We’re Making Sure Future Tech Is Environmentally Sustainable

The École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland is working on ensuring the environmental sustainability of new technologies, by setting guidelines intended to positively impact the development of emerging tech.

“We want to make sure that new technology won’t damage the environment once it’s rolled out on a large scale,” says Marie-Valentine Florin, the executive director of the International Risk Governance Center (IRGC) at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The IRGC efforts focus not only on ensuring the environmental sustainability of new technologies but also on encouraging stakeholders to adopt robust, methodical decision-making processes to ensure that new technology is sustainable in both the short and long term. Though analyzing the long-term effects of technology that has not yet been launched is not always easy, hopefully, these stricter regulations will soon be a global standard.