In order to preserve the planet, industrial and service companies are implementing more and more action plans to make their activities and productions sustainable. This means using less materials and non-renewable energy.

The stakes are high, because the urgency caused by the lack of resources available on the planet requires almost immediate action. Some companies and projects have already started this shift towards ecological and sustainable innovations. We propose to discover 5 of them, characteristic of the movement that is taking shape.

Microsoft’s “green” future

Microsoft is one of the world’s leading software providers and is now working to reduce the impact of its business on the environment.

By increasingly shifting its distribution model to cloud computing, Microsoft has already improved energy efficiency and reduced material waste (fewer software boxes and fewer CDs and DVDs produced). In addition, Microsoft is focusing on the cooling processes, ventilation and air conditioning of its data centers to achieve smart and increasingly decarbonized energy consumption.

Walmart’s digital transformation efforts

Walmart is the American retail leader and a global giant. The company is trying to achieve its digital transformation of its business while saving energy. Numerous sensors are thus integrated into the shelf-scanning robots and goods-transport trolleys, to optimize movement and achieve substantial energy savings.

Walmart is also involved upstream in the production chain. For example, it has developed autonomous drones for crop pollination. They are equipped with cameras and sensors to detect problems and act more quickly on the development of crops. Agriculture is a perfect example, proving that ecological and sustainable innovations can really optimize the daily work of workers, while preserving the planet.

Apple commits to being 100% carbon neutral by 2030

Apple has already achieved carbon neutrality for its data centers, but the Apple brand wants to extend this goal to its entire production and supply chains by 2030.

To achieve this, the volume of CO₂ released into the atmosphere for all of the company’s operations will have to be equal to or less than the volume extracted from it. Apple will pull various levers to achieve this:

  • using renewable energy sources (such as solar power and wind power),
  • saving energy by optimizing its infrastructure and production
  • developing the recycling of used equipment,
  • increase technical innovations in materials.

This ambitious goal also involves hundreds of Apple’s suppliers and should have a ripple effect on the entire computer industry.

Apple also hopes to attract new customers: it goes without saying that it will be more eco-friendly to download software and services for Macs, which are more sustainable than their competitors. To complete this offer, a Mac VPN will ensure complete download security and absolute privacy for all your online activities.

Patagonia’s durable and refurbished clothing

Patagonia is one of the leaders in outdoor clothing. Aware of the cost of these specialized technical garments, Patagonia has always wanted to develop sustainable clothing, with exclusively organic materials, in its current collections.

This goes further today, since the American brand sells reconditioned clothing, from used clothing. Their materials are then extracted for a large part and reused to make new outfits that are fairly inexpensive and have a minor impact on production material stocks.

Eventually, Patagonia wants 80% of its clothing production to be reusable and is therefore part of an ever more virtuous sustainable development.

NEOM: the futuristic sustainable city

NEOM is a project of a city of the future located in Saudi Arabia using all possible technologies for a carbon footprint reduced to almost zero and especially a totally digital environment.

All the administrative functioning of the city will be digital, the residents will have robots, cabs, flying drones and an artificial moon. The whole will be powered only by renewable energies and no fossil fuels will be used.

The project currently involves an investment of 500 billion dollars from Saudi Arabia and should be launched in a concrete way as early as 2025.