GX (Green Transformation) is a transformation that, with decarbonization at its core, enriches both human life and the planet. It is not simply about cutting emissions. Planting trees along a street, for example, softens rising temperatures, nurtures biodiversity, and brings benefits to both people and the Earth. The essence of GX lies in how these benefits to people and planet return in multiple layers — and, like compound interest, accumulate over time.
The essence of GX: returns that compound, for people and planet
The value GX creates is not limited to a single metric such as decarbonization. Add more greenery, for instance, and temperatures fall, ecosystems grow richer, and people’s health and comfort improve — one action generates several benefits at once, for people and the Earth alike. And those effects are not one-off: like interest, they compound over time. The benefits to people and planet are secondary yet multi-layered — this is the root of GX, and the decisive difference from merely meeting numbers.
For example: plant trees and reduce cars
Consider a concrete case. Line a street with trees and make it pedestrian-first, and at first glance it may look “inconvenient — cars can’t get through.” In reality, people start to walk and linger, and more of them stop by nearby shops and stay longer (a direct benefit: shop revenue). At the same time, traffic accidents fall sharply, exhaust decreases so the air grows cleaner, and the shade lowers temperatures. One choice generates multiple benefits spanning the economy, safety, environment and health — this is the GX mindset. This spread of fundamental benefits is invisible if you look only at numerical targets.
GX vs. SX vs. carbon neutrality
To understand GX, it helps to distinguish it from the terms it is often confused with.
Carbon neutrality is a destination: net-zero CO2 emissions. GX is the transformation process of getting there — redesigning energy, mobility, food, and greenery so that both people’s lives and the planet become richer along the way. Reaching net zero while making people’s lives poorer is not GX.
SX (Sustainability Transformation) places this transformation at the core of corporate management. Where GX focuses on cities and social systems, SX means transforming the business itself — how a company earns — into a sustainable form while remaining profitable. We explain this in detail in What Is Sustainability Management (SX)?
The gap with how GX is discussed in Japan
In Japan, GX tends to be framed as “introducing renewables” or “hitting emission-reduction numbers,” and this essence — enriching both people and planet in multiple layers — is not yet widely shared. When meeting standards becomes the goal, the far larger potential of GX — the power to enrich business, place, people and nature — is left on the table.
Why Europe’s GX is fundamental
Across the cities Build Vision B.V. has visited from its base in the Netherlands, the most advanced companies and cities redesign energy, food, transport and greenery not as separate silos but as a single system. They treat decarbonization not as a cost or a compliance issue, but as an opportunity to enrich people’s lives and regenerate the planet at the same time.
What is actually happening in European cities
Rather than staying abstract, here are cities we partner and engage with.
Helsinki (Finland): The home of our partner Helsinki Partners. In April 2025, the city’s last coal-fired power plant went offline, closing the book on the coal era. Weaving design and technology into how the city is run, Helsinki keeps raising quality of life and decarbonization together — a remarkable city at the very front line of European GX.
Lahti (Finland): The first Finnish city to be named European Green Capital (2021). It has phased out coal power and now recycles or converts to energy more than 99% of household waste. Remarkably, only a few decades ago this was a city so heavily polluted by industry that fish could not live in its lake — today, no trace of that past remains. A regional city of 120,000 people running far ahead of the national average proves that “we’re too small” is no excuse.
Copenhagen (Denmark): GX advances across public and private sectors around BLOXHUB, a hub that combines architecture, design, and technology to solve urban challenges. Bicycle-first mobility design and redevelopment work together, improving citizens’ health, air quality, and the economy at once — compounding returns in action. Just 30 years ago, Copenhagen was in a state hard to imagine today, suffering from industrial pollution and structural recession. For the full story, see The Copenhagen Way (BLOXHUB).
Amsterdam (Netherlands): Our home base, where AMS Institute tackles urban challenges. This is also the soil where the “material passport” concept (pioneered by Thomas Rau) took root — giving building materials an identity so they become future resources — making Amsterdam one of the most advanced cities in circular-economy implementation.
Strengths that Japanese companies rarely have
Build Vision B.V.’s distinctive edge is being directly connected to European and Nordic cities where GX is genuinely advancing. For example, the City of Helsinki (Helsinki Partners) and the City of Lahti (LADEC) are our partner organizations. Lahti was the first Finnish city named European Green Capital (2021): it has phased out coal power and recycles over 99% of household waste, running at the very front of GX. We also have a close relationship with Copenhagen, Denmark — a recognized GX frontrunner — through BLOXHUB and others, and in our home city of Amsterdam we work with the research institute AMS Institute (Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions). These connections give us first-hand information and practical knowledge you cannot reach from Japan.
Beyond that, we bring advanced ideas still little known in Japan into our GX practice. One is the “material passport” — giving every material used in buildings and products an identity, and thereby value. “Waste is material without an identity”: by treating materials not as waste but as future resources, it realizes a circular economy. We draw on the thinking of Dutch architect Thomas Rau (RAU Architects), who advocates this concept, staying in dialogue with him personally, and adapt this scheme — which does not yet exist in Japan — to the Japanese context.
Partnerships with Europe’s leading cities, and the implementation of advanced ideas — these are features still rare among Japanese companies, and a real advantage for organizations that want to pursue GX from its essence rather than as a numbers exercise.
How Japanese companies can pursue GX
To keep GX from ending as “compliance to meet numbers,” you need the perspective of asking what value your business returns to people and planet. Build Vision B.V., grounded in first-hand information from Europe, designs and accompanies fundamental GX/SX (Sustainability Transformation) — not mere metric-chasing — together with companies and local governments.
Talk to us about GX / SX
If you would like to think through how to advance your own GX, drawing on European sustainability trends and real GX examples, please get in touch.
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
Q. What is the difference between GX and carbon neutrality?
Carbon neutrality is a destination — net-zero CO2 emissions. GX is the transformation toward it: redesigning energy, mobility, food, and greenery so that both people and the planet become richer. The essence of GX is generating layered benefits such as quality of life and biodiversity, not just hitting a number.
Q. Why is Europe ahead on GX?
Leading European cities treat decarbonization not as a cost or compliance issue but as an opportunity to raise quality of life and regenerate the planet at the same time, redesigning energy, food, mobility, and greenery as one system. Lahti’s coal exit and 99% waste recovery, and Copenhagen’s public-private collaboration around BLOXHUB, are representative examples.
Q. Can smaller companies and regional governments pursue GX?
Yes. In fact, the cities leading Europe’s GX have populations of roughly 100,000 to 600,000. What matters is not scale but asking what value your business or region can return to people and the planet, and starting with one measure that produces layered benefits.
Q. Where should we start with GX?
Start not from numerical targets but from a review of your business or region through the lens of value returned to people and the planet. Then design measures that fit your context, referencing first-hand European insight — what actually works on the ground and what has failed. Build Vision B.V. provides hands-on support based on the knowledge of our partner cities and institutions in Europe.
Related articles
- What Is Sustainability Management (SX)?
- What Is a Regenerative City?
- What European Cities Leading on GX Have in Common
- Contact Build Vision B.V.
About the author
Kazumitsu Yoshida — CEO / Creative Director, Build Vision B.V.
Based in the Netherlands, Kazumitsu founded and leads Build Vision B.V., a creative consulting firm connecting Japan and Europe. Drawing on 10+ years living in Europe and partnerships with municipalities and companies across Europe and the Nordics, he works across urban development, food, energy and the environment on a wide range of sustainability projects. He specializes in fundamental sustainable management and supporting the GX/SX of companies and local governments. Founder of Regenerative Community Tokyo.
