The imperative to foster sustainable growth while navigating the tides of disruptive technology has never been more critical in today’s business environment. But how can disruptive technology drive sustainable growth?
This was a central question posed at Avasant’s recent Empowering Beyond Summit (EBS). Panelists Cynthia McKenzie, CEO of STEM Advantage; Tembi (Sibanda) Hommes, Global Chief Data Officer at ARUP; Anish Sethi, Chief of the Digital Solutions Centre at UNICC, along with moderator Chitra Rajeshwari, Principal at Avasant, discussed strategies for businesses to achieve growth while upholding sustainability. Organizations are at a pivotal crossroads, tasked with fostering sustainable growth while navigating the rapid advancements in disruptive technologies. As the conversation around artificial intelligence (AI) and other innovations intensifies, companies must balance innovation with responsibility, ensuring their progress aligns with ethical, social, and environmental considerations.
While disruptive technologies offer immense potential for driving sustainable growth, they introduce significant complications in the business landscape.
“Every company has to deal with disruptive technology to stay viable. You have to look at every technology that comes in and how it can improve your business goals,” Mckenzie said. “I think it is all about harnessing it to meet your business goals, it isn’t about having it just to have it.”
Aligning company operations with sustainable development goals, balancing rapid innovation with ethical standards and ensuring global equity in technology access are areas to be explored in navigating the new era. Yet the key question remains: how can organizations effectively leverage these technologies to foster sustainable growth while tackling the ethical, social, and environmental challenges they introduce?
Aligning Company Operations with Sustainable Development Goals
During the panelist discussion Sethi stated that “there is a lot of power and potential in disruptive technologies to support the sustainable development goals.” Organizations can balance their innovation and responsibility by first integrating their operations with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Many companies are integrating the SDGs into their core business strategies, ensuring that their growth supports long-term sustainability and does not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
The UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides a comprehensive framework for businesses to contribute to global sustainability efforts. Disruptive technologies are pivotal in driving this sustainability agenda, though challenges such as measuring carbon footprints for Emission Standards Guidelines (ESG) reporting persist. ESG reporting encompasses three scopes:
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- Scope One: Emissions from direct operations, such as vehicles and buildings.
- Scope Two: Indirect emissions from the energy used in operations.
- Scope Three: The most challenging to track, encompassing emissions from the entire value and supply chain.
Tesla, for example, is an organization that has aligned its operations with the SDGs. Known for its commitment to sustainability and electric vehicles, Tesla designs its products to be environmentally friendly and sustainable. The company tracks its emissions and documents the progress in its Impact Report. Many of Tesla’s initiatives and practices align with the SDGs, such as the production of renewable energy sources and maintaining a sustainable supply chain, demonstrating its commitment to balancing innovation and responsibility.
Organizations are harnessing disruptive technology to mitigate their environmental footprint. Data centers, being significant sources of heat and energy emissions, are utilizing technology to innovate more sustainable data center solutions, satellite imagery is one such technology, providing hazard assessments around weather, wind, airspace, and more, to identify optimal locations for data centers.
Incorporating these technologies allows organizations to better analyze and manage their environmental impact, demonstrating how innovation can be leveraged to foster sustainable growth.
Ensuring Global Equity in Technology Access
Organizations can also achieve a balance between innovation and responsibility by prioritizing equity and inclusion in technology access. Recent discussions have highlighted that most of the world is underdeveloped or developing, posing a significant challenge to their integration into the digital economy and effective use of disruptive technologies. This raises the question of how these countries can develop and be part of the digital economy and effectively utilize disruptive technologies.
According to the World Bank in 2023, about one-third of the global population, or 2.6 billion people, remained offline. While more than 90 percent of people in high-income countries used the internet, only one in four in low-income countries had internet access. This statistic underscores the importance of an equitable sustainability agenda that ensures developing nations are not left behind.
Organizations must adopt frameworks that support equitable growth and use next-gen technology platforms to ensure that support reaches where it is most needed. Launching initiatives like the SDG Digital by the United Nations and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) highlight the pivotal role of disruptive technologies and digital solutions in fostering sustainable growth by balancing innovation and responsibility.
The National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) is an organization that focuses on promoting digital equity and inclusion. NDIA’s approach to prioritizing equity in technology access involves a combination of advocacy, community engagement, research, and coalition building. By addressing the specific needs of communities, sharing knowledge, and advocating for policies that promote digital equity, NDIA strives to ensure that all individuals and communities have equal opportunities to access and benefit from technology.
Balancing Rapid Innovation with Ethical Standards
Additionally, the Empowering Beyond Summit panelists discussed maintaining innovation with ethical standards is necessary to navigate the business landscape while growing sustainably. While companies are eager to implement disruptive technologies to stay competitive, they must also ensure these innovations align with ethical and social standards. Companies must set clear goals and pursue initiatives that align with these goals without compromising their ethical principles. Organizations should embed ethical considerations throughout their entire structure rather than addressing them on a project-by-project basis. This comprehensive approach requires continuous monitoring and transparent reporting to maintain ethical integrity at every level.
According to Telecom Review, the “ethics of technology delves into the moral and ethical implications that arise from the development, deployment, and use of technology in society.” It is imperative to have a delicate balance between progress and responsibility as innovation continues to push boundaries. While the advancements in artificial intelligence, for example, have great potential to revolutionize industries and enhance our quality of life, we cannot ignore the ethical concerns. A balance between innovation and responsibility requires critical assessment of potential risks and consequences associated with disruptive technology and implementing guidelines and framework to ensure ethical use. This balance, however, can be difficult to achieve, especially when rapid technological advancements outpace the development of regulatory frameworks and ethical guidelines.
Google, Microsoft, and International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) have all been vocal about responsible AI. Google established its own AI principles, while IBM implemented an ethics board to explore best practices and develop companywide AI ethics policies. Microsoft has advocated for regulations to ensure AI systems are designed and implemented in a way that respects human rights and democratic values. Furthermore, Microsoft has formed an AI and Ethics Engineering Research Committee to assess AI initiatives and oversee its alignment with ethical standards.
In summary, while disruptive technologies offer immense potential for fostering sustainable growth, they also introduce significant complications. These include challenges in emissions tracking, ethical dilemmas, and digital inequality. Is it possible to strike a perfect balance between innovation and responsibility, or is it an ongoing challenge that requires constant vigilance? Addressing these complications requires a nuanced and well-coordinated approach to ensure that innovation does not come at the expense of sustainability and social responsibility. Organizations must be proactive in ensuring both innovation and responsibility are as balanced as possible.
By Teneka Carrington, Avasant