💬 “As a benchmark, we spent two to three times our GDP creating the railways, effectively creating the industrial revolution. The idea that we're going to somehow re-engineer and de-carbonise everything for some small percentage of our GDP, I think is magical thinking.” Gavin Starks

This is a conversation with Gavin Starks

🎙️ Gavin helps solve complex challenges. He has co-created over a dozen organisations, building multi-disciplinary teams fit for a digital age. He explores the impact of data on business, society and culture which has led to roles such as co-chair of the Open Banking Standard and founding CEO of the Open Data Institute.

🎧 In this episode, Gavin talks about the mindset and actions needed to create a working blueprint for the freer sharing and licensing of data at scale. He explains why this approach is critical for making a green and sustainable recovery possible. He uses the example of creating an effective, decentralized and distributed energy grid that incorporates shared data, describing this as a federated decentralized approach to data sharing. But he warns that this isn’t possible without a culture shift.

Gavin defines open data and shared data and explains the differences between these two concepts. He explains open data by comparing it to Open Banking where there's a common standard for all parties that are working in the banking sector and hundreds of different FinTech companies to share information across the whole network, but maintaining privacy and consent. Gavin talks about how this approach has democratised access to the marketplace for financial information and could be a useful mechanism for other industries.

I asked him if the movement of money particularly investment has responded to the changes in risk, particularly risk related to climate change. He sees positive change here but warms about the speed of progress. Physics, he says, doesn't really care about how quickly we are able to change our systems. We need to be moving faster to decarbonise all of our activities.

To drive home the gulf in our actions to what is needed, he points out that the UK spent two to three times its GDP creating the railways and so the idea that we're going to somehow re-engineer everything for some small percentage of our GDP is magical thinking. But Gavin says, if are able to adopt the principles of a war economy, then we can achieve remarkable things, at scale and at speed. And even between our first conversation and this recording, something remarkable happened when China announced its goal to be carbon neutral by 2060. This is the Infinite Leaders series on the Boundless Podcast, we are exploring how Digital Transformation, Data and Artificial Intelligence can promote, provide engagement and deliver environmental sustainability.