Innovation in action: Why Engineering and R&D should sit at the heart of an organization’s sustainability journey

When you think of sustainability efforts – what comes to mind first? Targets to reduce Green House Gas emissions set out by governments and businesses? Research and development of new, low-carbon energy sources to remove our dependency on fossil fuels? Or perhaps the technology that’s enabling the transition of the automotive industry from traditional combustion engines to electric vehicles?

Whichever springs to mind first, one thing is for sure: from healthcare to automotive and everything in between – Engineering, Research and Development (ER&D) bridge each and every sector. They form the bedrock of each industry: the powerhouse driving real-life, tangible change.

The very essence of engineering is innovation in action. And the time for that action is now.

If we’re to accelerate our journey towards a more sustainable world, its integral we take a closer look at how engineering is helping businesses drive the sustainability agenda on all levels – from creating products that deliver change, to evaluating the carbon footprint of value chains – all the way to the boardroom where C-suite executives make strategic calls that will impact the future of our planet.

Making the right call

Business leaders are feeling the weight of responsibility on their shoulders, having to balance boardroom objectives with the needs of the planet, clients, and society as a whole. In fact, according to our recent research 63% of executives agree that the business case for sustainability is clear, up from 21% in 2022, which signposts a significant shift in perception.

To reach these goals, every segment of a business needs to shift its mindset: embedding sustainability impact at the heart of every decision. But with an unprecedented number of challenges and large degrees of uncertainty thrown into the mix – from policy changes, to accelerating climate change, to shifting socio-economic environments – making the right decision can be tricky, to say the least.

The answers leaders need, cannot be found in isolation. In fact, to formulate actionable strategies you need a system that considers all the interdependent factors that are at play across the business ecosystem. That’s exactly what our Business for Planet System Modelling service does. Recognized as an Integrated Assessment Model, the tool shakes up traditional approaches to strategy design and scenario planning: enabling strategy co-creation and validation across the entire business ecosystem.

This tool is unique in that it uses open data and open-source analytics to provide deep insights for high-stakes investment projects. In doing so it enables businesses to assess, analyze, and manage risk while making secure and profitable decisions. The impacts are manifold for business and planet alike. This rings particularly true in capital-intensive industries such as the Finance or Insurance sectors – where making the right strategic call from the get-go could save businesses millions, sometimes more.

Addressing the value chain impact with circularity

While strategy calls tackle the long-term, sustainable trajectory of a company, it’s vital we also work to address the climate impact in the short term, too. Assessing the environmental footprint of a product, a service, or a value chain must be the first point of call. Only then can we begin to tackle carbon intensive pain points.

Ideally, every product or material would come ready-made with a stamp, quantifying exactly how much water and raw materials were used to make it and how much CO2 was emitted in the process. Unfortunately, it’s not as straightforward as that today. Calculating the environmental footprint of an aircraft, for example, is a complex job. Think about the thousands and millions of pieces that make up an aircraft, along with the number of companies that deliver each piece. Each company has its own supply chain, energy usage, and a workforce that commutes in most days. The list is like dominoes and goes on and on…

Life Cycle Assessment tools can help organizations assess the total environmental footprint of a product or service across its entire lifecycle. Leaders must then use this data to highlight areas which need addressing – and act accordingly.

However, those pain points can’t be replaced overnight. Creating and implementing more sustainable solutions takes time, so to speed up progress we must also address what already exists. A prime example of this is the Lifecycle Optimization for Aerospace platform we developed together with AWS. This platform aims to accelerate the adoption of circular economy practices in the aviation industry by automating the inspection process, optimizing lifecycle analysis of aircraft parts, and guiding decisions to extend their lifespan.

Sustainable by design

To mitigate climate change and protect our planet faster we need disruptive technologies that challenge the status quo and operate outside the box. Every day, all around the world, ER&D teams, experts, and individuals are ideating, creating, and testing new technologically-driven innovations – with this ethos in mind.

Take for example, the work we’re doing with The University of California, Berkeley to help pioneer new sustainable materials for manufacturing applications. The partnership is leveraging advances in AI, nanomaterials, and laser technologies to create a set of methodologies, tools, and labs, that will reduce the time to market for new, more sustainable materials. This work will help accelerate the use of sustainable manufacturing to help businesses across industries meet their goals.

Sustainable product design is an imperative. Imagine the environmental impact that could be avoided if an organization got it right from the get-go. Businesses must integrate these new technologies as part of every new product they design. Additionally, they must ensure System Integration is completed with compliance to industry standards, in terms of both performance and safety standards. Doing so will help them not only achieve their transition to net zero, but also manage resource scarcity, and reap benefits such as increased revenue growth and improved relationships with stakeholders.

Leaders need to re-centre their priorities so that sustainability is not just an option. A Business to Planet mindset shouldn’t be confined to top-level strategic decisions – it should be part and parcel of everything businesses do; baked in at every level of the business ladder. I believe ER&D holds the power to help leaders take this theory and turn it into a reality.