Encompassing green technology and human living

In search for coherency in the climate debate
The Green Solutions exhibit and dialogue area in the Fiesta Americana Hotel, Cancún showcases business, trade, investments and technology initiatives to fight climate change. The president of Mexico opened the event especially arranged for business, entertainment and other related fields to show and exchange experiences. The main goal of the Green Solution event is to promote green-tech solutions for the environmental challenge. However, while I was drifting thorough the exhibition area of bright green technologies I began wondering the following: Why does a significant gap exist between green-tech initiatives and the more broad holistic approach to climate change and sustainability? What does it take to bridge the gap between technology and human needs and behavior? Can we encompass the gap between a top down and bottom up approach?

Green Solutions - Encompassing Solutions
One could argue that bottom-up energy system models are representations of the existing energy sector. The energy producers and suppliers feature a large number of discrete energy technologies to capture substitution of energy carriers on the primary and final energy level, process substitution, or efficiency improvements. Such models often neglect the macroeconomic impact of energy systems, uses and flows. Bottom-up energy system models on the other hand are typically cast as optimization matters, which work out the combination of several energy system activities to meet a given demand for final energy or energy services subject to technical restrictions and energy policy constraints.

Top-down models tend to adopt a quantitative perspective where Bottom up captures the “large picture” based on behavior and needs. Therefore, conventional top-down models of energy-economy interactions have a very limited representation of the overall energy system. In addition, top-down models may not assure fundamental physical restrictions such as the conservation of matter and energy. Compared to the bottom up view, where the energy transformation processes are characterized by production functions and structures instead of capturing the significant of the site-specific challenges and possibilities.

City-to-City showcases
Cites are a living example of a top-down and bottom-up hybrid. In cities, the foremost technologies walk hand-in-hand with the consumer. Therefore, experts propose that “city-to-city” networks can help cities and thereby the global community in timely sharing of experiences and information through knowledge arenas and other forms of collaboration which promote the inclusion of local site-specific knowledge on both behavior and needs. In turn, this helps cities better adapt to climate change. Looking at Siemens for instance, who bases its business strategy on a more holistic modeling approach to the field of green technologies, meaning that they are constantly trying to create technologies derived from actual activities, tendencies and dynamics.

Siemens talent regarding innovative contextualizing was yet proved at the Green Solutions exhibit area. A shiny ´Green´ chopper (motorcycle) caught everyone’s eyes. Even Mexican President Felipe Calderón was attracted to this eye-catching showpiece on his representative roundtrip through the Green Solutions exhibit area. Siemens had teamed up with renowned custom motorcycle manufacturer Orange County Choppers to build its first custom electric motorcycle. And one could argue that the "Siemens Smart Chopper" to some bridge green technology with human demands or at least include green technology in an attractive showpiece, which we can relate to. Read more about the “Siemens Smart Chopper” HERE