Winners in GlobalFOCUS essay competition: Round two

It is already the second round of winners from Sweden in the essay competition that GlobalFOCUS started a year ago. Four great winners: Cherie Pik Yee Ho and Liv Eriksson for an essay about Venture Cap and Clean-Tech. Emma Palmgren och Jorge Luis Zapico for an essay about sustainable urban ICT solutions.

As part of the Jury this was our motivation:

1.Closing the Gap”, by Liv Eriksson and Cherie Ho
In a world in urgent need of new business solutions “Closing the Gap”, by Liv Eriksson and Cherie Ho is a welcome and important contribution. With focus on what the planet needs and the market can deliver, given the right framework, the authors use a methodology that focus on practical solutions and possible ways forward for further research in one of the most important issues today: The need for rapid growth of clean-tech companies.

The need to ensure that the definition of "clean-tech" make sense in the countries that will use them is made clear, something that is often forgotten in OECD countries only looking for export opportunities. The global and action oriented perspective, including the needs in the emerging markets, is taken for granted in a way that should be an example for business students all over the world these days.

2. “Multimedia applications for a sustainable urban lifestyle” by Emma Palmgren and Jorge Luis Zapico
With rapid technological development, basically all of the future population growth taking place in cities, and about 70% of the CO2 emissions from urban areas the intersection between these issues needs much more attention in society. “Multimedia applications for a sustainable urban lifestyle” by Emma Palmgren and Jorge Luis Zapico provides a much needed contribution to the discussions about technology, lifestyles and climate change. The authors provide a sober and challenging assessment of the significant potential of information and communication technologies (ICT) based on real needs and existing opportunities.

With inspiring discussions about the potential in Latin America and China the authors have provided an excellent and much needed opportunity for students (but also business and governments), especially in Latin America and China, who want to continue to explore the role of ICT in sustainable urban development.

In a few years maybe we will see these winners delivering results on a global level…

Retailing and transportation in the 21st century

Working with IKEA and after discussion with a number of leading thinkers in the field we have now developed an approach for how retailers can approach the transport challenge. The approach is divided into three parts:

1. Traditional responsibility
For an estimation of the amount of CO₂ the company is responsible for under when we assume a traditional responsibility three things are calculated. First the number of customers, second the kind of transportation mode they have chosen and third the distance they have travelled are added. This estimation provides the company with a rough estimation of how important costumer transportation is compared to other parts of the business by providing a snapshot of the current situation. This methodology is used by most established systems.

2. Shared responsibility
A shared responsibility is based on the assumption that companies should share the responsibility for the CO₂ from transportation of customers if they tend to visit more than one store on their trips. This gives a better understanding of what actors that needs to be involved and how costs can be shared.

For an estimation of a shared responsibility for CO₂ from customer transportation the amount of CO₂ from a normal scenario is divided by the number of stops that a customer makes.

3. Trend setting responsibility
A transport system is nothing that is given once and for all, it is constantly changing depending on investments and transport patterns evolve due to for example the establishment of stores. The trend setting approach is based on the assumption that companies can contribute to different kind of trends.

The emission trends supported over time due to the establishing of stores, or other ways of selling, result in investments in supportive infrastructure, action by other companies, marketing, etc. When these trend setting activities over time result in reduced emissions this is called “low-carbon dynamic feedback” and if it results in increased emissions this is called “high-carbon dynamic feedback”.

We will now develop this approach further and hope to produce a paper that can be circulated in May.

Rice and water with some oil - top economic news

Participated in an event in Barcelona this Thursday arranged by CIES about the use if IT in the food retail sector to support a sustainable development. The possibility for the food industry to take a more proactive role in the climate/energy debate are fantastic and I’m a little more optimistic after the conference than before, but so far no clear entry point for me in the field.

The basic logic is simple, we all need food and instead of pushing unhealthy and low quality products they could focus their energy on transforming the retailing sector into a leading force in the transition towards a low carbon society. If for no other reasons they should explore this as they run the risk of being hit by random policies aiming at energy security and other measures link to issues that that the food retail industry today do not engage in. By engaging in resource efficiency, equity and climate change the sector could bring quality back and be a centre for solution based approaches.

At the same time it is difficult to see how this would be possible as the business is very decentralized compared to many other sectors, but this is a challenge that can be dealt with.

Reading FT on the airport it felt like campaigning material for the food sector to begin their proactive work. Record high rice prices and new all time high for oil (US$112) on the first page and then Barcelona’s water crisis on page three.

Having the three things at the same time, and especially rice, a staple food for about 3 billion people, is so symbolic that it gives me hope that even cynical decision makers will wake up and start thinking about real solutions, not symbolic green washing that only provide incremental changes in a situation where real change is needed. Also it might make people with a simple neoliberal trade agenda, including the World Bank, to be more careful with their recommendations.

Gartner Symposium in Las Vegas

A few months work and we now finally have a working tool and the first round of companies. I look forward to put this together in a report (will happen after the Gartner Symposium in Barcelona mid May)....

I'm leaving on an early flight for Barcelona tomorrow and hope to get some work done.

UPDATE 24 APRIL: Here is a background document based on the presentation in Las Vegas.

The different shades of life and death

I almost always have good and very different conversations in San Francisco. This time I had discussions ranging from a late night conversation with Simon Mulcahy and Joanna Gordon from WEF about practical next steps in the global ICT work the optimal structure for a Nanotech project with Eric Drexler and Rosa Wang (and especially the opportunities for nanotech in China and India).

Also had the time to read Darkness Visible by William Styron. Interesting and very short book about the inner darkness sometime called depression (a word Styron has a lot to say about).