3:Technology and Innovation, Sustainability and Innovation Management

Today's lesson saw us starting off with a video on Story about stuff. It highlighted the significance of people using up more resources than we have for our generation and even sucking our future generations' dry. Through the continual process of extraction, production,consumption and waste generation, more resources are being utilised and at the same time resulting in far devastating pollution towards the environment. So, many may wonder, how did all these originate?

The answer is simple- INDUSTRALISATION. Industrialisation is the process of social and economic change. It is part of a wider modernisation process, where social change and economic development are closely related with technological innovation, with the resultant being an extensive organisation of economy with the purpose of manufacturing. People transited from hunting of food, to growing of food, to selling and production of food via factories. Of course, factories produce far more items than just food. Textiles, chemicals, automobiles etc, are also products of the entire manufacturing wing. With mass production, comes mass pollution to both the waters and the air because in the process of manufacturing, by-products that usually comprise of toxins are released into the air/sea. And this is exactly why we see the world as coming to an end pretty soon as the vicious cycle of industrialisation to drive an economy spurs production of consumer goods, likewise the production of pollutants that causes global warming.

This is when the point where Matthew discussed (if development and sustainability are trade offs) comes into the picture. I do concede that Industrial development indirectly means that a part of the environment will be sacrificed because through industrialization, amount of pollutants in the air will multiply exponentially-> GHG, flora and fauna sacrificed for building of skyscrapers etc. In that sense it is a trade off, but often it is inevitable because we can’t always have the best of both worlds. Besides we can’t deny the fact that there have been active efforts in sustaining the environment/reducing the damage we’re doing to earth. Examples are the development of environmental-friendly technologies like hybrid cars, cars running on Compressed Natural Gas. These aim to reduce the amount of GHG released and causing global warming. Technologies aside, individual efforts have also been prominent in protecting our environment concurrently while we progress industrially. With that, we can slowly right our wrong and progress towards the circular thinking represented by the sustainable industrial model where economic development and environmental well-being are of equal emphasis.

After which, we return to the root issue of industrialization that encompasses the massive utilization of limited resources on Earth. This clearly indicates that ecological footprints are rising (as shown by graph below presented by Aline).

As discussed in class, I feel that getting companies to keep track of their ecological footprints is critical becausewe’ll be constantly reminded not to use more than the earth could provide us with at the point of time, and also be reminded of the fact that we have limited resources and should seek to continually discover more alternatives for future generations to be supported. In this manner, we generate a mentality when we’re always thinking for the future and this could be a stepping stone towards our pursuit of sustainability. It will be good if the government can step in whenever necessary to make sure that companies are on the right track. But definitely not to directly impose legislations to enforce companies to keep track of their ecological footprints because it would take just too much resources/manpower (of which we are already facing limitations) for enforcement. Furthermore, it should be in the onus of the individual to ensure that we are not demanding more than we should and if we were to continually depend on the actions of government to decide our next move, then won’t we be a bunch of irresponsible and lazy citizens to which our future generations cannot look up to?

Towards the end of the lesson, we also looked at technology and innovation by 3M which used effective methods to stimulate creativity and productivity in workers for the generation of better and sustainable ideas. It was also actively discussed on how Singapore could work towards a more innovative prospect in the future. The key issue is that, education aspect can be tweaked to encourage more on creative thinking rather than an examination-theory based system. We have to employ the right education techniques on our citizens (especially from young) because Singapore’s only dependable resource is HUMAN resource and these young people are going to be the pillars of Singapore 20-30 years down the road. If we imbue an actively creative thinking element in them, it would be easy for them to innovate or experiment on different ideas when they enter the workplace.

Companies can also allow ‘free-play’ on the employees part for them to come up with imaginative ideas not bound by any restrictions because these are the situations in which the best in someone could be brought out. Rewarding employees duly, likewise, serve as an incentive for individuals to contribute more actively and spurs other employees to achieve the same level of productivity.

But some may argue that within Singapore, it’s hard to encourage people to think actively since we’ve all grown up in the era of exams exams and more exams, with minimal opportunities to voice out opinions and seek professional advice on certain ideas. So I feel that interaction with foreign talents, here, is essential in helping to gain a wider understanding on how foreigners work and feel towards a subject matter, which could ultimately spark off a series of innovative conceptions and implementations. Hence, there are many factors that could possibly bring Singapore to a whole new innovative fraternity.

Overall, today’s lesson was pretty interactive and the presenters had slides that were systematic and comprehensible. Great job guys! I’d rate an 8/10 