Utility Week Live
Issue link: https://read.utilityweek.co.uk/i/512337
UTILITY WEEK | 15TH - 21ST MAY 2015 | 11 W e live an affluent, party lifestyle today, which no society in history has experienced. But this has a morning-aer effect, which we need to deal with. Somewhere along the line we have lost our understanding of the importance of resources and the importance of our one planet and its environment. For us in the waste and resources industry, what does innovation mean? It means everything from inventing a better way to pick up a banana skin, to getting inside people's heads so that they don't throw it away in the first place, to putting waste back to work. This defines our mentality as a sector now. It's not about taking waste away at minimum cost, it's about keep- ing resources working and put- ting waste back to work. To do this properly, we need to break down the barriers at the edge of our individual sector kingdoms because real innovation comes from connecting. This becomes even more important when you think that our future is going to be defined by population growth and urbanisation. It's also about a rising middle class across the world that aspires to a western lifestyle. About three billion people are going to join the urban middle class by the middle of the century, and that means stress on resources: water, energy, food, land, materials. Ecosystems will be under pressure. Europeans and a lot of developed nations have recognised the need to behave differently and do things differently. We've made huge strides toward breaking our landfill habit. We now recycle more than we landfill and we get a kick-up from energy recovery from residual wastes. It's a brilliant job, being done quite quietly. The funny thing about imagining life in a resource constrained world, is that it is easier to think about what it might be like in 2050 than it is to think about the next five years. But it's going to be turbulent. You can't close your mind to that big picture. You have to innovate. Commissioner Veller has promised that the EU circular economy report, due out this summer, will show us more ambition on how to address these resource insecurities. I hope that means more innovation. Steve Lee, chief executive, CIWM, speaking at WRc Innovation Day 2015 (abridged) Viewpoint "WE NOW RECYCLE MORE THAN WE LANDFILL AND WE GET A KICK-UP FROM ENERGY RECOVERY FROM RESIDUAL WASTES" THREAT OR OPPORTUNITY? While innovation requires much more than simply investment in research and development (R&D), an organisation's willingness to invest in R&D is widely regarded as a good measure of its com- mitment to innovation. WHO SPENDS WHAT ON R&D? Global resource stress requires collaborative innovation S P E C I A L R E P O RT / M AY 2 0 1 5 Produced in association with: WHO'S RESPONSIBLE FOR R&D INVESTMENT? Source: Office for National Statistics 2014 Composition of UK gross domestic expenditure on R&D by performing sector, 2013 Business sector expenditure on R&D performed in the UK, by R&D product group, 2013 8% Government and research councils 26% Higher education 64% Business 2% Private non-profit £28.9 billion £18.4 billion 23% £4.3 billion Other 3% £0.6 billion Precision instru- ments and optical products; photo- graphic equipment 5% £0.8 billion Consumer electronics and communication equipment 5% £0.8 billion Telecommunications 5% £1.0 billion Miscellaneous business activities; Technical testing and analysis 22% £4.1 billion Pharmaceuticals 11% £2.1 billion Motor vehicles and parts 11% £2.0 billion Computer programming and information service 9% £1.7 billion Aerospace 6% £1.0 billion Machinery and equipment