Building sustainability: Time to get smart

Government and business leaders don’t disagree much over the need to build a much more sustainable society. It’s the “hows” and “whens,” though, that are much less certain at the moment.

Some of the region’s top thinkers have been considering those questions during the IBM Start Summit with the theme, “Smarter Business for a Sustainable Future.” Running through Thursday, the summit — being held at London’s historic Lancaster House — is one of IBM’s largest yet in terms of the ideas being covered.

The goal of this year’s event: to encourage development of the big ideas for coming years, with industry and government coming together to find ways to build a sustainable future. Each day of the summit is tackling a different aspect of sustainability, from people and skills to energy. Day Two’s focus on energy, for example, aimed to clarify the “big picture” view of what lies ahead.

In the next 10 to 15 years, the UK faces some particularly vexing energy challenges. More than one third of coal, nuclear and gas plants are set to close, leaving a large energy gap … and it’s yet uncertain what will fill that. Speakers at the summit envisioned a mix of technologies offering a solution, with carbon capture and storage being one of the key contributors. Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar are also expected to help, so no one “fix-all” solution is expected to be found.

While the British government has been setting a lot of targets in terms of carbon emissions and electricity from renewable sources, there are no clear roadmaps yet for reaching those targets. Speakers at the summit agreed that a concerted effort must now be made to actually plan for what will happen by 2020, 2030 and beyond to 2050. And the answers will be found through collaboration between government and business leaders.

In the broader European outlook, another challenge will be to equip the continent with smart electricity meters and, eventually, create a “Super Smart Grid” for better efficiency and energy management. Achieving that will require cooperation among energy ministers across the EU.

Summit speakers agree the ideas they’re discussing must be accepted by the public to be fully implemented, and this requires change — something that doesn’t always go down well. The key will be persuading the public that this is the right thing to do … that a sustainable future depends upon collaboration and long-term planning, rather than the short-term decision-making that currently predominates in both business and government.

While many remain focused on reaching 2020 targets, that date is actually more of a stepping-stone, with 2050 being the real target for a fully sustainable system. If the UK can solidify its plans for getting there, it would likely see more foreign investment flowing in, as investors will have greater confidence in the nation’s future direction.

Beyond energy, other topics up for discussion during the remainder of the IBM summit this week include “Smarter Supply Chains for a Sustainable Future,” “Finance and Sustainability,” “Smarter Analytics for a Sustainable Future” and “Smarter Business for a Sustainable Future.”