The digital shift creates threats and opportunities.
Information technology, artificial intelligence and big data have the ability to greatly accelerate business-as-usual, which could mean more inequality, surveillance and overconsumption. But the intelligent use of digital technology can also coordinate, mobilise and speed up progressive change.
Big issues are who owns and controls the digital economy, what its priorities are and who has access to it. The potential of ‘open source’ software and hardware, and whether the technologies and sector themselves are environmentally sustainable, are just two of the big questions. But there are communities, groups and enterprises around the world who are taking the best that the technology has to offer and turning it to the task of rapid transition.
Story of change
No’ way back for petrol and diesel cars – how Norway flicked an electric transport switchIn 2021, the oil-rich Scandinavian nation of Norway hit a critical point in its rapid transition: 60% of all new cars sold so far have been fully battery...
Story of change
Milking it: cleaner climate, non-dairy milk alternatives go mainstreamUsing cows to produce milk for human consumption is a massive industry. But it’s also a very inefficient, polluting one. Making dairy milk takes far more...
Story of change
A new roof for rapid transition – building low-carbon, affordable housing for communities with new ownership modelsAll across the world new approaches to home-building are emerging in response to the multiple crises of climate breakdown, unaffordable housing, deprivation...
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Story of change
Large-tired and tested: how Europe’s cargo bike roll-out is deliveringAcross Europe, as cities get to grips with road congestion, air pollution and meeting climate targets, the manual and electric cargo bike is rapidly...
Commentary
A Rapid Transition is underway – but will it happen fast enough?After 33 years working at Alliance member, Centre for Alternative Technology, Paul Allen reflects on his journey. The Centre for Alternative Technology...
Story of change
Building back better: South Korea shows the challenge and opportunity of green stimulus spending for Covid recoveryIs the world poised to learn from the missed chance of 2008 and take the opportunity of rebuilding after a huge economic shock to make a rapid, low carbon...
Report
Cambridge Sustainability Commission report on Scaling Behaviour ChangeA major new report by the Cambridge Sustainability Commission on Scaling Behaviour Change calls on policy makers to target the UK’s polluter elite to...
Resource
Sweat not oil: Why sports should drop advertising and sponsorship from high-carbon pollutersThe global sports industry was worth an estimated $471 billion in 2018. Corporate sponsorship in sport is a multi-million dollar business but do we really...
Story of change
Badvertising – is changing the advertising industry the next step in speeding transition?As many look to ‘build back better’ from the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, there are competing voices arguing on the one hand to restart...
Resource
Journal article: the business of rapid transitionAs long as there have been attempts to develop policy on climate change at national, regional and international levels, businesses have been involved in...
Story of change
Upward spiral: how circular economies break the cycle of overconsumptionThe climate emergency is a result of the sheer weight of human economic activity on the biosphere. Extraction of resources and the production of waste is...
Story of change
From passive consumers to active producers – how crisis restrictions open opportunities for creative culture shiftsAs the global pandemic continues to reshape whole economies and the lives of populations, normal consumer behaviour has been suddenly altered. The focus has...
