Emerging questions in sustainability: a European perspective

September 20, 2021

I had the pleasure of attending the European PRODURABLE summit last month, which brought together leaders from a wide range of industries and disciplines in Paris to discuss trends and share solutions in sustainability.  In partnership with the French Ministry of Ecological and Solidarity Transition, the summit focused on the thematic objective of “regeneration,” underscoring how quickly the debate on sustainability has gone from theory to practice. 

Covering topics including the energy transition, the protection of nature and biodiversity, smart cities, circular economies, sustainable finance and responsible consumption, the summit sought to shed light on the role of nature and nature-based solutions (le “vivant”), the evolution of products and services to support a transition to a more sustainable economy and rethinking how companies, financial markets and other institutions can best reinforce social cohesion during a time of macro-level transformation. 

Although panel participants were in consensus on the overall importance of adopting sustainable approaches, the debate on solutions has clearly become more sophisticated and nuanced, demonstrating a certain number of ideological divides.

Changing processes, changing systems

One important difference among participants is the role of process change versus the role of system change.  With respect to consumption patterns, certain multinationals in consumers goods, including L’Oréal, Renault and Carrefour, have focused on lowering the environmental impact of their processes and operations from the perspective of carbon emissions, waste and water consumption. On the other hand, smaller players have spent time thinking about the threshold question of whether and to what extent their product should be brought into the market at all. 

In my view, both process and system change are critical, as well as completing rethinking the notion of “capital” to include not just financial elements, but also the concepts of “social capital” and “ecological capital.”  This includes not only universal reporting standards on key metrics such as carbon emissions and water consumption, but also adopting a set of accounting standards that would allow companies to appropriately value and disclose these elements in their financial reporting.

Sustainable cities, cities of the future

With respect to cities and urban spaces, another question that emerged from the debates is the extent to which sustainable cities should focusing on building new ecological and environmentally-focused projects and constructions and/or instead focus on refurbishing, repurposing and rendering more versatile existing spaces. 

A number of ideas were discussed in this respect. First, the flight from big cities in favor of smaller and medium-sized cities, particularly in France, opens up a window of opportunity to rethink the organization of metropolises and the extent that agricultural and nature-based solutions can be better incorporated into urban life. A number of pilot projects in this respect have been organized by the French Ministry of Ecological and Solidarity Transition, including in cities such as Angers and Poitiers.

Equally, much discussion focused on the concept of circular cities and the extent to which the resources of existing public space and infrastructure can be more efficiently leveraged. This includes rethinking urban strategies of renovating and repurposing public spaces to allow for a broader range of uses and welcome other stakeholders. 

What is clear is that a transversal approach to urban growth is critical to understanding and building the cities of tomorrow. What should urban transportation look like? How should a city sustain itself in terms of food, water and energy supply?  How the cities of the future can best align themselves with nature?

Defining a new consumption model

Building on the theme of regeneration, nearly every discussion included some measure of defining what consumption should look like going forward.  Cities and gardens are priorities for regeneration, as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown how most urban inhabitants seek a much stronger link to nature. 

Equally, engagement between producer and consumers must be enhanced; on the one hand, ensuring that consumers remain honest about their commitments and impact and, on the other hand, incentivizing consumers to use their purchase power in a way that not only supports environmental and social goals, but also goes towards lowering the scale of the currently globalized consumption model. 

While it is clear that technology start-ups and mobile applications have an important role to play in generating data and informing producers and consumers, in my view, “artificialization” is not the solution for building a sustainable future.  Indeed, we mustn’t forget the genius of humanity; humans are themselves capable of accelerating regeneration to a more sustainable future.