In the last couple of years of writing articles on here, I am often accused of only focusing on occupational health and safety and not enough on environmental and sustainability initiatives I am constantly involved with.
Although I do admit that most of my experience, education and work has been on the health and safety side of things, I have noticed my own interests very much shifting over the last couple of years and sustainability initiatives are one of the areas which are starting to interest me the most.
As the debate about climate change continues, more creative examples, technologies and initiatives of how to fight it are popping up around the world. Over the last decade or so, we have watched many countries and communities significantly reduce their negative impact on the environment by integrating modern technologies and clean energy strategies within their various industries. Not to the mention, of course, the great deal of work that has gone into the field of waste management, recycling, reduction of greenhouse gases, reclamation of precious metals and many more.
Continuous technological improvements have led to a rapid fall in the cost of renewable energy in recent years, meaning some forms can already comfortably compete with fossil fuels. Many of the organizations initiating these technologies have gone on to become profitable ventures of their own, a far cry from the old stigma of the last decade that it does not pay to be green. These programs have now also began to attract such interest that has resulted in them building whole new industries, employing hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.
I have selected five of the most impressive sustainability initiatives that I believe will go a long way in ensuring a greener world for our future generations:
1. Wind Energy
The most established and probably one of the ones that has been around for a while now. The industry has grown so much in recent years that the role of a "wind turbine technician" has become one of the most popular jobs over the last decade. In the United States alone for example, a country in which 4% of its energy is provided by wind turbines the industry is predicted to employ over 600,000 personnel by 2050.
Critics have argued that wind energy does not always provide the best cost benefits and as a result cannot compete with fossil fueled generators. While this may be true, advancement in technology in recent years has seen such models become competitive as a result of utilizing lands in more secluded areas and constructing these facilities in offshore locations providing a more consistent wind flow.
2. Waste to Energy Initiatives
After this process was initially introduced in Japan and China in the early 2000s, the technology is constantly developing and has now evolved into fully sustainable business models prevalent in many countries and communities across the globe.
As the title suggests, the technology uses waste that is normally consigned for landfill, through a combustion process, to produce electricity, heat or converted to other forms of synthetic fuels.
Sweden as an example has used these initiatives in such an effective way that they have actually ran out of their own waste. In fact, over the past 10 years they have started importing waste from other countries making the enterprises exceptionally profitable.
A win win win situation for the country, nations exporting the waste, and of course, the environment!
3. Solar Energy
The technology is not recent, as I am sure we all remember having a solar powered calculator as early as the 70's. The idea is impressive and probably one of the cleanest ways of producing energy. The issue in the past had always been obtaining enough space to place high numbers of panels to produce the adequate amount of energy to make the initiative commercially viable.
This has now changed and the technology is constantly evolving. Scientists and tech companies are constantly competing for the best solar panel and PV cell efficiency results enhancing the performance to area ratios of these systems.
Solar panels are even becoming more and more common with individual home owners worldwide providing much lower electricity prices and on many occasions negative power consumptions where the individual home panels have fully satisfied the residential electricity consumption.
4. Electric Vehicles
The concept of the electric car has been around for many years and many of the larger car manufacturers have started to shift their production into the electric market. The main benefits of such initiatives include a massive reduction in harmful emissions as well as the reduced running costs for the vehicle owner.
The main challenges for the industry has been the ability to produce vehicles that can compete with the current internal combustion engine equivalents in terms of both cost and convenience. Range anxiety and a lack of charging infrastructure have been the main barriers to mass adoption, but both are being addressed rapidly by manufacturers and governments alike.
5. Smart Grids and Energy Storage
Smart grids use digital technology to monitor and manage the transport of electricity from all generation sources to meet the varying electricity demands of end users. Coupled with large scale energy storage solutions, smart grids allow for the effective integration of renewable energy sources into the grid, addressing one of the main challenges of renewables which is their intermittent nature.
Energy storage is the missing link that will allow renewable energy to become the dominant source of power globally. As battery technology improves and costs fall, we are likely to see a transformation in how energy is generated, stored and distributed.
These five initiatives give me great hope for a greener future. The combination of technological advancement, commercial viability and global interest means that for the first time, sustainability is not just an aspiration but an achievable reality.