For inhabitants of the Isles of Scilly, a remote and sprawling archipelago 28 miles off England’s Cornish coast, the transition to sustainable energy is changing everything.

A small population of 2,200 residents lives on just five of the 145 islands that comprise England’s rugged Isles of Scilly. Only a small proportion of the energy they use was generated locally, with much of their fuel brought in by sea, driving up the cost. When a ship’s anchor broke the islands’ undersea power cable in 2017, it brought their energy vulnerability into sharp focus.

Under an innovative partnership project—part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund—the solution was a sustainable one. Solar panels were installed on buildings, while homes and public buildings piloted a variety of energy technologies, such as heat pumps and storage batteries, to increase local renewable energy capacity.

The new technology is connected through an Internet of Things (IoT) system that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to optimize the distribution of power from low-carbon energy generation. The target is to ensure that by 2025, 40% of the islanders’ energy comes from renewable sources and is efficiently produced and stored, while reducing energy bills by 40%.

Life on the islands is being transformed, but the significance of the project goes beyond this unique haven in the Atlantic. Updating energy infrastructure with the latest renewable technology is a blueprint for the future of power generation worldwide.

The Isles of Scilly’s local authority has partnered with Hitachi to provide the IoT and AI infrastructure at the heart of the project, and both are working closely with smart home technology companies. As the world looks to sharply reduce carbon emissions in the new era of global cooperation, such public-private partnerships are vital to solve some the world’s most pressing problems, from climate change to health-care challenges.

Making Progress on Sustainable Goals

Since they were announced five years ago, dozens of multinational companies have declared their commitment to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. By signing up to the 17 SDGs, businesses have signaled a willingness to play their part in limiting climate change while improving access to energy, ending poverty and deploying resources to create a fairer, greener world.

“All the SDGs are interconnected, and we have to advance them all.”

Alistair Dormer, Chief Environment Officer, Hitachi

Hitachi is putting the SDGs at the heart of its global operations, focusing on areas such as combating climate change, improving access to water and sanitation and boosting sustainable transport. The company, which provided digital technology to update energy provision on the Isles of Scilly, has appointed Alistair Dormer to spearhead support for the SDGs. “My new role as Chief Environment Officer means my focus is on the environment. Ultimately, all the SDGs are interconnected, and we have to advance them all,” he says.

Dormer believes the SDGs provide a good opportunity to work in partnership with customers and government agencies to drive innovation in Hitachi’s core areas of business: transport, health, digital technology and energy.

“I think we have a unique opportunity now where everything is driving in the same direction,” he says. “Our investors are pushing us, our customers are pushing us, our employees are pushing us hard, too, and we are pushing ourselves.

To implement the SDG commitments throughout its global business, Hitachi has created a roadmap for the organization and is building a framework to measure the social and environmental impacts of its activities. Employing some 300,000 staff through 800 subsidiaries worldwide, Hitachi recently ran a workshop on the SDGs for their European Group Businesses and invited 90 executives and managers from across the business to attend and discuss how their divisions would contribute.

“One of the challenges we have in Hitachi is our size,” says Dormer. “We have to join the dots, to link our activities together and build synergy and opportunities. We can really add value to our clients and partners by collaborating within the group.”

Hitachi is sharpening up its commitment to fight climate change, and the company has introduced an internal carbon pricing system. In a significant next step, this month the firm further confirmed its commitment by having its targets, to reduce absolute Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions 100% by 2030 compared to 2010, and Scope 3 emissions reduced by 40% approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative.

Hitachi’s Multi-Stakeholder Approach to Sustainability

Underlying Hitachi’s sustainability drive is its “multi-stakeholder” approach, which aims to promote sustainable growth, but instead of focusing purely on shareholder profits, it takes into account the interests of many different stakeholders. For Hitachi, that means working closely with governments worldwide and promoting dialogue across sectors to achieve a decarbonized, digital society. The Isles of Scilly project is a good example of this multi-stakeholder approach, bringing together local authorities, funding from the European Union, local people, sustainable energy providers and Hitachi’s digital expertise.

Hitachi is involved in many other activities to advance the SDGs, from its contributions to water conservation, rail systems and energy projects to smart cities and autonomous transport services. The success of these smart systems depends on close cooperation between transport manufacturers, technology providers and city planners, and a successful partnership is always at the heart of each project.

“We work with our clients and partners through a process we call ‘collaborative creation,’” says Helen Grundy, an environmental specialist at Hitachi. “This means we don’t just take a product or service ‘off the shelf’ and sell it, we work together to understand what our clients really need and then together develop the solution.”

From the Isles of Scilly to infrastructure projects around the world, this approach can bring about real, long-term improvements in people’s lives and in the environment. In the long term, we will all experience the benefits of multi-stakeholder capitalism on the journey to create a more sustainable world.

Hitachi’s Blueprint for a New Era of Sustainable Development