United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS), based in Japan, operates a place-based embedded research innovation unit. Four key areas guide research and capacity development and graduate education: governance for sustainable development, biodiversity & society, water & resource management and innovation & education. A key focus of educational activities at the university is the education of policy makers with an aim to expedite and make more effective the design and implementation sustainability policies. UNU-IAS puts their policy research into practice in a place-based research innovation unit located in Ishikawa/Kanazawa. Here, sustainability policy education is put into practice by shaping local and regional climate and biodiversity agendas, incorporating traditional Japanese knowledge on the relation between biodiversity and well-being, and the development of models of urban nature conservation which incorporate culture.