Leading lights from the academic, industrial and economic worlds contributed to a unique ‘Vision of the Future’ exercise hosted by Arup at the UK’s largest environmental technology event, SustainabilityLive!
Arup invited visitors to contribute their thoughts and ideas via a process of ‘visual synthesis’, the result of which is a 60ft2 canvas by artists from Cognitive Media, depicting a vision of how our society could look in the future.
Over 300 representatives took part, the majority believing that the technologies key to our future either already exist or are under development and that it is more the adoption of these technologies, not the development of new ones, that should be the focus.
“Excluding the odd hover car or personal rocket ship, we found that the vast majority of what was suggested is already being implemented to some degree or another – suggesting that technology is moving faster than people’s imaginations and shaping the way we live as it does so”, comments Neil Butcher of Arup’s advanced technology and research practice.
Future transportation
The picture also depicts how people’s transport and energy needs are likely to change with environmental technologies uppermost in people’s minds.
“Had we asked for people’s ideas of the future 20 years ago I don’t think environmental technology would have featured anywhere near as prominently but society and government are facing tough decisions on issues such as sustainable transport, energy security and the increasing financial and environmental cost of fossil fuels.”
Transport-related technologies centred on rapid, efficient public transport such as high speed rail - which was seen as key to reducing the number of cars on the roads and our reliance on air travel for all but long haul journeys.
Low emission alternatively powered personal transport was seen as the antidote to the internal combustion engine. “Biofuels, hydrogen and electricity are currently the alternatives that have the ability to replace fossil fuels in transport over the next thirty years,” adds Neil Butcher.
“Electricity is currently leading the way for urban travel as there is already the infrastructure in place to produce and distribute the fuel. As a result the technology will be fully tested and adapted to best suit consumer needs within the next five years, with electric vehicles becoming widely available after that.”
Electric vehicles
With electric vehicles and the need for increased clean electricity generation featuring prominently on the finished canvas, Neil Butcher believes that people are increasingly aware that low carbon transport is inextricably linked to decarbonising power generation. They share Arup’s and ITPOES’ (UK Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security) view, that in order to prevent dramatic increases in food, travel and heating costs more needs to be done to take advantage of sustainable energy sources.
One of the more recognisable guests taking part in the ‘Vision of the Future’ exercise at SustainabilityLive! was Robert Llewellyn, famed for his UK television roles in Red Dwarf and Scrapheap Challenge as well as being an electric car enthusiast and one of 25 Mitsubishi i-MiEV drivers taking part in the CABLED consortium trial led by Arup.
Robert added: “I believe that sustainable transport has to be one of the most important developments of the next decade and it’s fascinating to see the ideas that Arup believe could be seen in our cities in the future.
“Initiatives such as induction charging will play a major role in powering the next generation of vehicles, and as an electric car driver I’m looking forward to following their progress and using them in the future.”
The ‘Vision of the Future’ also reflected a focus on micro energy generation and the wider application of technologies including anaerobic digestion, which contributors believed would heavily influence the skyline of our towns and cities. Large scale nuclear and wind energy plants also featured as people seek a large scale sustainable energy alternative rather than face a dramatic reduction in their own energy consumption.