From green savings to green profit: Moving towards a 21st century green business model (Article in Economy China)

Role: author

Comment
As I saw how the old CSR perspective from the west undermined interesting work in China I spent some time trying to explain that the reactive/ 0-approach tended to take the company into a dead-end where they did not focus on what society needed, but how they could communicate a zero-impact (often though offsetting). if they wanted to use sustinability as a driver for innovation they needed to take another path. 

Summary
The last years leading companies around the world have begun to shift focus. From only working on their internal environmental problems, they now focus on how they can help provide the solutions the world needs and how their business models can change from a focus on products to the services needed in society.

The reason behind this change is that incremental improvements are not enough, new markets are growing, smart solutions are ready at the same time as we understand the need for transformative solutions. The 21st century company must focus on new green business models that deliver sustainable services and have CEO’s that take the lead.

Link to full article

迈向二十一世纪的绿色商业模式 从专注节能环保到寻求绿色利润 (Article in Economy China)

Role: author

Summary: 

过去的几年,世界各地领先企业的关注 点都在悄然地发生着变化。不同于过去只关 注内部的环境问题,当今的企业正在专注于 如何提供符合世界市场需求的解决方案,以 及企业自身的商业模式如何从关注产品转变 为关注于社会所需要的服务。

产生如此变化是基于以下几点原因:其 一、原有改善速度过慢;其二、新市场的不 断增长;其三、智能解决方案已准备就绪; 以及我们理解了对变革性解决方案的需求。 21世纪的企业必须着眼于可提供可持续服务 的新型绿色商业模式,而且其领导者必须起 到引领作用。

Link to full article

Nano-solutions for the 21st century: Unleashing the fourth technological revolution (Report)

Role: author with Eric Drexler

Summary
The world faces unprecedented global challenges related to depleting natural resources, pollution, climate change, clean water, and poverty. These problems are directly linked to the physical characteristics of our current technology base for producing energy and material products. Deep and pervasive changes in this technology base can address these global problems at their most fundamental, physical level,
by changing both the products and the means of production used by 21st century civilization. The key development is advanced, atomically precise manufacturing (APM).

This report examines the potential for nanotechnology to enable deeply transformative production technologies that can be developed through a series of advances that build on current nanotechnology research. The report has ve sections:

1. Nanotechnology and global challenges
The first section discusses the basics of advanced, atomically precise nanotechnology and explains how current and future solutions can help address global challenges. Key concepts are presented and different kinds of nanotechnology are discussed and compared.

2. The birth of Nanotechnology
The second section discusses the development of nanotechnology, from the first vision fifty years ago, expanding via a scientific approach to atomically precise manufacturing thirty years ago, initial demonstrations of principle twenty years ago, to the last decade of accelerating success in developing key enabling technologies. The important role of emerging countries is discussed, with China as a leading example, together with an overview of the contrast between the promise and the results to date.

3. Delivery of transformative nanotechnologies
Here the different aspects of APM that are needed to enable breakthrough advances in productive technologies are discussed. The necessary technology base can be developed through a series of coordinated advances along strategically chosen lines of research.

4. Accelerating progress toward advanced nanotechnologies
This section discusses research initiatives that can enable and support advanced nanotechnology, on paths leading to APM, including integrated cross-disciplinary research and Identi cation of high-value applications and their requirements.

5. Possible next steps
The final section provides a short summary of the opportunities and the possibilities to address institutional challenges of planning, resource allocation, evaluation, transparency, and collaboration as nanotechnology moves into its next phase of development: nanosystems engineering.

Download the full report

Public procurement and transformative solutions: A migration strategy for India’s procurement in the 21st century (Report)

Role: author with Sachin Joshi

Summary: 
This report is an outcome of thought-leadership collaboration between stakeholders in India and Sweden that seeks to spur momentum to ensure innovative and global sustainable development through the mainstreaming of transformative solutions.

The collaboration is based on two national public procurement projects, one in India and one in Sweden. The objective is to explore ways that allow public procurement to deliver economic development, innovation, poverty reduction and global environmental sustainability by supporting transformative solutions. 

The migration strategies include the following elements:
• Establishment of a “migration bridge”: To allow an organization in a structured way to move from current procurement to a situation where they rethink what they need. To ensure that this happens it is important to clarify responsibility within the organization, when in time as well as where in the organization it is best to move from refining current procurement to also re-thinking the way services can be provided.

• A change of reference point: To ensure that use of new transformative solutions is the reference, not current unsustainable practices.

• Cluster support: To encourage new groups of companies to deliver the solutions that are needed.

• Clear goals: To support transparency, identification of best practice as well as evaluation.

• A global perspective: To promote a perspective where transformative solutions can be used by those most in need.

Link to report

Transformativa lösningar och offentlig upphandling (Report)

Role: author

Summary
Denna text är en slutredovisning av arbetet med att analysera hur offentlig upphandling kan stödja innovation för hållbarhet som levererar transformativa lösningar.

Arbetet utgår från tre grundfrågor:

  • Hur kan innovation för hållbarhet ges bättre stöd inom befintligt regelverk för offentlig upphandlingen?

  • Hur kan myndighetsvärlden engagera olika delar av företagsvärlden i proaktiva

    samtal kring hur viktiga hållbarhetsproblem kan lösas?

  • Hur kan myndigheter via upphandlingen bli ”early adopters” och inte ”laggards” som håller utvecklingen tillbaka då det gäller användandet av transformativa hållbara lösningar?

    Metoden utifrån insamlat material och föreslår möjliga vägar framåt. Texten är baserad på textanalyser, intervjuer, två workshops, en enkät och ett pilotprojekt.

The procurement investigation (Swedish Government Official Reports 2013:12) has identified meetings and mobility as an area where there are many new opportunities and where the goals require transformative changes.1 The starting point for the procurement investigation was that the coming years will involve major changes for government agencies. Technological development, for example, provides entirely new opportunities in a range of areas, from virtual meetings to tools that make it easier to analyse the consequences of different choices. At the same time, the government and the EU's ambitious goals when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions require transformative solutions.

The feasibility study indicates that the portal could contribute to more transformative solutions that can help government agencies to optimise their meetings and mobility. This could allow the government agencies to achieve their goals and reduce their costs by, among other things;

  1. That government agencies receive scientifically verified data when it comes to various environmental and economic consequences of the meetings.

  2. That government agencies can obtain customised information when they need it in the format they require.

  3. That the platform can connect to existing initiatives at the government agencies and build on existing systems for the collection of data enabling the platform to reduce the workload of the agencies.

  4. The platform makes it easier to develop strategies for an increased share of virtual meetings.

  5. Creating a better understanding of all the elements of an agency by allowing customised information to be generated can clarify the consequences of individual choices.

Download the full report