2024 Company Realignment in a rapidly changing world
2020 corona pandemic disruption …
2022 Transgressing planetary boundaries …
2024 Climate crisis tipping point …
The Greek philosopher Heraclitus (~500 BC) stated: “Change is the only constant in life.” Today, this saying describes in very clear words, both the post-COVID pandemic world, a debilitating natural resource depletion, both dramatically exacerbated by the current global climate crisis.
Regardless of what terms are used for describing the society emerging on the other side of these disruptions, the resulting global economic situation will drastically affect the conditions for most of society’s entities, industries and businesses now finally re-emerging with more positive economic prospects. The way forward will still be characterized by significant *disruptions*. This *new normal* will characterised by a series of changes the likes of which our world has not seen since WWII.
From 2020 there is a markedly evolving move towards a green(er) society with an energy sector no longer dominated by fossil fuels and dramatically needed moves towards a sustainable economy. However only 3-4 years later, the global population has reached a state in which we currently are transgressing key planetary boundaries. Today we are close to using up a number of key, non-replaceable natural resources and raw materials, for some at a rate corresponding to 1.4 – 1.6 Earths.
What needs to be done – an overview
The way forward must be in a much-improved ‘partnership with the Earth’.
The political process bringing this about is very difficult, but it must take place, or human civilization will be at stake. How the planet’s nations and societies will manage this is today’s most prominent agenda, but it will result in a significantly transformed society. And the planet is most certainly not helped with territorial wars (Ukraine) or by the most recent outbreak of the longest standing regional conflict (Israel-Gaza war). While these wars must be resolved, the planet cannot afford to be occupied by these political divisions, while the world’s population is screaming for regional and global collaboration to tackle the resource, sustainability, and climate crises.
In the context of consciously developing, using, and re-using raw materials, both industrially developed, as well as emerging economies will need to develop a new mind-set. The soon defunct old “normal” state of affairs: economic growth above all, shall be replaced by a more conscious focus on a sustainable use of resources and on resource and commodity re-use in order to contribute with force to the necessity of circular economy: sustainable growth without plundering the Earth. Waste recycling will be an exponentially growing business.
One of the paths leading towards greater sustainability, involves avoiding unnecessary raw material and energy waste, while supporting a strict, non-polluting environmental consciousness in both traditional and new emerging industry sectors, locally, regionally as well as globally. For this, and several other reasons and purposes, representative sampling, will continue to play an important role in science, technology, industry, and society.
The role of sampling going forward – the science-backed view
KHEC’s business objective is to offer help to all relevant stakeholders to better address a world of a changing material basis for the mandated societal, industrial, and business transformations: fossil fuels à renewable (indeed also nuclear) fuels; depleting mineral resources and ores à recirculation and increased use of biological resources (renewables). Recent advances in Process Analytical Technologies (PAT) new vistas for emerging, ever more complex bioconversion processes. These emerging process monitoring modalities carry the potential to bring bioconversion process monitoring and control to a new level of reliability and effectiveness. Proper involvement of process sampling understanding, Theory of Sampling (TOS), constitutes a critical success factor. And this is where the niche-competence of sampling still applies. With extensive experience working with solids and slurries, KHEConsult is a valued international resource providing state-of-the-art sampling, process analytical technology (PAT) consulting for reliable decision making in science, technology, industry, business and regulating authorities. Application areas include:
- Mineral Exploration
- Geo-science, geochemistry
- Environmental monitoring
- Biofuels
- Biogas Production
- Biomass conversion
- Waste to Energy (WtE)
- Pharmaceutical production
- Food
- Feed
- Plastics
- Dairy
All new, replacement, and renewable raw materials, commodities and interim products as well as the material basis on the re-use, re-circulation and re-generation scene are comprised of heterogeneous materials and processes, i.e. the exact same type of sampling targets as is addressed today. Thus, KHEC is fully future-ready …
UN world development goals
For KHE Consulting, the 2020-2024 period business evolution will continue, guided by two of the United Nations world development goals, nos. 9 and 12, addressing Sustainable Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, and Responsible Production and Consumption.
Competence, technological, business focus
While continuing to serve clients’ needs for representative sampling, KHE Consulting’s role shall also be to contribute towards fulfilling these two goals with maximum impact, by an enhanced effort to increase knowledge and competence regarding representative sampling and a continuing broadening awareness of the negative consequences of correct, and incorrect, usage of the Theory of Sampling (TOS).
