“Today we are looking for one big silver bullet, but we don’t have one. We have 1000s of little solutions, little guns that can be fired in many different directions. We need to start with each solution and examine where and how it can be used. What needs to change, and where for these solutions to be implemented? We must recognise that there is not one solution that can be simply applied around the world.”
Dr. Bertrand Piccard
Major highlights
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Discover a new today for a better tomorrow
- The debate around sustainability is scattered with words such as innovation, creativity, disruption. It raises questions and demands answers, it seeks solutions and urges new ways of thinking. But despite decades of talk and transformative technological development, we are now at the sharp end of an environmental crisis that has been long in the making. What is holding us back from changing direction and finding a new path forward? Dr Bertrand Piccard, pioneer, explorer and renowned environmentalist, believes a shift in mindset is key to unlocking a new economic era and avoiding ecological disaster.
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Energy: more supply or greater efficiency?
- The war in Ukraine brought Europe’s dependency on Russian gas sharply into focus with leaders across the continent rushing to source new suppliers and in some cases, increasing coal production. But in the stampede for immediate solutions, the question of efficiency was overlooked. Would a more efficient use of our existing supplies deliver a significant drop in consumption? Yes. Seventy five percent of energy produced in the world is wasted due to inefficient infrastructures, light bulbs, computers, engines and pumps to name just a few. By acknowledging the scale of our energy inefficiency, the focus would then shift from producing more gas to finding ways to make better use of the gas we already have.
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Turn the narrative upside down
- From green parties, environmentalists, governments and campaigners there has been a single, simple message – in order to protect the environment to ensure our survival me must drastically limit our lifestyles and sacrifice economic growth. Not surprisingly, this is a highly unpopular message. Also, transitioning to a green economy is seen as jaw-droppingly expensive thus creating political challenges right across the spectrum. To be truly disruptive in the sustainability and ecology space we need a new narrative, one that turns previous thinking on its head. Ecology is not expensive, it is profitable. It does not threaten economic growth but will sustain it. Saving the planet could be a powerful economic driver, not a drag, for manufacturing and finance. If we reject the ‘old’ thinking built on consumption reduction and replace it with a clear focus on modernization, we can deliver a more positive, attractive and rewarding narrative.
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Reduce materials, reduce waste
- Following the success of the Solar Impulse adventure we immediately looked for a new challenge – remember, explorers are always seeking to push new boundaries, break down barriers. Flying alone high above vast oceans powered only by the sun is the perfect opportunity to empty your mind. To see a new perspective, to find a new way of thinking. No noise, no pollution, no fuel. It felt like an imagined future, but it was very much in the present using technology available today. At that point it became clear – this flight is the present, but the world is still living in the past. A new challenge emerged. How can we prove that profitable solutions exist today that can drive the energy and ecological change we need?
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A wide spectrum of renewables
- Too often renewables are seen solely as wind and solar. But hydroelectricity, geothermal and biogas from captured methane can all help power large global projects and small local initiatives. From big dams to little river turbines, geothermal drilling at 5,000 metres or 180 metres for heat pumps. If agricultural and food waste were used to make gas, that alone would serve about 20% of the world’s energy needs. We cannot continue to meet our construction needs as we have before, but we can take big steps to decarbonise the industry. Recycling concrete from demolitions, significant insulation, LED lamps and heat pumps, smart energy management. By reducing buildings’ energy bills consumers enjoy more disposable income.
