Home > Our Projects >

IdeaStorm: How can the Internet drive innovation for sustainable business

Background

The internet is important - its effects range from changes to our daily social activities to being a powerful engine for economic growth.  In fact, a McKinsey study released in May of 2011 stated that “…in a broad range of countries the internet contributes more to GDP than agriculture, energy and several other traditional sectors…” 

This engine, however, requires materials and fuel – metals and minerals to construct; energy to operate.  While the total global energy impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is not known, the latest data suggests that between 1.1% and 1.5% of all global electricity production is allocated to servers and data centers alone.
 
While its resource consumption is significant, technology's potential impact could dramatically outweigh its cost. ICT can be used to address many of the critical sustainability issues facing the world today.  For example, The Climate Group's Smart2020 Report estimates that ICT has the potential to eliminate 15% of the world's greenhouse emissions by 2020. This is why Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and Dell are teaming up to bring you a series of challenges called IdeaStorm Sessions.

About the Sessions

As we work towards a sustainable economy, we need to reduce the negative impact of ICT equipment and the Internet, while simultaneously accelerating our ability to use these technologies to solve global issues. These two challenges lie at the heart of a series of Storm Sessions hosted by Dell and EDF. We are particularly interested in opportunities for business - how can managers and employees use ICT tools - computers, the internet, social media, and more - to improve operations, products, and supply chains.   These Storm Sessions are to generate a global discussion and brainstorming on a set of issues that can both drive down the sustainability costs of ICT while increasing its benefits.

 

Each Storm Session will last 2 weeks. Everyone is invited to participate follow the conversation, offer your ideas, and comment and vote on others' suggestions.  These ideas will be studied and summarized by Dell and EDF staff and used as input to further discussions and actions by our organizations and, hopefully, by yours as well.

 

We welcome your ideas and contributions to help the Net better contribute to a sustainable economy.

 

The Internet represents a target-rich environment for innovation and innovators. Technology and societal trends such as Virtualization, Cloud Computing, the rise of Social Media and the age of the SmartPhone provide new platforms and possibilities. Likewise, business is the historic engine of innovation in our economy. How can we bring these two powerful resources together -- how can the Internet and businesses be more innovative to make themselves, their customers, and their suppliers more environmentally sustainable? 

 

What can we do with our new tools to make more innovation happen faster, spread wider, and be more successful?  Specific questions include:

 

  • What information do we need to share to spawn new ideas? How should we share it?

  • Who is not engaged that we need to get engaged?

  • How do we get ideas tested, implemented, and spread more quickly?

  • What innovative approaches to reducing greenhouse gas emissions can business demonstrate today? How can ICT help?

  • What resources and tools exist but are underutilized or still need to be created?

  • What barriers keep employees and customers from contributing to innovation? How do we overcome them?

 

What will we do with your contributions?

 

This Storm Session will supplement other projects going on to accelerate sustainability innovation in business. These efforts include Pew Center on Global Climate Change's "Low-Carbon Business Innovation" project and EDF's Eco-Challenge Series. Results from this brainstorming will be used to define and guide discussion at the Green Innovators in Business Solutions Lab on 12/8/11 in Cambridge, MA.  They will also be summarized and distributed online for others to build upon.


Visit ideastorm.com for more information on how to participate in this Session.

 

 

Get Email Updates From EDF Business

Sign up to receive our blog posts on sustainable innovation and our activities.