Dematerialization Is Critical For Lowering Environmental Impact

Julie Starr • August 25, 2022



The material world is struggling to keep up with the human need for resource extraction. Since 1950, the world population has grown from around 2.5 billion to more than 8 billion, and the numbers keep rising. The planet is probably already exceeding its carrying capacity, meaning that humanity’s activities are unsustainable. 

The world, therefore, is at a crossroads. If we follow the business-as-usual approach, the costs down the line will be far higher. The ecology will collapse , and the entire world will fall into dreadful poverty, the likes of which are unimaginable today. 

The second option is to regress voluntarily. That is, go back to life as it was in the middle ages, where average incomes are around $1 per day across the planet. Nobody wants that. 

The final option is to dematerialize the economy . That is, goods and services need to become digital or computerized and rely less on the physical world. 

Achieving the goal of dematerialization seems challenging. After all, people have been trying to displace coal and oil for decades now. However, we’ve already witnessed the phenomenon in some industries. 

Take books, for instance. Twenty years ago, you had to buy them from a store. Now you can just download them into your app. 

The same is true of music. Nobody buys vinyl records anymore. Instead, they stream them on iTunes. 

Even things like radios have disappeared . Modern smartphones often offer wireless technology that eliminates the need to invest in bulky equipment. 

In some instances, total dematerialization isn’t possible. You’re never going to have a digital power plant. However, miniaturization is something that people can achieve and has been helping to reduce carbon impact. Computer components and accessories are getting smaller all the time, reducing resource reliance. 

Researchers appear to agree that dematerialization is already occurring on a large scale. Academics, such as MIT’s Andrew McAfee , believe that the US economy is growing, despite actually using fewer materials and inputs. Companies are becoming more efficient in the way that they are converting natural products into goods that consumers can use and enjoy, with no impact on the standard of living. 

The question, though, is how far and fast this process can develop. While it is certainly occurring and continues to accelerate, the trend is only slowly spreading to other parts of the globe. In McAfee’s opinion, it is not happening fast enough to stop climate change, but there is hope for environmental protection, he says, given the progress that’s been made so far. 

What Does This Mean For Business?

The challenge for businesses, therefore, is to find ways to dematerialize their operations. Obvious solutions include things like going paperless or working remotely. But there are a host of other strategies, too. 

Take payments, for instance. Businesses currently operate with cash, which has a profound impact on the environment. Cash is not impact-free. Just like everything else, it requires energy to produce and move around. It also depletes natural resources. 

Therefore, businesses should strive to reduce the amount of cash they accept from customers and use alternative forms of payment instead. Cryptocurrencies, for instance, offer a way for firms to reduce the carbon impact of their operations quickly. And while there are pros and cons of using crypto wallets , there’s no doubt that customers want more opportunities to spend their tokens. 

Companies can also preferentially work with suppliers who are moving towards dematerialization. This means that even if there are no opportunities for the firm itself to dematerialize, it can build networks that do. These network economies could then spread throughout all human activity, making resource use more efficient. 

Where Will Technology Lead? 

Of course, dematerialization isn’t guaranteed. However, recent events have shown just how easy it is for companies to eliminate the material component of their operations. 

Consider the pandemic lockdowns. Governments around the world forbade many firms from allowing people to go to work. Instead of shutting down operations entirely, many simply used existing cloud technology to facilitate remote work. 

While the debate over whether these types of working arrangements are good for firms is ongoing, there’s no doubt that they happened. They were an important precedent that showed that commercial offices are largely redundant. If people can work from home, what is the point of operating large skyscrapers?

Interesting, the concept actually goes further than that. Even where a physical plant is required for production, workers may not need to be present. For instance, consider a factory that requires workers to press a button once it meets certain conditions. Do they need to be on-site? Probably not. Instead, they can sit on a cloud-connected computer, pushing the button digitally, telling the machine what to do, based on a visual input feed. 

There are other opportunities, too. Practically all service professionals now have experience of working from home. For many, the need to travel to visit clients no longer exists. This saves fuel and energy costs and slashes the requirement to own a car. 

The question for businesses, though, is how far this technology can develop. Consider AI, for instance. General intelligence is decades away if it ever comes at all. Programmers simply don’t know how to make machines that rival people. However, intelligent systems could potentially reduce the need for inputs on a massive scale. 

Take the current fertilizer crisis. Right now, there is a shortage because most farmers use the input inefficiently. Instead of targeting the crops in their fields in need of a boost, they spread it everywhere evenly. 

With AI systems, though, this could change. Farmers could inspect crops individually using a variety of camera systems imbued with artificial intelligence. These could then tell robots whether to squirt fertilizer or nutrients in a particular location in a field or not. 

There are other possibilities, too. Companies behind the metaverse could change how people conduct their private lives. Rather than going out and consuming resources, they could occupy digital worlds that meet their needs. Today’s metaverse offerings are somewhat laughable, given recent “teasers” from well-known tech moguls. But in the future, they could be considerably more compelling. Brain-computer interfaces could convince people that they are having real experiences, similar to the matrix. Yet these experiences would not require any natural resources. 

To take an extreme example, you could have people living in tiny cubicle flats with an electricity connection to power their metaverse experience. Then, everything else they enjoy would be a part of the digital world. They would not need material possessions at all since they could simulate them in the computerized experience. 

Naturally, this level of technology is still a long way off. However, firms, such as Elon Musk’s NeuraLink , are already laying the groundwork that could make it possible. Computers might be able to generate specific perceptions in users, taking virtual reality’s immersion to a whole new level. 

Conclusion

How rapidly this happens and whether people accept it, will determine the environmental impact that it has. In the meantime, companies need to adopt circular economy thinking to reduce the number of Earth’s resources they use. Instead of just economizing around price, they should look for any opportunity to reduce reliance on materials. 

In practice, this means adopting a range of strategies. Firms need to become more digital and view their digitalization efforts as a part of their green strategy. Modernization should also be treated as an environmental project. The more advanced technology becomes, the more likely it is to reduce resource inputs. Right now, this seems like the only way forwards. 

How Student-Led ‘Energy Audits’ Are Cutting School Costs (and Lighting the Way Forward)

By Julie Starr • July 14, 2025
What happens when students stop waiting for adults to fix things and start conducting their own energy audits? Money gets saved. The lights get switched off. Data gets analyzed. And a quiet revolution in sustainability begins—inside schools that once overlooked their own inefficiencies. Across the globe, student-led energy audits are proving that change doesn't always need to come from a policy shift or a major capital budget. Sometimes, it begins with a clipboard, a spreadsheet, and a group of curious minds asking: Why are the hallway lights on at noon when sunlight floods the building? The Energy Detectives These audits aren’t science fair projects. They’re rigorous investigations, often done in collaboration with facilities staff, local environmental nonprofits, or even engineering mentors. Students go from classroom to classroom measuring electricity usage, checking for phantom loads , and identifying where heat is escaping in winter or air conditioning is leaking in summer. One high school in Ontario saved over $12,000 a year after its Grade 11 physics students ran an energy audit and suggested simple changes—LED upgrades, motion sensors in bathrooms, and smarter heating schedules. They didn’t just propose ideas. They pitched them with spreadsheets, thermal images, and payback timelines. It worked. Learning That Pays Off—Literally Unlike textbook learning, these audits blend real-world math, environmental science, economics, and persuasive communication. Students aren’t just learning about sustainability. They’re doing it. And the savings add up. From dimming overlit hallways to reprogramming HVAC systems that run all weekend for empty buildings, students are surfacing blind spots that administrators often overlook. In some districts, their findings are influencing energy policy. Elsewhere, the audits have inspired school boards to hire sustainability coordinators—often alumni of the student programs themselves. There’s something poetic about a school funding new books or laptops from money saved by students who found out the vending machines didn’t need to be plugged in 24/7. Why This Matters More Than Ever With education budgets tightening and utility costs rising, every dollar saved is a dollar that can go back into classrooms. And here’s where it gets interesting from a family finance perspective, too. If you’re a parent setting aside money for post-secondary savings, every bit of school efficiency helps. Fewer energy costs might mean more programming, better STEM facilities, or even bursaries. That raises a broader point: when families save for their children’s future, they often look into RESPs (Registered Education Savings Plans). And many wonder—is a RESP deduction available on my taxes? While contributions themselves aren’t deductible, the gains grow tax-free, and students often pay little to no tax when they withdraw the funds during school. A Movement Worth Replicating These audits aren’t just an exercise in environmentalism. They’re leadership labs. Students learn how to spot inefficiencies, speak up in board meetings, and make a business case for change. They don’t just flip switches—they shift mindsets. And they carry these habits into adulthood. The result? A generation growing up not only with climate anxiety, but also with tools to tackle it.

Smart Sensors, Smarter Supply Chains: Enhancing Traceability in Food & Beverage

By Julie Starr • June 20, 2025
In today’s competitive food and beverage (F&B) landscape, traceability is no longer a compliance checkbox—it’s a differentiator. The ability to track every step of a product’s journey, from origin to shelf, is vital for regulatory accuracy and to ensure brand integrity, supply chain agility, and consumer trust. Add smart sensors to the mix: the quiet, tireless observers revolutionizing supply chain intelligence. Traceability Has a Data Problem Despite digitization across many F&B operations, most traceability systems still rely on fragmented or manual data inputs. Batch numbers, barcodes, and handwritten logs often stand between a supplier and clarity when things go wrong. This approach struggles with latency and scale. When contamination or delays occur, root cause analysis is slow, costly, and damaging. Smart sensors shift this paradigm by embedding real-time, contextual intelligence into every stage of the supply chain . Whether monitoring humidity in transit or recording fill-level precision in bottling plants, they remove the guesswork by turning physical conditions into structured, time-stamped data. From Passive Monitoring to Active Optimization Sensors used to be reactive tools, alerting operators to anomalies. But smart sensors now play a proactive role in process control. They measure, and they interpret. For example, temperature sensors embedded in cold chain logistics can dynamically adjust cooling systems or flag threshold breaches before spoilage occurs. These advancements reduce waste and loss at a systemic level. In a production facility, smart sensors integrated with PLCs can enforce recipe compliance, verify clean-in-place processes, and detect micro-stoppages in real-time. This enables operations to pivot faster and isolate inefficiencies before they cascade downstream. Trust is Built on Transparency Consumers are paying more attention to what they eat and drink. They’re looking beyond labels, expecting visibility into how ingredients are sourced, processed, and handled. Smart sensors make this level of transparency achievable —without burdening manufacturers with excessive manual oversight. By capturing metadata throughout production and distribution, these sensors create a digital footprint that’s tamper-resistant and instantly accessible. When this data is integrated with a central platform, brands can respond confidently to audits, recalls, and quality assurance challenges with a level of precision that would be impossible through legacy systems. Intelligence Without Infrastructure Overhaul One common misconception is that adding smart sensors requires a top-down reinvention of supply chain infrastructure. In reality, companies can deploy edge sensors in a modular, scalable way. Many modern solutions offer plug-and-play functionality, allowing for fast integration with existing machinery and MES systems. This is where suppliers like alps-machine.com are reshaping expectations. Rather than pushing proprietary ecosystems, they design sensor-ready equipment with interoperability in mind. This future-proofs investment and keeps businesses nimble in the face of regulatory or market shifts. Designing for Data Longevity Sensors are only as powerful as the context they capture. A smart implementation ensures the data collected can be standardized, stored securely, and accessed meaningfully across departments. This means moving beyond local dashboards toward centralized, queryable datasets that inform everything from supplier contracts to marketing claims. As AI and predictive analytics become more accessible, these data-rich environments will unlock new capabilities—such as predicting demand spikes based on real-time freshness indicators or adjusting production schedules dynamically based on in-transit sensor feedback. Final Thoughts: Smarter Isn’t Optional Traceability isn’t solved by more paperwork—it’s solved by embedded intelligence. Smart sensors don’t just help businesses know what happened; they help prevent the wrong things from happening at all. For companies in the food and beverage sector, adopting smart sensors is less about chasing innovation and more about enabling resilience, speed, and confidence in every decision.