Messages from Keidanren Executives and Contributed articles to Keidanren Journals May, 2021 Sustainability and "Decentralization"
The 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) will be held in November 2021. The Paris Agreement, which is the basis of the discussion, aims to limit the rise in global temperature to a certain level compared to pre-industrial revolution days.
I believe that one of the trends since the industrial revolution in the mid-18th century was "concentration" as represented by the word "urbanization". This trend of concentration has reached a turning point with the outbreak of COVID-19. In many companies around the world, concentration of employees working in the office had shifted to "decentralization" of those working from home. Living in provincial areas instead of cities, has become more attractive.
The international technology exhibition "CES" which is held every year in Las Vegas, USA, attracted about 4,400 companies back in 2020. This year, the event went all-digital with companies participating from each location. This is also a shift from concentration to decentralization. I believe that the shift to decentralization will be essential when dealing with the risks of climate change.
The productivity of working from home is ensured by people being connected to the network. In the future, we will live in a society where everything is connected to the network, in other words, IoT. Under these circumstances, I believe that decentralized IoT devices with advanced sensing and processing functions will contribute to improving the sustainability of society by reducing the power consumption and data traffic of the entire network including the cloud, in addition to improving the productivity of the society.
I also believe that introducing decentralized microgrids with existing large-scale power grid will contribute to promoting the use of renewable energy and to strengthening the electricity supply chain.
At Sony, we have developed a microgrid system which combines solar panels and batteries that can mutually exchange electric power via direct current (DC) in a small community. After five years of demonstration experiments in Okinawa, we have delivered the research results by making the technology open source.
"Decentralization" could become a keyword for sustainability of people, society and the global environment. We hope to contribute to the society, as one of the companies that exists on this planet.