Victor Oliveira's Profile

Great article! It is really interesting to see a large company such as Unilever actually taking steps to address climate change issues that are so relevant today. I am, however, a bit skeptical to which extent this is a real policy that permeates throughout the company and goes all the way to the individual brands or just a PR stunt. Because of the decentralized model Unilever has, actually enforcing that the individual business units and brand implement and prioritize climate change related initiatives is really daunting. As conscious consumers, it is our job to verify if Unilever is actually living by the standards it has imposed on itself and held it accountable to achieve the long term goals it has set.

Great article. After reading it I visited Rethink’s website and was truly amazed by what these cobots are capable. One point I wanted to raise about this issue in the inherent irony in it. Most of these isolationist movements have started, to certain extent, because people have lost their jobs to less expensive immigrant labor. However, what they may trigger is not the re-employment of those that lost their jobs but further automation and less need for human labor. In this scenario, one question that I have is where will people channel their frustrations, if the inflow of immigrants is no longer the cause to blame. Would people insurge against cobots? Or would they find another scapegoat? I guess that still remains to be seen…

It is amazing to see how regulation can have such a large influence in an industry. I believe that there is more than just Suniva’s interest here to file the petition. Making solar energy more expensive aligns with the coal and oil industry’s interests (both heavy supporters of the current administration). Moreover, Suniva would not benefit of being able to return to a market that could potentially shrink 69%. I guess we will have to wait another month too see how this story plays out.

I was really impressed by the increase in catastrophic events cause by climate change. Empirically we all have noticed that the amount of hurricanes and other events seemed very high, but actually seeing data that confirms it is nonetheless impressing. It makes me remember a graph that showed that most people think that climate change exists but that it will not affect them, not realizing that its effect is already there. As for Allianz, it was interesting to see how they are creating incentives to try to mitigate these risks. One item that I got curious about after reading the article would be to see the actual losses insurance companies had because of the array of hurricanes this year. I also think is that these initiatives will probably not be enough to shield Allianz from further risks and am now interested to see the next steps they take in this direction.

Shoko, I found it very interesting to understand a little better P&G’s supply chain and how they are taking steps to digitize it. I also agree that increasing speed to consumer, visibility and rastreability are key to win in this game. Companies have now the ability to create a digital “twin” of the products they sell and track it throughout its entire supply chain. One question that I have is to what extent is P&G leveraging Internet of Things in their products and whether or not this is even a consideration for them, since some of their products are somewhat commoditized.

Diana, I find pre-fabricated houses a very interesting space. I had looked at it some years ago, thinking about implementing it in Brazil. In high density low-income cities, this could be, once scaled, a very affordable solution to provide popular housing to thousands of people in need. However, I too saw some difficulties that have not yet been solved with this model. As you outlined, I agree that there is a lack of multi-disciplinary teams to drive this innovation. Architects and civil engineers have been trained to construct houses in a different manner and would benefit from having industrial experts in their teams to better develop this field. Hopefully, with time and new technologies such as 3D printing, this will become an affordable constructing method that developing countries could take advantage of.