We Need Sustainability & Innovation Now

We’ve been on this planet for a really long time now. We’ve seen countless civilizations and empires rise and fall and been witness and part of amazing breakthroughs in art, finance, health, politics and so many other areas. We’ve developed languages to communicate and give voice to our ideas.

And now it’s all at risk.

We want to survive. We want our words and works to pass on and we want our children and children’s children to live in a world that’s safe and ready for exploration. So what do we do? What concepts do we need to pass on to continue humanity?

Innovation and sustainability may be the most important concepts for humanity to embrace if we want to continue surviving and thriving on this planet. These concepts, properly explored, will give us the power we need to survive on this earth as it continues to react to our presence.

Let’s look first at innovation.

Innovation is a key part of growth. It is what brings forth new ideas and helps fix existing problems. Innovation brought us our breakthroughs in everything from food (agriculture) to health (medicine) to entertainment (TVs).

The problem comes in when people decide it is better and safer to stay with the old (“tried and true”) system. Fear of change and the negative elements that could come from exploring a new idea can result in society existing in a rut.

This, of course, becomes a major issue when the “tried and true” system is in fact causing major damage. This is the issue we currently find ourselves in when it comes to the planet and climate change. So much of what we use to live and maintain our society and marketplace is increasing our footprint. Of course, no one wants to give up modern advantages.

Innovation is what will heal the wound. Innovation is the only way we will be able to maintain any of our modern advantages while limiting climate change.

Great minds are on the case and are fixing issues like agriculture (Beyond Meat), air quality (Carbon Engineering, Sidewalk Labs) and power (General Fusion). General Fusion, a safe and clean update of nuclear energy, is a perfect example of why innovation is direly important.

Sustainability is another concept that needs our attention now. We need to keep our environment from depleting any further and a sustainable mindset will help us towards this goal.

Sustainable development is now front and centre in the marketplace as smart businesses and entrepreneurs recognize its importance and potential. We may have a long way to go before our issues surrounding poverty, hunger, health, education, gender equality and climate change are fully addressed and solved but today’s startups are being developed by entrepreneurs eager to make a positive impact.

You can see proof of this in Young Sustainable Impact, a global initiative determined to do as much good as possible by helping young entrepreneurs find the solutions we need. Its Innovation Program is designed to bring the startups and entrepreneurs through the creation process and its graduates are bringing us needed upgrades like Xyla Water.

With the right minds looking for solutions we may be able to stave off disaster.

Innovation and sustainability: Both abstract terms but also concepts that must be mastered and, when combined, potentially the thing that will save us.

The Smog Free Tower is a fantastic example of what can be done when these two concepts are brought together. This structure (or “smog vacuum cleaner”) draws in and cleans polluted air and has already purified millions of cubic metres of air in major cities.

Even better, in Beijing the collected air particles are compressed and transformed into jewelry that people can buy from Studio Roosegarde.

Being able to clean air and create new elements out of it is an amazing and fascinating sustainable innovation. It is also a breakthrough we definitely need.

Humans can do great things when we put our minds to it and we know how to clean up problems. We need to ensure innovation and sustainability are brought together to create new ways to save our world.

This is not something we can put off or leave for our grandchildren to figure out. Let’s work together to find the sustainable innovations we need to survive. Are you ready?