In this update on my research on Digital Economy and Sustainability, I want to give you an overlook on how technology changes our mobility.

Our entire system of mobility is going to change soon (7-10 years). Not only are there more and more electric cars (e-cars) but also self-driving ones. These cars are no longer just on a drawing board, at this very moment they are rolling on our street. This fast progress is mainly, because there are a lot of big names from the IT and automobile sector involved and they are getting closer and closer to automating our entire mobility system.
Imagine a world for a moment where: traffic pollution is reduced to zero, as there are only e-cars driving around, and so are accidents (or at least nearly zero), because there are no humans behind the wheel, but very smart computer algorithms equipped with dozens of sensors to find the most eco-friendly way to your destination and to avoid accidents. Is this all too good to be true?
And I must say yes, as there is also a dark side to all this development. If there are just self-driving cars a lot of people lose their jobs, e.g. truck and taxi drivers, as they are no longer needed. Furthermore, if there are more e-cars, our consumption of electricity would increase which would have to be produced somehow. In 2016, this mainly happens trough coal and gas. This could lead to an offset of the reduction in emission in traffic by an increased amount of pollution from generating electricity, unless we focus more on renewable energy, of course.
I hope you noticed, that to solve a big problem with new technology, you have to see the bigger picture and consider all the possible outcomes to make a sustainable change for our society.

Cheers from your Associate,

Christoph

Out of the six oikos Learning Circles we today present updates from the Energy and Entrepreneurship Learning Circles.

“The Energy Learning Circle targets to collaborate with Renewable Energy-centered start ups like the Indo-Australian social enterprise, Pollinate Energy (PE), which provides India’s Urban Poor with devices like solar panels and lanterns at a low-cost micro-loan system. We aim to support these ventures with new aspects of their business model. Members of our learning circle would learn about the microfinance models, business strategy and technical aspects, while including its difficulties in the first step. Further, we intend to come up with new ideas dealing with the topic “sustainable housing”, where the focus is the promotion of sustainable housing in two contexts; First, for the private owners to build an efficient house in terms of HVAC consumption. Second, propose the public policies to implement housing for the Urban Poor.

To formulate the sessions of the Learning Circle, we invite motivated oikees to communicate their ideas on our Facebook page or contact us (Managers) to have a fruitful discussion while presenting the ideas to the concerned parties. With their feedback, and along with the other members within the Learning circle, we brainstorm the ideas and concertize solutions to improve the impact. Looking forward to having your valuable input, Do join us!”

“The Entrepreneurship Learning Circle aims to give the participants a feel of how an idea can be transformed to a business case while helping them understand the potential of their idea, along with a plan to provide a platform to validate the ideas through the experts & investors. The Learning Circle sessions will be divided into 2 parts – Before the FutureLab & During the FutureLab. It would a practical application of the theory learnt throughout.

As an outcome, we plan to setup an Entrepreneurship cell. This cell is our way of calling the Entrepreneurship Learning circle and stay active all the year round as the concept of Learning Circles suggests. The goal of this E cell is to provide support to the students who have potential ideas but are not aware how to move about. To equip them with tools and guides and convert their ideas. We will have faculty, oikos alumni, experts and guides for any help throughout the transformation. We look forward to exploring the potential projects and impactful outcomes. We are continuously looking for potential candidates who can run this E Cell. Get in touch with us and stay tuned!”

https://oikos-international.org/programmes/action-learning/learning-circles