Innovative Barcelona

Back from the MObile World Congress:
Having heard about a concept phone manufactured mostly from recycled materials and designed to consume less energy in production and operation than existing phone, made from recycled aluminium drinks cans, the rubber keyboard from old car tires; transmission towers that uses up to 50 percent less energy than standard towers. I was pretty shocked to read about the every day environmental awareness of the Spanish: while the amount of solid waste has risen by 60% since the 1990s there is only 9% pf it being fully recycled. having done some research on this , the main reason for it does not seem to be the lack of procedure or separate dust bins, the problem rather seems to be in the attitude of the citizens who apparently are not using the existing systems of waste separation. Well, back to our good old multinationals, i guess it is a good sign that brands that are viewed as 'cool' are at least trying to go a bit greener, even if it is just "greenwash" at the very least there will take a change in perception and attitude take place.

Unfortunately, the gap between innovative advancement in financially driven business and research and the shallow cessation of every day life in the streets of Barcelona showed once again that modern society does need to teamwork on our common goal: the global village and it's maintanance without it overheating.

Giants getting hot

Hey hey, the multinationals are making a move. Twelve leading international companies , including Nokia, Nike, and Hewlett-Packard have signed the Tokyo declaration, which has been organised by WWF and Nokia! Doing though the multinationals pledge their support for a worldwide reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 50% in 2050.

Sony, who was targeting to reduce it's emissions by 7 % by 2010 from 2000 levels, already cut their annual emissions by 9 % (Stringer). Having understood that their is no contradiction between economical growths and "going green" (thanks to Mr Stern) it is now our turn to understand to not only paint the multinationals black but teamwork globally.

Well, call me a naive optimist, but in my humble opinion, this is the beginning of a just the change of direction that is needed.