Is tech the solution to the climate crisis?
To say sustainability is in the zeitgeist of this century is an understatement. The rise of the climate crisis into the mainstream of communication and politics has seen both positive and negative outcomes. Like many things, we’ve seen tech companies boom to move with this new trend and movement. We’ve seen pioneering advancements in renewable energy, electric cars, infrastructure and clothing advance faster than ever before, as the consumer demands a more green presence. But, are these consumer driven changes enough?
So what is sustainability?
The word sustainability gets thrown around quite a lot, and can be used in many different instances. The Cambridge Dictionary defines it as ‘the quality of being able to continue over a long period of time’. We can use this term to describe areas like finances, the environment, employee well-being and staff turnover. We see it most commonly used to describe environmental sustainability.
Sustainability and tech
It’s no surprise then, with the increasing popularity of environmentally sustainable choices and options requested by consumers and governments, that companies and products begin to boom to support this demand. This also helps increase investor potential, as increasing consumer demands help drive up the potential for a product to be successful.
With President Joe Biden taking office in the US, he’s converting the entire fleet of federal government vehicles to an electric vehicle alternative, and investing over USD$300 billion in tech growth and investment. Even companies who make their money from oil-based initiatives are embracing the new world of electricity. Shell has just bought the electric charging station company, Ubitricity to add in electric charging stations to their existing fuel stations and existing city infrastructure throughout Europe.
Drivers of sustainability changes
So, what drives sustainable development and massive changes like the ones we’ve seen above? Well there’s a few elements of social psychology that ring true for any major cultural shift. Some of the biggest changes to our culture come from three key motivators: financial, social, and customer-driven.
Social motivations come from social pressure, both to actively change practices and to keep up with the culture. As environmental sustainability has become more popular, it’s seen as a given that your organisation is doing something to help work against the climate crisis.
We have seen some changes that align with a hybrid of these three. One of these we would include is the decision for a mining company in Orange, NSW to convert their existing mining vehicles to an electric model. This is new technology that is coming out of the Netherlands and this is one of the first instances where it has been used here in Australia. Some might argue that it’s not enough — it’s still a mining company. Others might be less cynical and say that it is a step in the right direction. At this point, it’s too early to see where this will lead this company, and what the future of it looks like.
How can we level the playing field?
As of now, there is no global consensus on what makes a company environmentally sustainable or not. There are various attempts at this, such as the B Corporation program and NASDAQ’s own Sustainability Indices program — plus many others that are country or industry specific. Because there are so many things that can go into sustainability and consumers also have their own opinions on what would constitute something as sustainable or not, it can be tricky to level out. There’s also the fact of whether the varying levels make them feel differently about the organisation or not.
We came across this tweet by Christian Hernandez which might be the solution to this problem:
Now, it is a very ambitious idea as the current carbon emissions rate is 34 gigaton a year! Christian agrees that it is probably more realistic to set a goal that is around the metric tonne mark, but we agree with his ambitious thinking. Imagine if there was a term just as highly sought after, like unicorn, but for the environment? Becoming a ‘gigacorn’ is the absolute goal for any startup founder. Conferences are held on the topic, venture capitalists step in and make it their goal to find the most gigcorns in SIlicon Valley for the year.
We’ve seen such a major shift in the world of computing in the last 100 years alone, and all of the new industries it has created, and the jobs it has taken over. We don’t think it’s ambitious at all to say that, within the next 100, we could see a gigacorn company (or two) in the marketplace, pioneering technology and ways of thinking that we have never considered before, invented by people who aren’t even born yet.
Originally published at https://www.hutsix.com.au on March 15, 2021.
