In recent years, there is a renewed awareness regarding the seriousness of the impact of human activities on local and global environments. It is our responsibility to preserve a healthy environment and pass it on to the next generation. To do so, we must create a sustainable society which does not burden the environment but is comfortable for people to live in. In order to create such a new society, we need a new system of study which includes various environment-related fields and comprehensive environmental specialists who have a deep insight into the environment and the ability to plan and implement concrete environmental policies. The establishment of such a system and the development of these specialists are now tasks of pressing urgency.

The Department of Environmental Science and Technology of the Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Science and Engineering was created in 1998 to take over the initiative in tackling these issues from its predecessor, the Department of Environmental Physics and Engineering. At present, teaching staff with diverse areas of expertise, such as physical science, engineering, and social science, collaborate and carry out research activities for creating a new environmentology and new educational activities for the cultivation of comprehensive environmental specialists in an interdisciplinary atmosphere.