Index
19 March 2010
Picturing the future
Albert Goller, Chairman and Managing Director, Siemens Ltd Pacific Cluster.
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When a big storm is approaching, do we build walls or do we build windmills?
Albert Goller, Chairman and Managing Director, Siemens Ltd Pacific Cluster, says that Australia can have a sustainable future, but we need to act now.
Speaking at a recent RMIT University Business Lecture Series event at Ernst & Young, Mr Goller told the audience that to meet the challenges of the future we would need to innovate in the key areas of people, technology and processes.
Siemens has identified four global megatrends, namely climate change, urbanisation, demographic change and globalisation.
“All of these impact on Australia in the areas of water, energy, environment, healthcare, productivity, mobility, safety and security,” Mr Goller said.
He believes we need to picture the sort of Australia we want for the future and we need to act.
“It is now urgent that we make decisions and go for it.”
Using water as an example, Mr Goller said that Australia was facing a crisis. Yet the opportunities for us to address this challenge are enormous.
First, we need to raise awareness and change our attitudes.
“Water is incredibly cheap. Compare the price rise in water over the past 10 to 20 years with the rise in petrol prices.
“We need to look at the water value-chain. Only 8 per cent of our very clean water is used for drinking and cooking, while the rest is used for other purposes. In addition, re-using water is a relatively new concept in Australia.”
While 30 per cent of water used is ground water, we don’t know enough about the long-term environmental effect and damage using this water may lead to.
Desalination is currently very costly in terms of its energy consumption, but Mr Goller believes that the technology will improve over the next few years to a point where it becomes a viable option for Australia.
“Australia has the opportunity to create new innovative businesses to address the challenges we face,” he said.
In picturing the future for Australia, Mr Goller is passionate about ensuring the decisions we make today will guarantee a more sustainable world for generations to come.
“We can picture what we want. How to make it happen in the next 10 to 20 years is the challenge. People, technology and processes all working together can achieve it. Technology is one enabler – the rest is up to us,” he said.
