(Commonwealth Union)_Even as the majority of the world discusses disruption in terms of the here and now—mobility, blockchain, connectivity—futurists and technologists are focused on the emerging technologies that will impact what comes next. A panel of experts recently discussed the metaverse, the future of sustainability, and other topics at a discussion sponsored by Lenovo and Intel in collaboration with Fast Company at the magazine’s annual Innovation Festival in New York City. The following are some of the significant takeaways from the event.
“When you look at a product throughout its entire life cycle—from manufacturing to shipping to use, recycle, and reuse—the biggest contribution… to the carbon footprint comes from the use phase,” said Chris Cui, Lenovo’s global environmental, social, and governance (ESG) lead for PCs and smart devices. As a result, it is critical for businesses to work on technologies that lower power consumption over the course of a customer’s use of a product.
Human presence detection (HPD) is an AI-powered Intel technology that detects when a user is looking at a screen. Cui and Kevin Beck, senior narrative technologist at Lenovo’s Intelligent Device Group, explained the technology in detail: When the individual looks away, the screen dims, then brightens when they restore their gaze to it, eventually shutting down if they do not. Because screens consume the most power in a gadget, these small changes add up to huge power savings over the item’s lifetime. Companies can mitigate the impact by prolonging the life of their gadgets.
“If we can design our products in a way that allows you as a consumer to fix [them] yourself, or simply send the items back [to us] and we repair for you,” Cui explained, “we can assist reduce the carbon footprint simply by prolonging the life cycle of the products.” It must be noted that Lenovo later stated that its future aims are to complete 84% of PC repairs without sending the system to a service centre, and 76% of PC parts to be returned to service centres and fixed for future use by fiscal year 2025-2026. By 2026, these activities will have enabled the recycling and reuse of 800 million pounds of end-of-life items.
Sustainability and related challenges were once regarded to be concerns of younger generations, but it is becoming increasingly obvious that these are global concerns. Cui stated that, according to a recent Canalys survey, over 75% of RFPs include ESG standards when requesting companies to bid on their business, and she expects this to increase. “What does that signify for us and other companies in various industries? You might not win the bid if you don’t have a sound ESG strategy and don’t invest in sustainable R&D,” she warned. Indeed, “you might not even be on or notice the bid.”
Individual customers are becoming more aware of not only sustainability issues, but also their impact on companies’ financial lines. According to recent research, they understand that businesses’ ESG efforts may result in increased product pricing, and the majority are fine with that. Cui, though, sees opportunity for development. “As an industry leader, we must do more,” she added. “As previously stated, energy efficiency—including CPU and screen efficiency—plays a significant role in this. As a result, we must collaborate with our CPU partners, such as Intel, to truly innovate in that arena in order to help us and our customers fulfil the sustainability requirements.”
