Last Wednesday, the Cibeles Palace in Madrid became the epicenter of sustainability, design, digitalization and the 'Human Centric' attitude. The Palace stopped being exclusively the headquarters of the Madrid City Council to be the home of the second edition of the Audi Summit for Progress, the event on progress and sustainability that defines the future of the world, organized by Audi Spain. Some of the world's brightest minds, including business leader Paul Polman, gathered in the capital to explain his ground-breaking beliefs. That is, promoting the “Ideas to start the future” that Audi, one of the companies most committed to sustainable mobility, defends and promotes.
The day at the Audi Summit for Progress was intense and vibrant. Both those attending the Cibeles Palace in Madrid and viewers through the Audi Spain streaming channels were able to listen to the ideas launched by the speakers. The person in charge of inaugurating the second edition was the director of Audi Spain, José Miguel Aparicio, for whom “the automobile has always provided freedom to human beings, as an enormous source of economic and social progress, but now we can dream of going a little further.” and work for a better future.”
Next, Paul Polman lived up to expectations with an unequivocal vision on how to work toward a better future. “We need to do more together to ensure a quality sustainable future. The future of leadership is cooperative, not competitive. This is not about saving the planet, but humanity,” explained Polman, for whom the business sector is key, “since multilateralism is failing.
The definition of business success can no longer be the same, it cannot simply be about producing more. Technology is advancing more and more and many things are possible now, but we are still not doing enough,” he stressed.
Polman's sensitivity was transversal throughout the congress, which not only contributed ideas, but also reaffirmed current actions such as those of Audi. “Our mission is to shape the premium mobility of the future, which must be sustainable, connected and autonomous. For this reason, we are going to launch 20 new electrified models between now and 2025, and by that same year all our factories will operate with a neutral balance of CO2 emissions,” revealed José Miguel Aparicio.
The importance of the automotive industry in achieving sustainability was appreciated throughout the Audi Summit for Progress. While it is true that each speaker had their own nuances, they all moved in the same direction. This was also the case for the general director of the Fedération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), Natalie Robyn. The CEO of the FIA, the first Spaniard to reach this position, reaffirmed the importance of being respectful of the environment: “We are setting ourselves great challenges, in 2023 we will be neutral in carbon emissions in all the world championships. The participation of big brands like Audi, which will enter F1 in 2026 with a more electrified and sustainable vehicle, is an example of this,” she explained.
The event not only gave a voice to the brightest minds at the international level, but also promoted the national ones. In addition to Natalie Robyn, the Palacio de Cibeles in Madrid also had the presence of Alicia Asín, co-founder of Libelium; Rodrigo García, co-founder of the company Notpla; and Paula Ulargui, designer. The combination of these brilliant minds demonstrated that Audi not only promotes innovation in the automotive industry, but also in other aspects such as fashion, human consumption and technologies such as artificial intelligence.
Regarding this last aspect, Asín claimed the need for the human being to be at the center of technology. That is, they are the ones who control their lives through technology and not that it controls them. “The ecological transition is as essential and urgent as it is necessary for it to be inclusive. If all the measures taken tax fuel or increase prices, they generate rejection,” said the reference in AI and Big Data. For this reason, the co-founder of Libelium proposed a “dataocracy”, that is, collecting publicly accessible data that can generate a spirit of accountability to citizens.
Precisely Rodrigo García and Paula Ulargui promote the ecological transition in their projects. In a conversation between two, the co-founder of Notpla explained his project: eliminating plastic packaging by creating packaging with algae. “It makes no sense for single-use plastic to last so long,” García declared.
Instead, Ulargui developed the ability to use nature to create sustainable clothing through the union between natural plants and textile elements. “The biology behind the garments is an unexploited world that should serve as a model. They are living organisms, ephemeral garments that we must take care of and that therefore make us pay attention to what we consume and our impact. The consumer has a lot of power,” declared the designer.
With the goal of improving citizenship, the Audi Summit for Progress also hosted some of today's most disruptive ideas in terms of design. These were the cases of architects Kunlé Adeyemi and Kongjian Yu, in charge of the “floating cities” and “sponge cities” projects respectively. While Adeyemi proposes populations that live above water, Yu believes in the ability to use nature so that these types of cities are capable of absorbing water to avoid flooding. But problems not only arise where water is in excess, but also where it is scarce.
For this reason, the co-founder of The Weather Makers, Ties van der Hoeven, vindicated his reforestation project in the Sinai Desert. The Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado had his space, who also has a reforestation pilot project and highlighted Audi's commitment to supporting these actions. Precisely, the director of the 'Mission Zero' action at AUDI AG, Daniel König, explained the company's commitment to water management: “We want to manage water with respect and transfer this vision to our daily lives. “Through the application of closed cycles, the optimization of processes, the recovery of rainwater and minimizing wastewater, our goal is to reduce water consumption in the production of our automobiles by half by 2035.”
After an intense day of innovative ideas, the second edition of the Audit Summit for Progress ended with some final words from José Miguel Aparicio, who highlighted the idea of the motto 'Ideas to start the future': “this is just the beginning and in companies Like ours, we are already working for a better future through sustainability, design, digitalization and putting citizens at the center of technology,” he concluded.
