Spoiler alert: the memes were misleading. Contrary to one of 2020’s most memorable memes, nature was not really healing while we sat at home last year.
The skies cleared up a bit, emissions fell slightly and people did notice some changes in animal behavior over a year in which COVID-19 kept people under stay-at-home orders, halted travel and shut down businesses around the world. But scientists say the emissions dip was barely a drop in the bucket and the pandemic hasn’t brought lasting climate change … though it might have opened people’s eyes to what’s possible.
It’s going to take more than staying home to slow climate change. We’ll need buy-in from corporations and governments, technological advances and collective behavior change. We’ll need global events like Earth Day and businesses like Dassault Systèmes to show us the way.
Originally held in 1970, Earth Day has mobilized more than 1 billion individuals, from over 75,000 partners, in 192 different countries, to activate the environmental movement over the past 50 years. Founded in 1981, Dassault Systèmes has invested in sustainable innovation since Day 1 and is committed to enabling businesses and people to harmonize product, nature and life.
This Earth Day, we’ll highlight three exciting projects that fit that mold. One that affects the air we breathe. One that touches the land on which we live. And one dedicated to preserving the water that is life.
Air: NIO
With a Chinese name, Weilai, which translates as “blue sky coming,” it’s only fitting that automotive startup NIO should have an ambitious vision of electric vehicles driving toward a more sustainable tomorrow. Since its 2014 founding, the company has been busy building a new generation of electric road cars that deliver superior performance – NIO’s recipe for attracting a customer base of young professionals who compare NIO’s vehicles against premium car brands.
NIO isn’t just focused on building better vehicles. They’re trying to change the world by changing user behavior: NIO wants electric vehicles to be a natural choice for young families and professionals in first- and second-tier cities. And the company chose the 3DEXPERIENCE platform as the foundation for its enterprise-wide research and development activities.
NIO’s new ES8 electric seven-seater SUV model launch was developed entirely on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. Global teams collaborated seamlessly on the platform to quickly iterate on product designs, quickening an R&D cycle that outpaces traditional development methods.