HUGH Mitchell, Shell’s human resources chief
AS countries worldwide hurtle toward urbanization amid climate change, governments and companies alike face more complex challenges in feeding, heating, cooling and moving people.
Cities, in the words of Shell’s human resources chief Hugh Mitchell, can be both the problem and opportunity.
Cities offer “the most effective way to use energy,” says Mitchell on the sidelines of the recent Shell Eco-marathon in Manila. “But if cities are just sprawled in an uncontrolled way, then you can have very inefficient cities which [become]… a drain on energy.”
As someone who comes from the United Kingdom, Mitchell says he sees in Manila some similarities with the cities back home in terms of sprawl.
These cities, he says, have just grown through people spilling onto every available space.
Unproductive
Tourists in dense cities worldwide realize this coming from the airport: Sitting in a vehicle, at some point it dawns on you that you may just be sitting there for hours, unable to get far. The engine is running but you’re not going anywhere.
Your fuel use is unproductive and, most likely, your time will be wasted, too.
That’s an example of inefficient use of resources in cities, Mitchell says.
“We have to acknowledge that as a society,” he explains. “I think all countries in all parts of the world are wrestling with this dilemma.”
Being an energy company, he says, Shell wants to be part of that debate about cities and development between governments, experts
Article source: http://business.inquirer.net/189723/shells-solution-to-resource-problems-lies-in-innovation
