4th Sustainability Summit: Asia 2009 “Winning Strategies for a Sustainable World”, 25 – 26 November 2009: India Habitat Centre, New Delhi

Sema Arora and the rest of the team at CII did a great job putting together the agenda for the 4th Sustainability Summit: Asia 2009 “Winning Strategies for a Sustainable World”, 25 – 26 November 2009: India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.

I participated in two panels. The first day in the ”Generation Next ICT” together with:
> Mr. Som Mittal, President, NASSCOM
> Mr. Stephen Harper, Director, Environment & Energy Policy, Intel
> Mr. B Sumant, Managing Director, ITC Infotech Ltd.
> Mr. Rakesh Khanna, Founding Director & CEO, TARAhaat
> Mr. Swapan Johri, Sr. Vice President & Worldwide Head of System Integration & Technology Services, HCLT ISD

The second day in the panel “Climate Change: The Defining Challenge”:
> Dr. Prem C Jain, Chairman, Indian Green Building Congress and President & Founder, Spectral Services Consultants
> Mr. Simon C Martin, Head – Group Corporate Sustainability, HSBC Holdings Plc
> Mr. Ravi Singh, Secretary General & CEO, WWF India
> Dr. Akhilesh Gupta, Advisor & Coordinator – Climate Change Programme, Department of Science & Technology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India
> Mr. J M Mauskar, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of India
> Mr. Bishal Thapa, Managing Director, ICF India

There are so many groundbreaking and world leading projects in India that hardly anyone outside India is aware of (and sometimes not very many people within India). I really hope to spend more time with Indian projects during 2010.

Is Lei Feng (雷锋) Still a Modern Hero?: A Consideration of Heroic Action in the Context of Culture

This is a paper, "Is Lei Feng (雷锋) Still a Modern Hero?: A Consideration of Heroic Action in the Context of Culture", from last year, but I never posted it on the page (on my web page I have not posted any new written material for a year, but most of it is posted here on the blog.). As I see the concept of heroes will become more important for my work during 2010 it feels important to post this paper even if it is very late.

The paper can be downloaded here.

Hopefully I can continue the discussions with Phil Zimbardo to explore heroism in the 21st Century further.

For 2010 I will re-design and update my web page in order to better reflect what I do, the platforms I have and the way I work (not always easy to explain).

Smart Green Growth in Norway

Abelia arranged a top-level meeting at Soria Moria in Oslo, Norway for low carbon solutions. The meeting was structured as a 24h innovation arena in order to identify and develop (climate) smart solutions.

I did a short presentation and participated in a sparring panel together with Rune Rinnan from Telenor Venture and Christopher Mortensen from Geelmuyden.Kiese that gave feedback on the ideas from the different innovative ideas the groups had. Fantastic energy in the group and I look forward to see the concrete result form the six teams working to develop solutions.

For an overview of the perspective that the top-level was based on please read the inspiring report ”Smart Green Growth – ICT creates possibilities (in Norwegian)”.

Technology quote of the day: solar film and the Bird’s Nest in China

"I would choose to use solar film to power air-conditioners in the Bird's Nest instead of the current ground-source heat pump," said Ding Gao, an engineer of the landmark building.”

The pace of change is now to fast that anyone responsible for buildings need to totally rethink how we see buildings. There is no reason for buildings being built today to not be net producers of electricity. The question that would be interesting to get an answer to is how many of the existing buildings around the world that could become net producers and how fast…

Give Europe’s entrepreneurs a fair chance: The Future of Europe Summit

Participated at the Future of Europe Summit in Andorra. Some very interesting sessions and good presentations. One of the best short overviews of the dynamics around the financial crisis I have heard was given by Cinzia Alcidi, Research Fellow, Centre for European Policy Studies, CEPS. Frank suggestions for the way forward was given by a number of participants such as Wolfgang Munchau, Associate Editor, Financial Times. Geoffrey Lipman, Special Advisor to the Secretary General, World Tourism Organization, UNWTO put the current challenges for Europe in a global context and had some very interesting ideas for how Tourism could play a key role in the transition toward a sustainable economy (not just a low carbon economy).

The panel I participated in, “Europe towards a lower carbon economy: from rhetoric to realities after Copenhagen”, focused on what is needed to make Europe a leader in the second phase when real reductions must take place. Europe took the lead when incremental reductions were discussed (5-10% reductions under the Kyoto protocol), but as the focus shift towards the reductions that are needed the next decades (40-80% reductions) Europe seems lost and unwilling to support a new generation a fair chance. The big old companies are dominating the agenda and smaller/smarter companies have a difficult time.

Holger Hartmann, CEO, BadenSolar, Germany 
gave a good overview of the kind of companies that are needed (companies that can create tailor-made solutions based on sustainable and decentralized energy sources). Mark Scott, Reporter, BusinessWeek, UK gave an overview of some of the initiatives that exist and Mihela Hladin, Founder, Greennovate, Slovenia and MAGIC, Made Green In China, gave an example of concrete work in China.

The session was moderated by Gert Van Mol, The Wall Street Journal Europe, who concluded that a leading Europe must be a Europe that collaborates with the world, not the least China. The need for en new generation of entrepreneurs was highlighted as well.

Fantastic team with great potential: SEVS –Safe, Electric and Hybrid novel VehicleS

Participated in a really exiting process in Gothenburg (invitation can be downloaded here). This can deliver results in world class and influence how mobility is delivered in the future. I look forward to this and hope to report on amazing results.

From the background in the paper:
”The future demands sustainable mobility solutions for people as well as goods. Sustainability solutions demans no or, low emissions, safety and affordability. In November 2008, the two Centres of Excellence SAFER and the Swedish Hybrid Vehicle Centre (SHC) hosted a very inspiring seminar on these issues, which resulted in a joint application to FFI, Fordonsforskning och Innovation. With an approval from Energimyndigheten and Vinnova, the SEVS project (Safe, Electric and Hybrid novel VehicleS) was initiated in August 2009. The project is a research project with the following partners: SAFER, SHC, AB Volvo, Autoliv, Sicomp/Swerea, SP, Volvo Cars, VTI, Saab Automobile and Scania.”

The seminar happened the same day as China and US signed a “U.S.-China Electric Vehicles Initiative”, see below:

“U.S.-China Electric Vehicles Initiative. The two Presidents announced the launch of the U.S.-China Electric Vehicles Initiative. Building on the first-ever US-China Electric Vehicle Forum in September 2009, the initiative will include joint standards development, demonstration projects in more than a dozen cities, technical roadmapping and public education projects. The two leaders emphasized their countries’ strong shared interest in accelerating the deployment of electric vehicles in order to reduce oil dependence, cut greenhouse gas emissions and promote economic growth.”

A significant step forward in Visby, but it is time to get concrete with targets and resources (here is a link to the conclusions)...

"The EU must rapidly respond to environmental targets by establishing measurable action plans for greener solutions in the field of ICT as well as in non-ICT areas, supported by ICT policy institutions where relevant. Such measures could include contributions from ICT to develop greener solutions for energy, transports, industry production and process, housing etc."

The next step is Malmö and the Ministerial Declaration on eGovernment. Let's hope that this will include a focus on key clusters (such as those presented here): and with six concrete and measurable targets/goals for low carbon/resource efficient ICT solutions, also included in the same paper.

If the Malmö Declaration manage to include that kind of targets EU will move to the forefront of innovation and smart solutions.