The Four Drivers of Change The future of sustainability is not just down to changing lifestyles or changing values. Societal, technological, economic, environmental, and geopolitical drivers are all playing their part as well. As the world becomes increasingly interconnected and digitally-enabled, changes that occur in one region are more likely to have a ripple effect on others, as we recently experienced during the pandemic. In its 2018 paper on Drivers of Change (updated in January 2021), the European Environment Agency highlights six ‘clusters’ of change that drive sustainability challenges and opportunities in Europe and worldwide. We selected four of these as the focus of this paper: Growing urbanization and population migration Globally, growing populations are migrating to cities. They are also aging. Throw in the impact of the pandemic, and now we need a whole new set of assumptions when it comes to population projections and the design of cities. Many cities are adopting an innovative – or ‘smart’ – approach to technology to help support these patterns. Climate change and environmental degradation worldwide It’s not just greenhouse gas emissions that are having a negative impact on the environment. There’s also pollution, chemical production, poor air quality, microplastics in the food chain, and biodiversity loss. All of these are forcing corporations to act on climate change and support renewable energy initiatives. The increasing scarcity of – and global competition for – resources Fossil fuels continue to dominate the world’s energy supply chain. We continue to consume resources prodigiously. Our growing populations need more land on which to live and grow food. A growing middle class demands access to richer food, more energy, and luxury goods. All of this puts added strain on the world and threatens a greater scarcity of land and water. Accelerating technological change and convergence The 4th industrial revolution, the emergence of powerful tech companies, increased digitization, and accelerated technological change. On the plus side, these have created many sustainability-driven technologies. But they have also given rise to ethical, privacy, and security issues that we have never had to deal with before. 4