What sustainability trends are you exploring?

There are some technologies reaching mass market scale right now that are very power-hungry, such as machine learning and in particular large language models like ChatGPT. Training an AI model can have the same carbon footprint as 300 (!) round trips between NYC and San Francisco, and a ChatGPT query is about 10x as costly (= resource intensive) as a regular search engine query. This needs to be factored into when assessing the footprint of AI-aided design or bots that aid collaboration.

Much too often I have been in conversations where when we talk about Sustainability the topic is vented on Environment. Well E is just part of the whole ESG paradigm and I strongly believed S and G play an equally important role. If the business is able to drive social impact while managing its key stakeholders and generate returns it will stand out compared to pets that may be doing equally well on returns but lack social impact. This business in essence will drive a ESG premium. Investing top investors around the world are demanding more ESG focused investments. Importance of defining your business’s social strategy as part of your ESG strategy couldn’t be more important.

Digital can lead to more sustainability - by being able to do things more efficiently, faster, decentral, … But digitalization also creates emissions through hardware, electricity, cooling. Currently digital technology accounts for 2-4% of global emissions. And that percentage is likely to go up. Digital substitutes often have a smaller carbon footprint than their non-digital equivalent. However, marginal costs have also decreased dramatically, leading to more use and often in total more emissions. We write a lot more emails in a day than we used to write letters in a month - and we also keep most of them, just in case they are important, causing additional emissions month after month for digital storage.

Sustainability hinges on balancing planet and people impacts in addition to financial impact. Taking a cross industry view, on the planet front energy is a big focus area because it's a key driver of not only economic growth but also pollution. The energy sub-themes are: efficiency (technologies that reduce energy consumption: data driven to more efficient appliances and industrial plants) and clean/renewable energy. Carbon capture, storage and usage is another key focus area to prevent carbon from getting into the atmosphere. On the people front, the focus on employee wellness (health particularly emotional well being, and financial as is evident by rising minimum wages to better work environments) is an encouraging trend.