The New Future: Hitachi and Neom Braving New Frontiers in Decarbonization and Technology Incubation

We have reached the point where societal and environmental issues must and can be addressed through technological innovation. To succeed, world leaders, corporations, and start-ups must work in unison and co-create our future. This is not an easy task. It involves risk, investment, and an unbreakable resolve to succeed in making the world a better place. 

Hitachi’s Commitment to Social Innovation  

Hitachi believes that social innovation starts with a simple idea – that we have the power to change the world. This belief forms the core of the company, and its Global Social Innovation Business (GSIB) reinforces its commitment to lead change. 

At the heart of GSIB is its focus on co-creation, bringing thinkers and doers together to solve some of the most urgent and critical issues businesses and society face today. A single entity does not have all the answers, so innovation that drives massive transformation is only possible by cultivating partnerships. Hitachi contributes to these dynamic ecosystems through its expertise, resources, and passion to create business solutions that improve people’s lives, help the environment, and raise partners’ and customers’ corporate value. 

Hitachi’s unique process of discovery is not only a hands-on approach; it is “hands-in”. The first step in this approach is gaining partners’ and customers’ insights in order to understand market disruptions. These insights help fuel development of comprehensive solutions that go beyond incremental change to achieve real step change.  

Global Social Innovation Business in Action  

The GSIB organization leverages Hitachi’s global innovation and expertise to focus on four verticals – mobility, manufacturing, energy, and smart farming. Let us look at an example of how this process has worked to benefit a customer, partner, and the environment. 

GSIB and Madel, a leading Italian manufacturer of household cleaning products, came together to address two problems. Madel’s manufacturing process used vast quantities of water, which was used once and then treated at significant expense before being returned to the water network. The company also suffered from high electricity costs due to its excessive use of water pumps.  

It was fundamentally important for Madel to support Italy’s commitment to address climate change. Alongside its United Nations (UN) partners, Italy has adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which provides a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.  

With these goals in mind, the combined team worked together, engaged an ecosystem partner, and implemented two solutions. The first, a Membrane Reactor (a partner product), cleans the wastewater and removes the surfactant by-products. The result is that wastewater can be reused for production, dramatically reducing costs, and the strain on resources. The surfactant by-products are retained and used to create other products. 

To address energy consumption, Hitachi implemented its H-Vision cloud platform. Through the Internet of Things (IoT), H-Vision constantly monitors energy usage including anomalies, consumption peaks, alerts, flow inconsistencies, and creates baselines from which to manage. Using these key energy indicators, H-Vision recommends operating adjustments to streamline energy efficiency. 

The co-created solution, utilizing H-Vision in combination with the Membrane Reactor has given rise to both greater economic and environmental benefits. The combination of the two efforts enables Madel to reduce its energy and water needs while reducing costs and helping Italy toward achieving its Social Development Goals. These goals aim to create a better and more prosperous future for the next generation of people living in Italy.  

In addition to the manufacturing use case above, there are numerous examples of GSIB working with leaders in other verticals to bring together public-private partnerships to co-create innovative solutions to address their biggest business and societal problems. Here are a few examples: 

• Energy - Smart Grid Solution on Maui 
• Mobility - Optimise Prime, creating the world’s largest commercial electric vehicle dataset 
• Smart Farming – Innovating the reforestation industry 

Hitachi’s Corporate Commitment 

Leaders from around the world will gather in November of this year at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) to accelerate action toward the Paris Agreement goals and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Hitachi is a Principal Partner, reinforcing its commitment to the decarbonization of society and addressing the most pressing issues facing industry, the environment, and society. 

These decarbonization efforts will be led by Hitachi’s Chief Environmental Officer, Alistair Dormer. In addition to leading global efforts, Dormer will spearhead Hitachi’s corporate environmental commitments including striving to achieve carbon neutrality at all its business sites by 2030 and to achieve an 80 percent reduction in CO2 emissions across the company’s value chain by 2050. 

Hitachi’s commitment, innovation, resources, and co-creation methodology are examples of the power organizations hold to change the world.  

NEOM – Dreaming a New Future 

What if you could dream a new world into existence? What if you could design and build communities from the ground up? What if you could draw from the smartest minds in the world to create the new “state-of-the-art”? What if it used only renewable energy and created a truly sustainable ecosystem? What if you had a seemingly unlimited budget to do it?  

Welcome to NEOM… 

Saudi Arabia is doing something truly revolutionary with NEOM. With a combination of new thinking and a holistic people-centric vision, NEOM will embody technology innovation at a scale never seen before. The brainchild and vision of HRH Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, it is a centerpiece of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 plan to grow and diversify a traditionally oil-based economy and position the country to play a leading role in global development. This “built from the ground up” endeavor is backed by more than $500 billion in initial investment, primarily by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, along with local and international investors. 

NEOM is a region in northwest Saudi Arabia on the Red Sea being built from the ground up as a living laboratory. This will be a place where entrepreneurship will chart the course for a new future. As a hub of innovation, entrepreneurs, business leaders, and companies will come here to research, incubate, and commercialize new technologies and enterprises in groundbreaking ways. Residents of NEOM will embody an international ethos and embrace a culture of exploration, risk-taking and diversity - all supported by progressive laws compatible with international norms and conducive to economic growth. 

Scope of NEOM 

The sheer scope of what NEOM is setting out to accomplish is quite remarkable. Many of the sustainable and smart developments underway around the globe focus on one or two of these sectors. Yet, NEOM is tackling twenty sectors simultaneously which is monumental. Each sector requires expertise and technology unlike the others, yet all need to integrate, communicate, and interact to become one livable ecosystem. 

Each of these sectors warrants its own white paper to do them justice – get all the details at NEOM’s website. To give context to the depth and breadth of NEOM’s vision and reach, several of its sector highlights are below: 

Water – Water is one of our most precious and finite resources, and NEOM has a plan that provides citizens with clean, fresh water. A fully renewable and sustainable desalination water system incorporating cutting-edge, carbon-neutral “solar dome” technology will provide low-cost clean water to residents. All wastewater will be recycled and byproducts redirected for agricultural and industrial applications. NEOM will offer unprecedented efficiency in the production and cost of water on a regional and global scale, with the goal of providing zero-cost water solutions. 

Technology & Digital - NEOM will be the first region to host hyper-connected “cognitive” cities, where world-class technology uses real-time data and intelligence. The goal is to collect, process, and intelligently apply 90 percent of the data generated to provide a higher quality of life for individuals and shorten the time from idea to viable business for enterprises. Through early deployment of robotics, human-machine interfaces, and artificial intelligence (AI), growth will be ignited and will facilitate adoption of leading-edge solutions. 

Mobility - Residents will be encouraged to walk and cycle and will have access to state-of-the-art public transit and eVTOLs (electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles). Industry will rely on an innovative freight rail network, autonomous shuttles, and delivery drones and robots for goods distribution. NEOM Port will be the world’s first fully automated port and the most technologically advanced. A dedicated airport and airline will service business travel needs and the region’s emerging tourism sector. 

Energy - One of the major projects related to energy is the creation of the world’s largest renewable green hydrogen plant. When complete, the project will save three million tons of carbon dioxide per year, the equivalent of the emissions of 700,000 cars. Green hydrogen is a form of renewable energy that can be used as fuel for many different types of transportation and power plants. Hydrogen can also be used as a green ingredient across a variety of manufacturing industries such as steel, cement, and fertilizer production. It is seen by many as a DNA for green chemicals, green fuels, and the circular carbon economy1. In addition to making NEOM a showcase for the various uses of green hydrogen, the country is positioned to be an exporter of this environmentally friendly energy source, further diversifying its economy, and helping to achieve Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030. 

Health and Well-Being – The health ecosystem will be centered on the individual and guided by high-end integrated technologies to provide a comprehensive experience at each point of care. This circular, end-to-end platform of healthcare will emphasize proactive prevention, supported by primary care and the latest in medical and surgical care, all on an operating system driven by AI and data science.  

The Line 

These critical sectors represent the building blocks of the future city. NEOM will bring them all together, with sustainability as the centerpiece in The Line. 

The Line will be a city of a million residents with a length of 170 kilometers (105 miles) that preserves 95 percent of nature with zero cars, zero streets, and zero carbon emissions. It is being touted as a revolution of urban living. 

This city is being planned and built adhering to four guiding principles: 

Live Where People Come First – NEOM is reimagining the approach to urban development, overcoming challenges of modern cities, and prioritizing people. 

Walk Anywhere; Everything is Five Minutes Away – Thoughtful urban design places everything in close proximity. Walkable distances promote a healthy lifestyle with the longest journey never more than five minutes by foot or twenty minutes by public transit. 

Live in Harmony with Nature – Protecting stunning landscapes and integrating nature into the heart of communities creates unmatched lifestyle and well-being. 

Live a Simplified Life Enhanced by Predictive Technology - Making everyday life seamless through invisible AI-enabled infrastructure that continuously learns and predicts ways to make life easier for residents and businesses. 

The challenges to deliver on these promises are unprecedented. The secret to meeting these targets is an innovative invisible infrastructure (see graphic below). An ultra-high-speed transit layer lies two levels below ground with the services and logistics layer lying one level below. This allows for the elimination of cars and traditional streets with communities linked by the underground transit network. 

Creating a Path to the New Future 

Public and private entities, entrepreneurs, and inventors have been innovating since the beginning of time. Companies like Hitachi have innovation and co-creation as part of corporate culture, inspiring new ideas, creative solutions to the world’s biggest problems, and collaborating to bring the brightest and most creative minds to the drawing board. This level of innovation invents new business models, transformational technology, and helps us tackle societal issues within our line of sight.  

NEOM exemplifies a new future, one that is made real with a monumental shift in mindset and vision and redefines “innovation” on a massive versus incremental scale. Bringing The Line to life rests in the hands and minds of many passionate visionaries determined to create the best world possible for people, nature, and industry. NEOM represents the best that dreamers and innovators with a common ethos and a relentless energy to succeed can co-create.