Sustainability's Growing Role

In our increasingly energy-reliant society, there is an increasing demand to lower our demand for resources. Our demand for resources has lead to a "sustainability" movement where the demand for green products and services are becoming more important. There has always been a demand for a product or service to be sustainable. We've wanted our products to last, we wanted programs we've funded to survive beyond an initial investment, and we wanted our services and institutions to survive and continue their purpose no matter their funding. This has expanded now, growing to become a demand for all our things to need less of everything than before.

Take for example the company Tesla, a new kind of car company. The car company has designed their vehicles around the electric motor, a more sustainable type of car that uses electric instead of fossil fuels to power its engine. According to Newsweek, the car has become so popular that it received over 250,000 pre-orders on its new Model 3 line-up. Another example would be SpaceX, a private spaceflight company built on being more sustainable than the previous spaceflight models. They accomplished this by privatizing NASA's resupply missions, which reduced costs and created profit.

At their base function, sensors are designed to create data. The data that our sensors create can be used to analyze and find flaws or imperfections in products. For example, in our upcoming ExactLog sensor, our sensor that logs data in the cold chain of a product to study how the temperature changes at different points in a supply chain. This logged data of the temperature changes can allow our customers ensure that their product doesn't spoil or become harmful due to temperature changes, and if it does our clients can create a solution by pinpointing where in the supply chain their product was corrupted. By reducing spoilage and pinpointing the problem, our clients can create a more sustainable supply chain.

There is obviously a push for more sustainability in our society that shows no signs of stopping. Sustainability will become more important with cost increases, limiting resources, and a demand for more goods. Society can't meet those demands without data on how to create sustainable solutions, and sensors will play an important role in the creation of a more sustainable society.