The Power of Sustainable Technology: Transforming Industries and Building a Greener Future
With the ever-increasing danger of a catastrophe that lies ahead of us in the form of a global environmental change, there have been rising concerns for economic and environmental development all around the globe. Several international organizations have made it their only goal to attain digital and sustainable transformation in parallel, the challenges of which are familiar to everyone. Initiatives like green structural transformation, sustainable transformation, green growth, and green industrial policy from UNEP have been more powerful now than ever. It’s become imperative to understand the importance and power of sustainable development, to create a better today and a better future.
In this blog, we highlight
- How do we define sustainable development
- The importance of sustainable development in emerging and established businesses — Stages of sustainable development
- Taking Digital Transformation in parallel with sustainable development — Case Study: Smart Cities
How do we define Sustainable Development?
The world was introduced to the concept of sustainable development way back in 1987 by the Brundtland Commission Report. It was first defined as the development conducted to meet the needs of the present without creating a need to worry about or compromise the needs of future generations. In simple terms, it comprises using natural resources to enhance economic and social progress without impacting the future negatively.
Businesses have been facing a hard time turning this thought into reality. The dedicated methodology and managerial measures that need to be adapted to based on a particular business model require years and years of experience and investments. Even then, there are times when either one of the environmental or economic aspects of a business is affected.
Keeping up and defining sustainable development has been all the harder in the last few years. The challenges brought into the world with the onset of the Covid pandemic — have shown the planet that it is essential to consider lower energy consumption and reduced carbon emission for a sustainable future.
What are the stages of Sustainable Development?
Sustainable development exists in three stages for almost all businesses: substitution, prevention, and efficiency. From transitioning to biodegradable components of sustainable technology in manufacturing to making the system a powerhouse of energy and resource consumption efficiency. Additionally, businesses must understand the need to reduce any deuteriation, contamination, and other detrimental environmental impacts of their actions. These stages may only sometimes occur in chronological order for each company. However, it’s crucial to cover all three to have an overall strategy for sustainable development.
Importance of Sustainable Development
Having heard about the importance of sustainable development multiple times, we must pay attention to who we want to empower while adopting a new strategy. The power of sustainable technology promises to transform industries and leave the planet with an optimal capacity for the next generation to conduct their fundamental activities. This means building a better and greener future without compromising its economic progress.
How are emerging and established businesses benefitted from the technology for Sustainable Development?
Businesses have become more agile now than they ever were. Especially because of the global economic instability and industrial uncertainty, it might be more important to be flexible, easy-going, yet powerful in your approach. A few strategies that you can start with are:
a. Reduce risk and improve project outcomes without causing environmental damage.
b. Boost revenue by including sustainable technology in your business model.
c. Recruit and maintain exceptional employees who understand sustainable development and are on the same page.
It would be best if you had the right guidance from the best business transformation consultants to understand the potential of sustainable technology to transform your business.
Taking Digital Transformation in parallel with Sustainable Development
Including sustainable technology in your business model can be riskier than it might seem, but it promises to redefine Sustainable Development with digital transformation. There may be increasing upfront costs associated with building a greener infrastructure, using green resources, and putting them on long-term lifecycle costs. Apart from the risks, the strategy to focus on long-term plans must also shift.
- Increase Equipment Lifecycle: About 80% of a product’s impact on the environment is determined during its design stage. Since most of the changes you make in the manufacturing stage, you must include greener approaches to increase your equipment lifecycle.
- Saving by Leveraging All the Floorspace: Along with your equipment, make sure you leverage all the floorspace of your office building to make it more of a green, more profitable environment.
- Smart Energy: Businesses need to start using greener forms of energy daily, no matter what part of the world they are in. Especially for developing countries like China and India, vulnerable to climate instability, it is all the more important for them to design green industry policies and focus long-term on their strategies.
- Employing Innovative and Sustainable Water Techniques: Water has become a major resource in workplaces. With an increasing number of people working for you, the need and wastage of water as a resource might also vary — creating an overall negative impact on the environment.
- Promote Policy Integration: Just like the people that work for you, you need to place operational policies for different sections of your organization. Include sustainable methods and modes of operation wherever possible.
Uses of Sustainable Technology: How far along are we?
According to the World Economic Forum, the commitments to sustainable energy by 2030 will only reduce about 7.5% of gas emissions. Even the highest emitting energy materials and mobility sectors can reduce their emissions by up to 20%, ensuring that each one adapts to digital technologies.
The adaptation of digital transformation and AI paves the way for immersive experiences that allow people to visit a scenic environment or a historic monument without the need to travel across the globe or look forward to consultations that were never in their vicinity. It’s possible to regenerate products with a sustainable design approach and decarbonize supply chains.
Moreover, AI can be used to protect ocean biodiversity or track spatial data to monitor the impact of droughts on forests. Data, Cloud, Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G, and Edge computing can transform our economies and society. Sustainable technology brings in more profitability and more agility in the fundamental way of its operations, manufacturing, and more.
To do more and better with less is why we need more intelligent, more sustainable, and more resilient solutions. The carbon pricing, and use of bio-based products as biopesticides in biopharmaceuticals, green building materials, bioenergy, and biofuels, are essential for world economies’ green recovery. Businesses throughout ensure to include green and minimal resources to conduct their operations.
Measures by businesses for Sustainable Development:
The last few years have been flexible yet progressive for businesses around the globe. Several strategies have been placed on developing greener solutions for industries, keeping sustainable development their top priority. One such strategy is the Green New Deal, wherein businesses develop alternate solutions to incorporate sustainable development into their strategy.
More strategies for sustainable development that revolve around the same include:
a. Global COP26 impact
- It was an initiative by the industry that left a positive mark on climate change plans and commitments worldwide
- More than 20 nations and financial organizations promised to be a part of the strategy, which aimed at different areas of sustainability. They aimed to stop any funding of overseas fossil fuels development activities.
b. Compulsory Climate Transparency For Businesses
- EPA provides a great range of tools for businesses with reduced emissions, including GHG emission calculators and inventory management plans that are critical to climate transparency for businesses.
c. Impact Investing
- Another possible business strategy businesses can adopt is to invest with an impact. This is an effective way of earning a profit while helping to support companies with positive environmental goals.
Case Study: Smart Cities
Let us take smart cities, for example. Sustainable development is hard for any industry, which is where digital transformation comes into the picture. With the introduction of smart cities, transport, energy consumption, healthcare, and transport became easier. Intelligent safety management systems for subways and railways have significantly reduced chaos, theft, and the possibility of crime. The traceability of traffic/cargo also became
easier, leaving almost no carbon print on the environment. So, a win-win for everyone. Contact our business transformation consultants today to learn how we can help you transform your business while keeping sustainability our top priority.
