Business Insight Zone

It seems bizarre . . . but what if it works?

Before Roger Bannister broke the four-minute barrier for the mile in May 1954, running a sub-four-minute mile was supposed to be “impossible.”

We’ve heard some of the same nonsense about remedies for the possible (but overwhelmingly likely) dangers of climate change — that it’s not possible to do anything meaningful about global warming, or at least not without devastating consequences for standards of living worldwide. (Here’s one example.)

Roger Bannister proved that a man could run a sub-four-minute mile without dying or breaking down. And in various corners of the world, individuals and groups are working to demonstrate the same things about living in a more carbon-savvy way. Two examples:

• SmartPlanet: Emirates to build zero-carbon desert city — “Foster + Partners has drawn up a master plan for Masdar City in the United Arab Emirates, designed to produce zero carbon emissions, zero waste and to be car-free. It’s being built according to the ten sustainability guidelines called One Planet Living drawn up by the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) and environmental consultancy BioRegional. Guidelines for building include sustainable materials, sustainable food and water, support of habitats, wildlife, culture and heritage, and to promote equity, fair trade, health and happiness.”
• The New Yorker: The Island in the Wind, by Elizabeth Kolbert — In this article, Kolbert talks about how the little Danish farming community of Samsø has shifted completely to wind power in the past decade.

Will these particular experiments will work on a broad scale? Who knows? Because of the accidents of petroleum wealth and autocratic governance, the United Arab Emirates are able to carry out grand experiments like Masdar City that could be awfully hard to duplicate in, say, Japan. And, as Kolbert makes clear in her article, in Samsø the wind blows all the time.

But my bet is that one of these experiments, or others like them, will come to be regarded in future decades as harbingers for better ways of designing cities and the energy grids that feed them. And in any event, trying large-scale experiments like these is a heck of lot more fruitful than sitting around saying that nothing can be done.

The application for business

Smart businesses are making the same transition. Whether driven by a sense of social responsibility, by the high costs of fuel, or simply by a prudent regard for managing future risks, these firms are trying things to reduce their energy use and improve their carbon footprint.

To the innovators go the spoils?

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(Picture by Hiddenloop.)