In this installment of Kaleido Insights’ video series exploring the future technology-related impacts of COVID-19, we cover the topic of “sustainability.”
Sustainability: How are technologies driving environmental stewardship and new business opportunities?
The impacts of social distancing will have reverberations for years to come, as human behaviors shift permanently to less travel and lower levels of congestion within cities. This trend will lend itself to the proliferation of shared autonomous vehicles to fulfill various needs, from on-the-go medical care to roaming retail. 5G development and implementation will speed up to enable these things to happen. Less vehicle and public transit emissions will continue to result in positive environmental impacts.
The world’s grandest experiment in pushing the pause button will prompt a broad re-evaluation of just how critical several carbon-heavy activities are (business travel, large commercial real-estate expansion, mass commutes). Several environmentally “friendlier” technological solutions (video conferencing, AR, VR, robotic micro-fulfilment, 3-D printing) may displace them.
The earth has quickly experienced the effects of social distancing, one of which is an 8% drop in carbon emissions (according to the New York Times). Such fresh statistics can be used to analyze the impacts of climate change and plot climate reversal. Rich data garnered from satellites, air quality evaluations, sensors, and other devices will enable sustainability decisions for the next several decades.
