By Kunal Ruvala, President, Honeywell Technology Solutions (HTS)
The definition of success within the corporate sector has rapidly evolved to include the ability of an entity to move beyond profit and upgrade its business model to a sustainable one. This objective has now become a strategic business imperative and is being augmented by the collective efforts of businesses, consumers, and governments.
These efforts are vital vehicles on the road toward reaching India’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as towards achieving the country’s 2070 emissions reduction goal.
Sustainability is an umbrella term that has many facets, including social development, clean tech (clean energy, clean water, and sustainable agriculture), and human resources development. Technologies that help organizations achieve their environmental, sustainability, and governance (ESG) goals are now paramount to building a sustainable and successful business. These technological breakthroughs, including cleaner fuels, hydrogen fuel, carbon capture, low global warming potential refrigerants, plastic circularity, energy optimization, energy-efficient data centers, etc. are here to define a cleaner, greener future.
Plastic circularity
With rapid population expansion and the dynamic increase in industrialisation, the world needs better solutions for plastic management and recycling. New technologies that develop plastic waste management techniques are critical for lowering carbon footprint. Companies are looking to use more recycled content in their packaging in a cyclical and sustainable pattern. Advanced plastics recycling technology can help upgrade a wide range of plastics, including municipal and industrial waste plastic, packaging materials, and plastic films to name a few. These new technologies can reduce the need for fossil fuels in the creation of virgin plastics, with the goal of enabling a circular economy for plastics.
Commercial-scale processes that convert unrecycled waste plastics into sustainable polymer feedstocks can displace fossil feedstocks in new plastics production. This ensures that waste plastic is broken down to feed existing plastics production infrastructure to make new plastic again. Industry studies illustrate that this process potentially increases the amount of plastic that can be recycled by three times and reduces CO 2 equivalent emissions reductions by up to 57% relative to the production of the same amount of virgin plastics from fossil sources.
Cleaner fuels
Alongside plastic circularity, creating cleaner fuels through processes that reduce emissions are just as integral to sustainable development. Today’s petrochemical companies primarily use fossil feed sources derived from crude oil. The newer process can produce high yields of petroleum naphtha from sustainable feedstocks like used cooking oil and animal fats. This yield can emit up to 80% lower greenhouse gas as compared to petroleum feeds.
Alternatives such as green aviation fuels from sustainable sources have already been developed and are key to reducing the industry’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Green Hydrogen, which is produced using an electrolyser powered by renewable electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, is expected to play an important role in the energy transition in the coming decades. Developing refineries of the future and identifying sustainable, cleaner fuel alternatives including sustainable aviation fuel, green diesel, and green (and blue) hydrogen will help build the platform for India’s sustainable future.
Moving beyond fuels, battery storage technology, software analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML) have key roles to play in ensuring sustainable energy production. Battery energy storage systems have the potential to guarantee that homes and businesses are powered by renewable energy. This advanced technological solution allows the storage and dispensation of energy in a smart way.
Smart buildings
People spend 80% to 90% of their time in buildings – be it homes, offices, schools, shopping malls, hotels, or airports. 1 Not many are aware that buildings are responsible for 39% of the world’s carbon emissions, according to research findings from the World Green Building Council. The majority (28%) is caused by operational carbon emanating from heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, and lighting systems.
There are technologies designed to help customers track and reduce building emissions by monitoring and reducing fugitive methane emissions, which are more than 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Technology that facilitates the early detection of fugitive methane emissions, including real-time analytics and precise location of any leaks allows facility managers to act quickly.
There is enterprise-level software that provides real-time dashboards of critical sustainability key performance indicators (KPIs) by aggregating carbon data from energy-related emission sources in a building – gas, electricity, and fuel sources. Such offerings help reduce energy consumption using advanced building control capabilities and lower carbon footprint without compromising occupant well-being or comfort. Importantly, these technologies provide a roadmap to achieve carbon neutrality.
The time is right, therefore, to embrace smart, sustainable buildings, new service delivery models, and transformational technologies such as IoT and integrated workplace management systems (IWMS) to generate, collect, and manage emissions-related data.
Smarter choices for a better tomorrow
Today, the energy and clean tech sectors hold the key to supporting cities and industrial hubs in achieving emission reduction targets and bringing down reliance on fossil fuels through decarbonizing and investments in innovative alternatives – whether in electric mobility, sustainable aviation fuels, green hydrogen, or data optimization through quantum computing. It is, therefore, imperative that we plan for a clean and sustainable ecosystem for our future generations. Actionable steps need to be taken, paving the way for a sustainable future that is technology driven.
Supporting cities and industrial hubs in achieving emission reduction targets and reducing reliance on fossil fuels through decarbonisation and investments in cutting-edge alternatives are the need of the
hour.
The energy and cleantech sectors, along with cutting-edge frontier technologies like electric mobility, sustainable aviation fuels, green hydrogen, data optimization through quantum computing, and IoT tech, hold the key to a cleaner, greener, healthier and sustainable ecosystem for future generations. While switching to a sustainable model is still an ongoing process, early adoption of innovative techniques that promote sustainability is unquestionably attainable.
Good article