SIEMENS

Some 125 years ago Werner von Siemens said, "I won’t sell the future for a short-term profit." Today we use the term "sustainability" to describe this attitude. And the principle of thinking long term rather than being shortsighted has become more important than ever before. That is true not only of the worldwide system of finance and business, but also of the effects that our actions — or lack of them — have on the environment and the climate. And here climate protection and economic growth are by no means mutually exclusive. On the contrary, in the years ahead, environmental technologies will be an engine of economic development.

That’s because such technologies are often focused on efficiency gains. Innovations in this sector can therefore conserve resources, thereby cutting costs.

Just how effective this approach can be is covered in this issue of Pictures of the Future, which features many impressive examples of efficiency (see chapter "Life Cycle Planning"). Energysaving lamps, for instance, last 15 times longer than an incandescent light bulb of the same brightness, while consuming about a fifth of the electricity. As a result, the extra purchase cost can be recouped within 800 hours. What’s more, thanks to the lower electricity consumption involved, less carbon dioxide is produced. In fact, the amount saved per lamp is higher than the amount of carbon dioxide that a tree can absorb in an equal period of time (see article "Let there be Savings!"). At Siemens, life cycle assessments have become invaluable tools. They have been used to determine, for example, that over 90 percent of the environmental impact of household appliances occurs during operation. Transport and recycling are nearly negligible factors, and even production adds only a few percentage points. Applying this knowledge, engineers have developed an entirely new heating pump for a dryer, which consumes 40 percent less electricity than the limit required by Europe’s Class A designation — making it the new energy-efficiency world champion (see article "Miracle in the Laundry Room").

Siemens is conducting similar in-depth studies with regard to locomotives. The results show that a ten-percent increase in purchase price is cost-effective if the locomotives’ energy consumption can be reduced by as little as two percentage points (see article "Timely Trains"). The same principle applies to energy- saving motors. Here, the purchase price represents less than three percent of total costs, while electricity accounts for 95 percent of lifetime costs. Such motors pay for themselves in less than two years, sometimes even within one year.

Long-term thinking is also well worth the effort when it comes to buildings, and even entire cities. A study showing how Munich could become CO₂-free, for instance, reveals that the additional costs required to boost the energy efficiency of most of the city’s buildings would amount to about €200 per resident annually. In the end, though, the measures would yield savings of at least €1,200 per resident per year — not to mention an annual reduction of three million tons of CO₂ for the entire city (see article "Paths to a better Planet").

Some improvements don’t even require big start-up investments — just an ability to see the "big picture" and all its interconnectedaspects. Specialists at the Lifetime Management department at Siemens’ Energy Sector, for example, upgrade existing power plants by fine-tuning various parameters, including pump flow rates and feedwater temperatures, and by adjusting the control systems accordingly. This reduces the time needed to start up plants by more than half — an optimization that pays for itself after just one year (see article "Oh What a Tune-Up!").

Siemens is also developing many similarly smart solutions for the unique needs of customers in developing countries and emerging markets (see chapter "Innovations for New Markets") — including solar-powered energy-saving lamps for African regions that are far from power grids; affordable, robust equipment for monitoring pulse rates at maternity wards in rural India; and the combination of traditional medicine and Western image processing technology in China.

These examples confirm that one thing is paramount when it comes to intelligent solutions: people who understand not only the possibilities of modern technology, but also the requirements of different markets. Or, as Kuan Chung Tzu, a Chinese philosopher, put it 2,300 years ago, "If you are planning for one year, plant grain. If you are planning for a decade, plant trees. If you are planning for a lifetime, enlighten the people." That is the essence of the principle of sustainability.