Page 21 - CSA Speaker Bulletin December 2017 | CSA Celebrity Speakers

ENVIRONMENT
SONY KAPOOR
SUSTAINABILITY & TECHNOLOGY
MICROSITE | VIDEO
As Managing Director of
Re-Define, an international
Think Tank, I advise a
number of governments,
pension funds and
sovereign wealth funds.
As CEO of Court Jesters,
a boutique consultancy, I
work with large corporate
clients.
Over the course of the year, the performance both of individual
three biggest questions we are
asked to help our clients with
now are:
1. How does the rise
of digitization and
technology affect what I
do?
2. How do I make what I do
sustainable without losing
money?
3. How will technology affect
society and the economy?
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This shows a rising awareness
amongst decision-makers that
the rise of sustainability and
technology are amongst the
biggest secular trends that will
shape business, government and
society in the 21stcentury.
For the large long-term
investors we advise, it is critical to the efficiency, effectiveness
to understand how these two
trends will affect the economic
prospects and financial
companies and asset classes,
as well as that that of whole
countries and sectors.
The pincer effect of
technological advances in
renewables and a rising focus on
sustainability has, for example,
put the future of coal under a
question mark. A similar effect
also led the $1 trillion Norwegian
Sovereign Wealth Fund which
I have advised on investment
strategy, to decide to divest all
of its oil and gas investments.
Technological advances in shale
oil and electric vehicles and
binding commitments to limit
climate change, has sharply
increased risks to the long-term
profitability of the oil and gas
sector.
The Infotech and sustainability
revolution has been a blessing
to many developing economies,
helping them leapfrog old
methods of infrastructure
delivery and public services.
India’s leapfrogging from
having just 2 landlines per 100
households to a mobile phone
for nearly every adult, and its
focus on off-grid solar power
for rural communities speaks
and power of sustainability,
technology and financial
profitability working together.
In developed economies too,
these two secular forces
are reshaping the industrial
landscape. Germany’s
Energiewende has reshaped
utilities not just in Germany, but
also more broadly in Europe.
Technology is slowly changing
the delivery of education and
health care, core functions of
government in rich economies,
with leapfrogging being the way
forwards for poorer economies
that do not yet have universal
access to healthcare and
education services. The circular
economy mindset, once again
shaped by the dual forces of
technology and sustainability,
promises to reshape whole
business models and sectors,
even whole economies. Denmark
and Finland have both recently
adopted national strategies to
that effect. Read more.
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