4 things a week: China's green tech
1. World
Having coffee with Chris Sherwin, Sustainability Lead at Logitech last month, we discussed the idea of climate adaption. My question was whether shifting focus away from mitigating climate change, to focusing on adapting to climate change suggested giving up? Even now I’m still seeing articles discussing how we need to prevent 1.5 degrees of global warming, and I’m like “hello” we are already there. We can’t prevent global warming from happening… it’s happening! My colleague just came back from Israel where temperatures have been 34.5°C - the hottest November on record.
This week I came across an article that summarised my thoughts much better than me. Written by Rupert Read, environmental philosopher and founder of the Climate Majority Project, in response to COP30 held in Belém, he says “Adaptation isn’t backing down. It isn’t “giving up”… It’s stepping up. Investing in adaptation isn’t a luxury or an act of resignation. It’s a sober act of realism and responsibility.” Whilst this is a huge task, it’s reassuring that more people are talking like this.
From a design perspective, this means thinking critically about what the future looks like. The future in which our goods and services will be used. Because the outcomes of what we build will last long into the future and it’s irresponsible to simply assume that tomorrow is going to look pretty much like today. It’s time to adapt our design and business practices to serve the changing needs of humans living in a climate changed world.
2. Innovation
Another week, another robot. But there is something about this one that really captured my attention. I’ve been pondering on why and have come to the conclusion that it’s because it sits somewhere between a Pixar character and a Playmobile model. It’s playful for all the right reasons, not trying to be too human, with a real focus on being friendly. It’s also the first time I’ve actually seen a robot fold clothes - socks of all things, so it’s impressively capable. With stairs all over the place in my home, Memo (that’s the robot’s name) would be useless as he has a wheel-base instead of legs, but the idea of a stable wheel-base does raise the question - what happens to leg-based robots when you turn them off? Do they just fall over?
Memo is designed by Sunday Robotics who have apparently sucked up all the best talent from Tesla’s Autopilot teams and has already received a cool $30M in investment. I think the idea of coming in with a lower-priced model, potentially <$10K, only achievable because it hasn’t got legs, is a smart move. Better to be the go-to for half the market at a price that more of them can afford.
Most people are still weirded out by the idea of having a robot in their home. But then a lot of people found self-driving cars super freaky in the beginning and yet they are completely normal in cities like San Francisco now. One of the reasons is that in SF taxi drivers are much less regulated, with anyone and their dog being able to become an Uber driver to pick up a few bucks. Calling an Uber and having someone pull up in their family car with half the family still in it, complete with arguments and wrong turns, is enough to encourage most people to try out a safe, quiet autonomous Waymo. If your family home is just as chaotic and you could, for less than the price of a family holiday, get Memo to clean and tidy your house every day… it’s easy to see the attraction.
3. Morrama
It was a big night for the Morrama team at the Dezeen Awards this week as we took up not one but two awards and an honourable mention. Sustainable Design of the Year for our Kibu headphones, plus an honourable mention in the Product Design category and the Bentley Lighthouse Award for myself.
The Lighthouse Award is awarded each year to a designer who is “curious and courageous in their approach and whose work has had a beneficial impact on social and environmental sustainability, inclusivity or community empowerment”. Slightly ironic that it’s sponsored by a gas-guzzling car brand, but I’m going to ignore that for today and enjoy the win.
And it is a massive honour, and has given me lot of motivation to live up to this accolade.
4. Inspiration
On a flight to Shanghai last month I lifted the window blind as we crossed from Russia into China and had to double take - there were wind turbines as far as the eye could see. Doing some research I think this was the recently completed wind farm in Inner Mongolia. Another huge green-energy project by the Chinese state.
Impressive, but perhaps not quite as impressive however as the 162 square miles of solar panels the Chinese have just built on the Tibetan Plateau.
The Talatan Solar Park is situated at an altitude of almost 10,000 feet and covers an area 10 x the size of Manhattan. Positioned at this height they are more efficient because the air is thinner and so the sun shines brighter. A necessity to power not only the plateau itself, but all the data centres that China are building in the area as part of their investment in artificial intelligence.
But it’s not only domestic applications that are benefiting from the green tech that the Chinese are not producing at such scale. Whilst the U.S. has U-turned on climate promises and Europe struggling to hit targets, lower-income countries are leveraging this low-cost solar panels, wind turbines and batteries to skip straight to renewables. Chile has electrified half its bus fleet, Morocco is now supplying European car makers batteries and China is investing in electric vehicle manufacturing in Brazil. Of course, the Chinese expect returns on their green tech investments, and counties like India (and China themselves) still have plans for new coal-plants, but it proves that renewable energy is viable and change is happening.
Thats it for today.
If you want to join the conversations, email us to 4things@morrama.com.
My '4 things' will be back at the end of next week.
Jo, and the Team x
