{"id":650292,"date":"2024-02-06T05:36:35","date_gmt":"2024-02-06T13:36:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=wherenext&p=650292"},"modified":"2025-12-12T12:09:01","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T20:09:01","slug":"fast-four-supplying-demand","status":"publish","type":"wherenext","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/publications\/wherenext\/fast-four-supplying-demand","title":{"rendered":"Fast Four: Supplying an Insatiable Demand"},"author":501,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[],"tags":[479122,301572,164662,279242],"department":[488822],"wherenext-category":[],"industry":[],"class_list":["post-650292","wherenext","type-wherenext","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-fast-four","tag-natural-capital","tag-natural-resources","tag-world-population","department-sustainability-risk"],"acf":{"short_description":"In just over 12 years, the planet added 1 billion people. As demand rises, companies must find a healthier relationship with natural resources.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"If you blinked, you might have missed it: In just over 12 years, the planet added one billion people<\/a>, surpassing a population of eight billion in 2022."},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Left","content":"Article snapshot:<\/strong> Population growth and the new energy economy have created massive demand for natural resources. To fill it, companies can access new techniques to work smarter and more efficiently.","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"It\u2019s a number as difficult to comprehend as some of the questions it provokes. Is this pace sustainable? How will we supply the demand for everything from food to phones, building materials to energy?<\/em>\r\n\r\nMost of the goods we depend on are drawn from the marrow of the earth\u2014grain that grows in arable soil, oil locked in shale, minerals found in mountainsides, and water coursing through rivers. As the global population<\/a> rises, citizens and corporate leaders are feeling the new weight of that demand.\r\n\r\nIn this WhereNext<\/em> Fast Four interview, Geoff Wade explains what it takes to meet demand in a nature-positive<\/a>, net-zero<\/a>, just, and equitable<\/a> manner. For a glimpse of what that looks like, watch the video or read the transcript below. It\u2019s a conversation fraught with urgency and rich with context. And it comes none too soon\u2014the next billion people will be here by 2037."},{"acf_fc_layout":"kaltura","video_id":"1_ssjwy7h5","time":false,"start":0,"stop":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":" \r\n\r\nChris Chiappinelli<\/strong>:<\/strong> The WhereNext<\/em> Fast Four is back, and today we're talking about a big challenge for the business community and the planet. We're focused on population growth, the rise in consumption, and how these demands affect natural resources.\r\n\r\nGeoff Wade is with me. He'll share some of the techniques he sees companies using to deal with this demand, to keep up with it, and to do that responsibly.\r\n\r\nGeoff, welcome. What is the situation companies are dealing with today?\r\n\r\nGeoff Wade<\/strong>:<\/strong> Well, Chris, today's global economy puts a tremendous strain on the supply of natural resources. The challenge, with around eight billion people in the world\u2014and realizing that we've added a billion in the last 13 years\u2014is to produce these resources in a much more sustainable manner than we are currently doing today. That is, in a nature-positive, net-zero, just, and equitable manner.\r\n\r\nFor instance, in the energy space, as we transition out of coal and other concentrated fossil fuels into renewable energy<\/a>, we still need advanced materials for building wind turbines, photovoltaic cells for solar panels, lithium and other materials for EV batteries, and so on.\r\n\r\nSo the need for natural materials and extraction really hasn't gone away. It's just transitioning from coal and carbon-based fuels to these new commodities.\r\n\r\nChiappinelli<\/strong>:<\/strong> It's a delicate balance, as you say. What has changed recently in that situation, though?\r\n\r\nWade<\/strong>:<\/strong> Well, the demand for certain resources has intensified sharply, creating more strain in the supply system. Actually, the World Economic Forum says that more than half of the global economic value, some $44 trillion, is meaningfully dependent on natural-based systems<\/a>.\r\n\r\nReally, we're just realizing now how fragile and overpressured some of these systems really are and how commercially dependent we are on them, from pollinators to agricultural grains and ocean harvests. It's not surprising, therefore, that consumers and regulatory pressures will grow rapidly for companies to extract resources more sustainably and responsibly and take on an appropriate accounting of their true natural capital, which has effectively been free in a commercial sense till now. Perhaps we're looking at a nature tax down the road.\r\n\r\nChiappinelli<\/strong>:<\/strong> That's an interesting possibility. In general, what's the role of location intelligence in all of this?\r\n\r\nWade<\/strong>:<\/strong> We're working with companies in very practical ways every day to help improve their sustainability profiles in a very real sense, from source to supply.\r\n\r\nFor example [these companies are]:\r\n