According to research, if we compare the earth’s history to a calendar year, modern human life has existed for 37 minutes, and we have used one-third of the earth’s natural resources in the last 0.2 seconds.
The world's population today is 8.1 billion, and if humanity is to exist, it needs to use the earth’s resources. However, the rate of resource depletion is a matter of concern; if this continues at this pace, no resources will be left. Earth will exist, given its strong resilience, but humanity will not.
Today, mindless consumption and the use-and-throw mindset have led to the need for 1.8 Earths to support 1 Earth. In 2023, Earth Overshoot Day landed on August 2. Earth Overshoot Day is when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services each year exceeds what earth can regenerate in that year. So, we are now borrowing resources from the future.
In his book ‘Man and Nature: The Spiritual Crisis in Modern Man’ (1958), Prof. Seyyed Hossein Nasr argued that Man and Nature need to coexist out of mutual respect. The idea that man can dominate nature by leveraging technology is flawed, as earth’s resources are not limitless. Clean technology and green fuel may not be the answers, but the fundamental mindset of coexistence must be incorporated if we want to see results.
Sustainable Innovation in Supply Chains
Supply chains have been in the brunt of this storm as organizations' supply chains often account for more than 90% of their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions when considering their overall climate impacts. The need of the hour is to change the mindset to a circular economy, things we were doing 30-40 years ago. And it is important to look at innovation to address these challenges. Sustainable innovation involves intentionally changing a company’s products, services, or processes to generate long-term social and environmental benefits while creating economic profits for the firm.
Green Cement
Let us take the case of Green Cement, an eco-friendly cement that uses a carbon-negative manufacturing process. Cement companies have been doing them for a long time (though we are talking about this now) to reduce the mining of limestone reserves, which account for 40 percent of GHG emissions.
The major raw materials used to produce green cement include:
- Discarded waste from the industry
- Slag from the blast furnace
- Fly ash
Benefits of Green Cement
The additional benefits are:
- Better binding capability, and this is profitable
- Use of advanced technology makes the manufacturing process highly energy-efficient
- Carbon dioxide emitted during this process is significantly low
- This process reduces carbon footprint by 40%
- Green cement is cheaper because the raw materials used in its manufacturing are mostly industrial waste
Tata Indica
Another example is Tata Indica, the small car introduced by Tata Motors. This product may not have been a big hit, but it disrupted the price point, making a small car affordable for the middle class. But it also had to be profitable.
The entire project, from conceiving the idea (September 1995) to the final production of the car (January 1998), took just about 28-30 months, nothing less than an achievement for a first-time passenger car maker.
The first generation Indica was produced in a refurbished assembly line that Tata purchased second-hand from an abandoned Nissan plant in Austria. This was an optimum use of resources to control costs.
Historically, frugal innovation or Jugaad in the colloquial language has been India’s DNA, as the country was starved of resources due to multiple invasions and colonialism.
Frugal innovation is a structured process that delivers customer value at predetermined price points. Resource constraints and the desire to open untapped markets to products and services via adequate price points and acceptable value-for-money propositions are at the heart of the frugal innovation movement. This has been demonstrated repeatedly, be it with supercomputers, Chandrayan-3, or the simple case of refill ballpoint pens.
As per the latest data, there is an urgent need to support frugal innovation. As much as 95% of global population growth and 70% of real GDP growth will happen in emerging markets. Asia (excluding Japan) is the main driver, contributing 54% of population growth and 46% of real GDP growth. Developing products and services for the emerging middle class in these countries, slated to constitute around 70% of the global middle class by 2030, is crucial for all players. And it will be profitable and good for future generations. Today’s supply chains also need to think frugal.
Conclusion
We have all heard the popular story "How Much Land Does a Man Require?" This is an 1886 short story by Leo Tolstoy about a man who, in his lust for land, forfeits everything. The moral of the story is that excessive desire can make a person lose all they have. The example is the peasant protagonist is never satisfied with how much land he has and although his ambition is at first good, it becomes too much. As a human race, we are at a similar situation where we are at loggerheads when it comes to progression. Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution has enabled the survival of the fittest; logically, we should have progressed as a race. But progress has come at the cost of robbing future generations.
As we dwell in a multipolar world with imminent wars and natural catastrophes, we are at World War III. And this war must be fought together as humanity, coexisting with nature. We have already passed the tipping point of restricting the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees C as per the science-based targets. It is time to reflect upon innovating for sustainability.
