For those of you who may not be as familiar with TED, it is a very intellectually stimulating thought provoking conference. It throws in artists, musicians, scientists, inventors, neurologists, anthropologists, writers, digital imaging experts, etc in a series of short talks that could seem very unrelated but yet very vividly portrays how the best innovations come from a multidisciplinary approach to intellectual curiousity. Some speakers are very dramatic (e.g. Bill Gates released mosquitos into the audience so they could experience what most poor people in the world experience – to make a point about malaria eradication as a urgent goal).
One of the key themes touched upon in the conference is the environment.
Al Gore, the key proponent of this message gave a quick update from his TED talk last year and very dramatically using visual animation showed how the poles are being depleted of size and thickness. He emphasized that there is a need to see this problem as urgent. There were also photographer Yan Arthus-Betrand who showed vivid pictures of how the world is affected. Another visual dramatic of the issue was done by a movie maker Jake Eberts who will be releasing a movie (free of copyright) in June called “Oceans”, which hopes using high tech cameras to follow motion and life of the ocean to create an emotive link between us and why we should care for life in the oceans. Meanwhile, inventor of Makinapower.com, showed how wind turbines are a limiting way of taping into wind power. Instead, we should use crosswind kite power at 1,200 feet and higher and we can easily within 2 years fly machines that can generate Megawatt of power each to help meet the power needs of the world. Amazing!
What struck me the most though was the message from Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface Global, a company that makes carpets (often known as the greatest culprit of C02 emissions). He spoke about how he read the book “Ecology of Business” and felt very bad to be part of an industry that was a major plunderer of nature. For him to speak right after Al Gore and talk about being a recovering plunderer was very impactful indeed! He has experimented with and found that the old model of business of take, make and waste can be replaced with a more sustainable cyclical mode of production. He has tried it and made great success (better product, better market, better employees)- Flor Carpets. He says “It is indeed a better business model!” Besides making more profits than before, he also found that his Green products helped him ride out the dotcom crash when global markets were down by 36% and his revenues were only down by 17%.
He discussed how the current industrial model is I=PxAxT (I= Environmental Impact, P=Population, A=Affluence and T=Technology). He explored and was able to prove that Technology can be used to reduce I or Environmental Impact. He now sees that the formula can be I=PxA/T (although he feels if we collect less as affluent people, we can reduce it by even more). To me, this formula makes a lot of sense, and clearly why we should think about how ICT can be used to reduce the carbon footprint for all other sectors. And if ICT itself is clean, then we have made that much more progress in our battle to combat greenhouse gases.
He concluded by pointing out that the bottom line is we live in a finite world, and we have to live in it sustainably. The way we are doing it today, we are robbing tomorrows child of their future. He thinks that this theft will someday be considered a crime. But for now, he emphasizes that it makes good business sense, so why not do what is right!