Invited by the ChangeNOW team, led by Santiago and Rama, to MC and keynote the International Summit for Change at Station F in Paris, the world's largest start-up campus.
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Matthew GriffinFounder, President and Futurist, 311 Institute
G7 · G20governments advised
850+keynotes
102countries
17codexes
Energy and sustainability sessions forUnited NationsBureau of International RecyclingAVEVAAditya Birla GroupSUEZAZ China
Featured inBloombergThe Wall Street JournalThe Telegraph
The ChangeNOW team, led by Santiago and Rama, asked Matthew to MC and keynote the International Summit for Change at Station F in Paris, the world's largest start-up campus. Over two days, thousands of visitors and hundreds of entrepreneurs and investors joined more than a hundred speakers from over 20 countries to showcase "Innovations for good", loosely aligned to the United Nations' seventeen Sustainable Development Goals.
Matthew opened the summit with his keynote on the "Future of Sustainable Cities". He used his own journey to the event as a case study: a taxi that went to the wrong address at 4am, a delayed train into London, a late Eurostar and a Paris taxi driver who had no idea where he was going. Each failure, he argued, could be solved with a simple app or smart, blockchain based infrastructure, at a time when Hyperloop systems promise to make even the Eurostar look last century.
"The effect that climate change and pollution is having on our society and wellbeing is well documented, but for every problem we face there are hundreds of innovative solutions."Matthew Griffin, Paris, November 2017
The keynote set out the community, political and technological solutions available to build ecologically sensitive, sustainable and vibrant cities: distributed, renewable and smart energy grids and grid scale storage, chemical free vertical farming, clean meat and zero chemical fish farming, fluid autonomous multi-modal transport and electric vehicles, smart homes and fridges that cut energy use and waste, and urban farming.
He then hosted panels on new methods of farming, with the founders of Agriloops, Agropolis and Ynsect, and on sustainable cities, with PLP Architecture, Woodoo and Pavegen. The closing theme was a city where an on demand autonomous pod collects you from home, joins a Hyperloop and takes you the last mile without any fuss.
311 Intelligence
What this means for your leadership team
Cities are systems, not projects.
The keynote treated energy, food and transport as linked parts of one city. A late train or a wrong address is a small example of a wider design failure. Leaders should look for the weak joins between services, not only the weak services.
Energy is the base layer.
Smart grids and grid scale storage sit under most of the other ideas in the session. 311 data puts wide use of grid scale storage at 2028 and smart grids at 2030, both rated Prepare. Plans for transport and farming depend on power that is clean and steady.
Food and movement are next.
The session pointed to vertical farming and autonomous, multi-modal transport as parts of the same city. 311 data puts wide use of autonomous vehicles at 2032, rated Explore, and vertical farms at 2040, rated Watch. That gap in timing should shape which bets a team makes first.
Three questions for your next leadership meeting
Which of our services fail at the joins between them?
Does our energy plan assume a smart grid and storage?
Which urban food and transport pilots should we start exploring now?
The trends and technologies behind this session
From the 311 Starburst, the 311 Strategic Intelligence Unit’s map of the technologies and trends shaping the next 50 years.
What does the Future of Sustainable Cities session mean for organisations?
It suggests that climate and pollution problems already have many practical solutions, across energy, food and transport. Organisations should map where their own services break down and test which of these solutions fit.
How does grid scale energy storage relate to this session?
The keynote named grid scale storage as part of the city of the future, alongside distributed, renewable and smart energy grids. 311 data puts wide use at 2028 with an action rating of Prepare, so planning should start now.
How do autonomous vehicles relate to this session?
The keynote described fluid autonomous multi-modal transport and closed with an on demand autonomous pod taking people the last mile. 311 data puts wide use of autonomous vehicles at 2032, rated Explore.
How can 311 brief our leadership team on this?
Through a private executive briefing or leadership workshop, tailored to your sector, in person first.
Bring this to your leadership teamA private executive briefing or leadership workshop, tailored to your sector. In person first, anywhere in the world.
Analysis by the 311 Strategic Intelligence Unit, from Matthew Griffin’s session and 311 data.
If Matthew gave this session today
Hundreds of megatrends and microtrends are shaping your world.
The 311 Institute Annual Trends Codex brings the hundreds of megatrends and microtrends shaping the world into one codex, including the energy, food and mobility trends that will decide how sustainable tomorrow's cities become.
