Page 113 - SAMENA Trends - September-October 2020

ARTICLE SAMENA TRENDS

Weakened political collaboration: Technology to the rescue. One of the many similarities and correlations when
Sustainability is dependent on strong overriding medical principles that the dealing with such an existential threat. To
global cooperation, but during the corona current virus crisis has exposed is the me, there are two overriding lessons to be
crisis, we have seen many examples of need for testing. This helps us understand learned.
deep rifts in the relationship between levels of viral spread and the data can be
countries. used to manage intervention, movement of 1. To beat a global challenge, we
More inequality: In many geographies, medical equipment, and hospital capacity. must act as one
it is the poor, uneducated, and those in Similarly, the use of technology to manage The pandemic and our sustainability
most need, who are the hardest hit by the movement of people using IoT, image challenges share the characteristic
pandemic. The poor have in effect become recognition and AI can be critical to help that they are borderless and indifferent
poorer, and indications are that it will take beat the virus spreading. Understanding to skin color, religion or background.
them longer to recover from the effects of the importance of technology and data Governmental efforts to treat them as
the virus. is equally important for the sustainability such by conservative, isolationist, and
Positive effects: Conscience and agenda. On a global scale, complexities in uncooperative policies are not likely to
collaboration interrelationships of all physical aspects be particularly fruitful. Global challenges
However, there are also some instances of our globe, cannot be controlled and must be fought on the global arena, through
where fighting the Corona crisis and impacted, let alone understood, if we collaboration, sharing, by partnering and
working on a more sustainable world go are not adept at gathering and using through trust, both geopolitically and
hand in hand. data. I believe the Corona experience will within international businesses.
have a significant impact on the use of
Drop in pollution. The decrease in human digitalization and technology to enable 2. Resilience through technology
activity has resulted in cleaner air and and accelerate sustainability. A sustainable society is an inherently
water, albeit for the time being. resilient society with a stable economy
Conclusion: Without technology, we will based on strong collaboration between
Uptake in remote services: The crisis has fail private, public, and educational partners.
led to an increase in remote communication The virus affects us personally and privately A resilient society is also agile, and able
and healthcare. Post corona, this acquired in ways that sustainability mostly has not, to change and to adapt. Fully embracing
experience could make education and yet. But as I have outlined above, there are technology and digitalization, will allow us
healthcare more accessible to those who to achieve these attributes. Technology
are poor, less well off, or just difficult to Technology helps us helps us manage the intricacies of global
reach. processes, and enables communications,
manage the intricacies collaboration and visualization across
Stronger scientific collaboration. Whereas of global processes, and distance and time. Data and AI are critical to
many partnerships between countries enables communications, understand the complex interrelationships
have been disrupted, scientists have done of our planet and to digitize core systems
the opposite. Some reports point to an collaboration and visual- along with reliable security solutions. My
entirely new level of cooperation in the ization across distance prediction is that technology will be the
global scientific community, which will also foundation of what allows us to beat the
greatly benefit the sustainability agenda. and time. Data and AI are pandemic, and it will be the foundation of
critical to understand the what will enable us to continue our work
More conscious consumers. Indications complex interrelationships with the UN Sustainable Development
show, that consumer buying behavior Goals. Without resilience and without a
and brand expectations will become more of our planet and to digitize robust technology platform, we will fail;
focused on matters of health and safety, core systems along with with the correct use and application of it,
including recycling principles and smart we stand a good chance of winning, and of
resource use. reliable security solutions. making our planet a better place to live.

If you are interested in a collaboration with Devoteam, you are welcome to contact me at hans.lindeman@devoteam.com
(This article is an edited and abridged version of Hans Lindeman's Devotalk on April 22. Go here to watch the entire keynote).

113 SEP-OCT 2020