Investment is booming in clean and green technologies. But can they be implemented quickly enough to meet current challenges?
The controversial demographer Paul Ehrlich distilled the essence of his somewhat apocalyptic 1968 book, The population bomb, into a simple equation: impact (I) = population (P) x affluence (A) x technology (T). Twenty years later, Ray Anderson, the sustainability pioneer and then-CEO of Interface, asked the question: what if it were possible to move T to the denominator, so that technology reduces, rather than increases, impact on the environment and society?
Anderson’s challenge is the Apollo mission of the 21st century a near impossible project that, if achieved, will inspire generations to come. The only difference is that achieving a sustainable technology revolution let’s call it Mission SusTech is playing for much higher stakes than JF Kennedy’s space race. Failure is an option and it’s called "overshoot and collapse".