It doesn’t seem so long ago that tech was getting a bad press. Remember those news reports saying the robots would take all of our jobs? They’ve faded from the spotlight as more urgent matters have taken center stage. But many anxieties about technology development, including cyber security, data privacy, AI and various regulations, are still there. And to an extent they always will be, given our innate human tendency to fear the unknown.

The thing is, technology in and of itself is neither good nor bad. The real test comes in how it is applied and managed. At one end of the scale, it has the potential to be one of the greatest forces for good at our disposal – something that is especially important today, given the serious challenges the world faces. And as we have been discussing over the past few days during the first virtual Davos summit, perhaps the greatest of these is the destruction of our planet.

Looking at solutions, there are plenty around and, reflecting on this week’s events, I see five main trends that will be key to driving a sustainable future. Some of these are already out there, while others remain uncharted territory.

Next-generation materials. These include super-light materials like aerographite, which weighs just 0.2 milligrams per cubic centimeter. It’s able to conduct electricity, can be compressed to a 30th of its original size, and carry up to 40,000 times its own weight, making it ideal for producing feather-light batteries and wearable devices. Another area of development is in materials that react to changes in the environment and other stimuli, such as body heat or moisture. This could spell the end of our long love affair with polymers, addressing the significant sustainability challenges posed by the textile industry and fashion value chains.

Carbon removal. Many companies have already pledged to get to carbon neutrality, however these promises alone are insufficient to reverse global warming, while re-forestation efforts cannot overtake the rate at which we are losing precious topsoil and natural cover. What we need to get to is carbon negative, helped by companies like Carbon Engineering, which extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. While the concept isn’t new, it’s now financially viable, and Carbon Engineering promises to get 100 million tons of CO2 out of the air each year – effectively the work of 40 million trees. This is the kind of revolutionary change needed to stop carbon levels in their tracks.

Regenerative agriculture. It’s common knowledge that the food value chain has a huge impact on our environment. And as the population expands, the demand for food – along with the water and energy required to produce it – will only become a bigger concern. We need fully regenerative food chains – those that put more back into the environment than they take out – all the way from farm to fork. The technologies that can make it happen are wide-ranging, however, better and more efficient waste management, soil monitoring, biotechnology tools and genetic engineering will be key. As Al Gore stated this week, “regenerative agriculture and planting trees could be the largest opportunity to sequester carbon”.

Space mining. Far from being the final frontier, it appears that we may have to boldly go beyond the confines of our own planet as our own resources dwindle. While opinions differ as to what we might need or when we might be obliged to treat space mining as an imperative rather than an option, precious metals look to be a likely candidate, and the option of moving a highly toxic and polluting industry elsewhere is highly attractive to some. One thing is clear however, and it’s that we are using up what is available to us here on Earth far too quickly – and carelessly. To put this in context, of the 100 billion tons of materials processed each year, 91% are newly extracted from the ground. It’s still too early to say what’s likely to happen here, but as the saying goes, watch this space.

Ethics. This has to underpin everything if we are to extend the far-reaching benefits of technology to all, and fully understand its future impact on employment, the distribution of wealth, lifestyle choices, and what it means to be a citizen in the connected age. As technology gets smarter, we are facing ever thornier ethical dilemmas. Just how far should automation and machine learning go? Is it right to weaponize robots? When does genetic modification become eugenics? Where do we place the dividing line between private and public information? And how should we tackle disinformation and misinformation? We only need to look at the rise in technology-related conspiracy theories to see how easily people can be switched off from something that could be of real benefit to them. As we increase connectivity, we must use it to truly progress society, and so it is imperative we continue to develop and deploy tools and frameworks like the Ethical OS Toolkit.

When it comes to sustainability, there are no easy answers, and more importantly, there are no “get out of jail free” cards. It’s up to those of us in leadership positions to take the bull by the horns and join together to make technology work for the common good. That way, we have a better chance of handing over a viable home to the generations that come after us.

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