C, ND
First-Class Landscape Work Engineer
CASBEE AP Real Estate

Hiroki Hiramatsu
Profile

1961 Born in Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture
1984 Graduated from Osaka University of Foreign Studies, Bachelor of Foreign Studies
Hiroki established Woonerf Inc. (Former company name: CSR Design & Landscape Design Office) in 2006 as a social entrepreneur after working for securities firms in Japan and the U.S. and for an environmental NPO. Since his establishment, he has worked to promote sustainable landscaping and green building through cross-functional partnerships with private companies, financial institutions, and public sectors, intending to create a framework for developing a sustainable urban environment.

Notable Writings and Lectures

Contributed articles to various academic journals such as urban planning, architecture, landscape architecture, civil engineering, etc., and has written and lectured extensively in professional journals and newspapers on topics such as environmental real estate and ESG investment.

Notable Works

“Olmsted, The Man Who Created the Central Park -The value of public space revealed over time”
(Published by Gakugei Shuppansha, December 2022)

Executive Director of Woonerf Inc.
Representative of the Osaka Office

LEED AP® ID+C
WELL AP
US Certified Public Accountant
Auditor, Green Building Japan (GBJ)

Nobuaki Koyama
Profile

1963 Born in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture
1988 Graduated from Meiji University, Bachelor of Political Science and Economics
Nobuaki joined the Tokyo branch of Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company after graduating from college. He then worked for the company's London office, the Tokyo branch of Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., and others prior to joining Woonerf Inc. He was appointed as a board member in 2011. He oversees LEED ID+C, WELL, commissioning and engineering. Winner of the 2024 WELL AP AWARD.

Recent Writings and Lectures

August 2022
Journal of the Society of Heating, Air-Conditioning and Sanitary Engineers of Japan, August 2022, Vol. 96, No. 8. Special Feature: Green Building - Environmental Evaluation Benchmarks and Latest Case Studies - LEED Certification and others.
A jury member of the JIA Environmental Architecture Award (2022-)
September 2022
Technical Research Group, Japan Federation of Construction Contactors
“Current Status of WELL Certification in Japan”

Executive Director & COO of Woonerf Inc.
LEED® Fellow
LEED AP® BD+C, ND

Noriko Nagazumi
Profile

1969 Born in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
1992 Graduated from Tokyo Institute of Technology, Bachelor of Science
Noriko is a founding member of Woonerf Inc. She was appointed as a board member in 2011 and has been a LEED AP® since 2008 and a LEED® Fellow since 2018. She oversees the LEED BD+C certification system consulting for the new construction and LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) .

Notable Writings, Lectures, Committee Members, etc.

Journal of the Society of Heating, Air-Conditioning and Sanitary Engineers of Japan, August 2022, Vol. 96, No. 8. Special Feature: Green Building - Environmental Evaluation Benchmarks and Latest Case Studies - "LEED Certification" and others.
A jury member of the JIA Environmental Architecture Award (2022-)

Executive Director & CIO of Woonerf Inc.
LEED AP® (BD+C: New Construction)

Toru Tanaka
Profile

1986 Born in Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture
2012 Completed Graduate School of Engineering, Kobe University, Department of Architecture, Architectural History Laboratory

After completing graduate school, Toru worked for a real estate company, mainly in the planning and design of multi-family housing and office buildings. In 2013, he joined Woonerf Inc. He has been working as a project manager, mainly consulting projects pursuing LEED BD+C and O+M certifications. He was appointed as a board member in 2023.

Executive Director & & CHRO of Woonerf Inc.
Ph. D. in Policy and Planning Sciences
LEED AP® ND
SITES® AP
Arborist
Registered Landscape Architect

Yuki Tada
Profile

1986 Born in Katori City, Chiba Prefecture 2011 M.S. in Environmental Sciences, Graduate school of science and technology, University of Tsukuba
After the completion of the master's degree, Yuki had worked in an architectural design firm in Japan, mainly involved in landscape design and supervision. He joined Woonerf in 2016, and had been consulting a number of projects pursuing LEED ND and SITES® certifications as a project manager. While working at Woonerf, he completed a Ph.D. program in the graduate school of science and technology, University of Tsukuba in 2022. He was appointed as a board member in 2023.

Notable Writings, Lectures, Committee Members, etc.

Author of "Overview of International Environmental Certification Systems: SITES® and LEED ND" published in Journal of the Japanese Institute of Landscape Architecture, Volume 82, Issue 4
Presenter at Green Infrastructure Public-Private Partnership Platform Online Seminar in November 2020 on "Overview of the Latest Trends in Sustainable Certification for Buildings and Cities / Sustainability Initiatives at TOKYO TORCH Tokiwabashi Tower”
Presenter at the 70th GBJ Seminar in August 2022 on "Introduction, Case Studies, and Prospects of SITES®, a Landscape Rating System,"
Editorial Committee member of the Japanese Institute of Landscape Architecture from 2017 to 2021.

Managing Director & LEED BD+C Head of Woonerf Inc.
LEED AP® (BD+C, O+M, ND)
WELL AP, WELL Faculty

Dionisio Franca
Profile

1978 Born in Brasilia, Brazil.
2002 Graduated from the University of Brasilia as an architect and urban planner.
2006 Graduated with a master’s degree in architecture from the Nagoya Institute of Technology
Worked with architectural production design, construction management, and real estate engineering reports. Has been working with different building types and certification systems at Woonerf since 2012.

Notable Writings, Lectures, Committee Members, etc.

2017 GBJ Seminar 36 -WELL Basic - WELL Building Standard®
2019 GBJ Seminar 47, Introduction to Green Building
2021 IWBI WELL Faculty Award

CFO of Woonerf Inc.
Certified Public Accountant, Certified Public Tax Accountant

Dionisio Franca
Profile

1969 Born in Ueda City, Nagano Prefecture
1994 Graduated from the University of Tokyo, Faculty of Economics Hitoshi joined Asahi & Co (currently KPMG AZSA LLC), where he was engaged in auditing financial statements of listed companies, etc. In 1998, he joined Cargill Japan Limited and was engaged in debt, real estate investment business, etc. In 2013, he joined J-Will Partners Co., Ltd. and was engaged in investor services. In 2023, he started a management consulting business. In June 2023, he became a non-executive auditor of Woonerf Inc. In April 2024, he became CFO of the company.