I think it’s important to place real innovation at the heart of any conversation around sustainability. In recent years we have focused primarily on furthering R&D efforts on technologies we already know. Granted they are proven in their respective domains, but equally they’re proven not to make the significant impact we were all promised, and they come with the added baggage of a delayed recycling problem which future generations will have to deal with.
Shouldn’t we be more focused on developing solutions that move us forward without creating more long term issues. In my mind a solution is not a viable solution if it creates further problems. I think this is where innovation falls short. We want the solutions but without risk. Unfortunately the world doesn’t work that way. No risk, no reward. Advocates of the current global approach will argue that we’ve made progress, but progress toward what exactly? Fossil fuels still make up the majority of the global energy mix and this will only increase as scaled up manufacturing in the energy sector still relies heavily on them. We’ve created a paradoxical model. The thing we claim to be replacing is the very thing we’re relying on.
Real change comes from embracing the unknown. Investments in these so called unknown and risky technologies will be the only way we truly love forward, otherwise we will just remain static and recreate versions of what we already know.