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IBM Start event aims at a sustainable future

IBM Start continues with a series of keynotes and debates around smart analytics and sustainability

IBM Start aims to encourage business to build a sustainable future

The IBM Start event at Lancaster House continued today with keynotes, facilitated debates and panels aiming to help business create smarter analytics for a sustainable future.

The day's opening session focused on the problem of sorting and using all the information now available to us and doing it in a sustainable way. This was summed up by Sir Tom Shebbeare, director, The Prince's Charities. "We're in a pickle from which the business community has the capacity to take us," he said.

John Granger, general manager, Global Business Services, IBM Northeast Europe, agreed. "We have an unprecedented opportunity for technology to solve today's problems," he said.

Granger explained that solutions should come from the confluence of three factors, which he presented as an equation: Instrumental + Interconnected + Intelligence = A Smarter Planet.

He said Instrumental refers to the sensors that exist in almost all man-made systems in the world, which in combination could create the much-discussed concept of "the internet of things".

Interconnected refers to both systems and people. "Four billion people across the world have mobile phones and two billion are on the internet," Granger said.

Intelligence is about making something of the information, and generating a solution.

Granger gave the example of traffic management in Stockholm to illustrate his point.

"In Stockholm we have sensors tracking traffic movements, analytics to sort through and process the data, and interconnectivity between the systems. Through this we have been able to reduce congestion in Stockholm by 22 per cent, and pollution by fourteen per cent," he said.

Stephen Leonard, chief executive, IBM UK and Ireland stressed that sustainability is in businesses' own interests.

"It's said that capitalism and sustainability don't go hand in hand, and we fundamentally disagree with that," he said.

Start is an initiative from HRH The Prince of Wales, which aims to show what a sustainable future could look like. IBM is one of the founding partners, and the exclusive partner for business-to-business engagement.

The final day of the event is tomorrow, titled 'Smarter Business for a Sustainable Future'.

IBM Start event aims at a sustainable future

IBM Start continues with a series of keynotes and debates around smart analytics and sustainability

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