Green and Beyond

I think that we can all agree that the economic downturn and ecological reality of living in a globally integrated world has required us to rethink our approach to doing business. It is also fair to say that the approaches of the past are not sustainable and that the impact thereof on the environment can not continue unabated.

The challenge we have to accept is to reinvent how we do business, not only to survive and grow, but also to achieve the goals of conservation and pollution prevention.

I think that there are three primary questions we need to answer.

How do we do more with less?

We should build green infrastructures that take out cost and improve the efficiency of our assets and infrastructure. We must strive to maximize the efficiency of what we have; reduce the ecological footprint thereof; whilst providing the platform for business growth without adding to what we have.

How can we be more responsible?

We should build sustainable solutions that focus on increasing efficiency and abating the environmental impact of processes, products and people. There are significant benefits to measuring, monitoring and streamlining processes across the value chain. The difficult is that we can not achieve the full potential of these solutions if we work in isolation. Improvement s across the value chain will yield the most significant benefits.

How can we be more efficient?

We need to build solutions that are able to make intelligent decisions based on the wealth of information available across an entire industry. For example, we are able to use predictive analytics for water management; automate, monitor and control two-way flow of energy from power plant to plug; and build optimized transportation systems.

Let’s talk

What it takes is a willingness of stakeholders across the value chain to collaborate, share information and aspire to build a smarter planet.

On a slightly different topic

Just come back from a couple of days in Livingstone, Zambia, where we had a truly wonderful time.

I will try to summarise the experience in one sentence (which will not do it any justice): From sundowners on the sundeck of the Royal Livingstone; to G&Ts on the Zambesi with hippos for company; to abseiling and gorge swinging in the quarry; to cold showers next to the Victoria Falls; I had the time of my life (one of them at least).


So where is the technology you ask? Or the business? Well … the camera continued to work despite all the water from the Falls and a US dollar doesn’t buy you very much there.

Fin24: Smart new ideas

Simon Dingle wrote another good article on Smart Planet that I have copied and linked here.

Smart new ideas
MOST will agree that the human species could be doing things a lot more efficiently and productively. Problems such as water shortages and traffic jams shouldn't exist.

We waste a lot of energy, time and money doing things that should be achievable with less overhead. And we have fantastic technologies that could help with problems, but most of them are focused on military affairs, or turning a buck.

Think beyond day-to-day business and immediate threats, consider the long-term problems we face as a species and the need for cohesive action is clear.

The global downturn has forced us all to take a step back and reassess the way we do things - how we think about work and interaction, and what really matters.

IBM has a new initiative it calls Smart Planet which will underpin all the technology giant's future developments. The idea is that our most fundamental problems can be solved if we work together, combine efforts and share assets.

If we do this, we can converge our technological achievements and ideas to produce solutions greater than the sum of their parts.

'Billions for the better'
IBM spends more money on research and development than any other private company in the world, and will spend $6bn on research and development this year alone. It invented the hard drive, networking and countless other technologies that surround us today.

Now the firm is looking at the bigger picture in terms of global challenges, using its vast resources and ecosystem of partners to solve everything from the most rudimentary and fundamental problems to complex aspirational challenges.

Says Clifford Foster, chief technology officer of IBM South Africa: "Smart Planet is IBM's strategic agenda going forward. It is essentially saying that key drivers are changing the way we see systems needing to be built. Technology can play a role in solving our problems whether it be in healthcare, water provisioning or just about anything else.

"There are three key pillars here. One is in the fact that the world is now digitally aware, with sensors being installed in motor vehicles, waterways and just about everywhere else. The world is also interconnected, and here Africa has a great story to tell with bandwidth projects under way.

"And thirdly, it is about being able to make intelligent decisions based on information provided in near-real time. Smart Planet is about bringing these things together and taking advantage of our instrumented, interconnected and intelligent world," he explains.

Smart marine solutions
An example of a Smart Planet solution can be found in Ireland, where the SmartBay Project has been created to monitor wave conditions, marine life, pollution levels and other factors in and around Galway Bay.

The project uses a kind of electronic buoy to monitor everything from fish in the bay to chemical consistency of the water. The buoys are solar powered, and the data they capture form part of a cohesive system that will be used by everyone from private fisheries to emergency workers and port authorities to monitor the bay in real time.

Foster says the Smart Planet way of thinking is, in part, about sharing infrastructure and systems instead of everyone trying to own and control their own, separated systems.

He uses the example of CCTV cameras installed in cities which can be used to advise on traffic flow, respond to emergencies, control crime and even monitor conditions for road maintenance. The key is in being able to share the actual cameras.

The objects being developed by IBM and its partners to aid the Smart Planet agenda include everything from next-generation circuitry to microscopic membranes used to clean water.

"Using technology to solve our real problems is not something IBM can do by itself. We are working with governments, clients and business partners to make these things happen," says Foster.

There are countless examples of Smart projects aimed at Africa's challenges, but they depend on having governments and other parties on board. Foster says IBM has been welcomed by stakeholders, and that discussions are under way to implement solutions.


The original article can be found here

Working to improve the lives of Africans

I was very impressed with Eric Cantor and his presentation on AppLab.

AppLab, a Grameen Foundation initiative, builds solutions in Africa that enables people to use phones and other mobile devices as to improve their lives and livelihoods.

They have linked up with MTN's Village Phone solution to extend the reach of their offerings beyond the penetration achievable by working with handset owners. For your interest; Village Phone is a solution where an entrepreneur in a village invests in a phone and then resells voice and data, thereby creating a viable business whilst delivering a valuable service to the community. Applab is extending the data aspect of this to deliver additional services that are focussed on alleviating poverty, improving healthcare, improving agricultural yields and providing people with access to market information.

In addition AppLab has been training and supporting local entrepreneurs to serve as information and communication hubs for value-added services. This addresses some of the language and literacy issues that are based when delivery technology-based solutions.

An AppLab application that caught my imagination was a solution that assists farmers in identifying banana diseases and helping them to take corrective action once diagnosed. Where this gets really interesting is that they gather information (GPS and photo) from the farms in the region and then collate this data for the benefit of all farmers. Farmers are then in a better position to understand where this particular disease is spreading and whether they are at risk.

Great stuff!