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Sustainability

Rethink

A series of whitepapers on how we need to rethink sustainability

Download ‘Time for sustainability’ whitepaper3 MB pdf
Download ‘Tech and the living world’ whitepaper6 MB pdf

Capgemini believes that a sustainable future requires greater collective action, bolder leadership, and smarter technology.

To inspire and inform, we’re producing a series of papers – ReThink – that looks at sustainability from a fresh set of perspectives and evaluates how technology can be a key lever in the response to the twin major issues facing us today – the climate crisis and the threat to biodiversity.  

Our ReThink whitepapers cover a variety of sustainability issues, including governance of biodiversity, the relationship of sustainability  with time, and the circular economy, all explored through the prisms of business, academia, NGOs and the broader society.

These papers are produced in collaboration with key technology partners that we work together with on a daily basis, bringing together their innovative technology solutions (such as AI, precision sensors, machine learning) and our strategic and operational skills.  

Read our papers on biodiversity and the relationship between time and sustainability. Look out for further topic editions in the coming months.

The whitepapers

Time for sustainability

How can we reconcile human expectations and planetary boundaries?

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Today’s societies seem to be driven by an increased speed in many aspects of our lives – from work to leisure. Moreover, the impact on consumption is far beyond the planet’s ability to provide the resources required to keep up with this pace.

While climate change remains the most pressing challenge of this era, can this new rhythm of living be sustainable ? How can we reconcile our human expectations and planetary boundaries ? According to Cyril Garcia, Capgemini Group’s Head of Sustainability Services and Corporate Responsibility, “We need to reconsider the notion of time, find new levers of satisfaction alternative to speed and to immediacy.”

Our second paper, Time for Sustainability, argues that the climate emergency implies a new relationship with time. Opposing the degrowth reflex to sustainable growth, it deconstructs the values associated with speed and slowness to stop pitting them against each other: there can be good and fair speed, just as there can be harmful slowness.
 
To bring the challenges to life, we describe some real-life case studies, where practical solutions have been implemented around the world, and where technology and innovation had been able to meet both speed and sustainability, or both short and long-term sustainable solutions.

With contributions from philosophers, universities, and our partner Salesforce, we argue for the need to rethink the concept of our pace of life, and how slowing down to meet sustainability objectives is not always the answer. Actually, it is a matter of setting a new rhythm of consumption and production that is more respectful of the planet and its resources.

Tech and the living world

How can technology contribute to the understanding, monitoring and preservation of our biodiversity?

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According to Cyril Garcia, Capgemini Group’s Head of Sustainability Services and Corporate Responsibility, “approaching planetary boundaries leaves us with no other choice than to change our way of working and our relationship with the planet. Biodiversity is one of those planetary boundaries that we cannot overshoot, due to its complex, central and interrelated role in helping mitigate climate change and maintaining resilient ecosystems.”

Our first paper “Tech and the Living World” argues that putting the preservation of biodiversity back on the same level as the fight against global warming is urgent and an absolute necessity.

With contributions from scientific bodies, NGOs and universities, together with our partner AWS, we argue for the need for fresh thinking regarding business models and societal change, and we explore how existing and emerging technologies can help protect, maintain, and restore biodiversity.  

To bring the challenges to life, we describe some real-life case studies, where practical solutions have been implemented around the world – in forests, deserts and the seas – by Capgemini teams, working together with AWS, with positive results.

This paper challenges the reader to rethink our place in the global ecosystem, how profoundly we’re linked to every living being, and how we can act to protect, preserve, and restore such a precious resource – biodiversity. Read on to discover more.