Based on the predefined six topics, DNV GL dedicated a special workshop to sustainability, to present efforts to take a[ds_preview] broader view of the relationship between technology, business and society. Cecilie Hultmann, Group Sustainability Risk Manager at DNV GL, headed this lecture at Innovation Day and started with facts and findings illustrating the need for responsibility given the many changes and challenges which arise in case of »business as usual«. This snapshot of what worldwide business, industries and thus everyone are heading included some bleak visions of climate change, floods, storms and other examples for change. These scenarios are the outcome of intense expert hearings and condensed scientific research.
»Environmental damage is reaching a scale that is beginning to threaten both future prosperity and the progress achieved in human development to date«, the accompanying DNV GL brochure »A Safe and Sustainable Future: Enabling the Transition« records. It shows nine planetary boundaries defining a safe operating space for humanity. Such factors are chemical pollution, climate change, ocean acidification, stratospheric ozone depletion, perturbed nutrient flows, global freshwater use, land use, biodiversity and atmospheric aerosol loading.
Relying on their experts DNV GL worked out several scenarios of the future: One with actually little change, one where human efforts continue at the recent level and one that describes »the world we would like to live in«. Talking about the future and sustainability also inlcudes the problem of a »very lofty vision«, as Hultmann said, while she worked to convince the auditory that this is the »decisive point in human history – remarkable progress by humans is made«. »Humans have become a planetary force, able to bring forth change in a negative direction« she summed up the findings.
The general assumption must therefore envisage more risks for the future. Some of the most tremendous drivers of change were then identified: 3–6 degree higher global temperature, 1–2m higher sea levels, high pollution, loss of biodiversity and about one billion people worldwide that will be forced to migrate. Hultmann calculated the costs of climate change at 5–20% of global GDP per year.
As a response to these scenarios, DNV GL identified 36 barriers in five categories that may prevent change for the better. The message, however, was clear: »Human activities can get us out of the situation,« Hultmann said. To achieve this, mind sets have to change. A sense for limits and humans as part of a bigger natural system was defined as pivotal. DNV GL’s own share in finding solutions is thus in enabling transition, contribute to smart grid solutions, bring together knowledge or provide testing and advisory capacities when it comes to transform power systems and provide cleaner energy.
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