Opinion – Rodrigo Tavares: Metaverse: between escapism and the ESG revolution

Macron will win the elections; China will become the world’s largest economy; remote work will be normalized – these were some of the most common predictions among the dozens of Sibylline articles published by the press at the end of the year. But the winners of the prediction contest were the exponential growth of ESG and the launch of the metaverse. All the chronicles I read mentioned us.

It’s an apparent contradiction. ESG practices are directly related to the need to solve social and environmental problems or to identify and price climate risks, for example. They are tangible and palpable. The metaverse, on the other hand, is an immersive, three-dimensional, sensory and, by definition, virtual digital experience.

But what if there is no contradiction?

A portion of ESG investors allocate capital to generate a positive social or environmental impact. But often the benefits are hard to measure and hard to feel.

Excel spreadsheets, fickle metrics and color reports are the best an investor will have access to to witness the results of their investment. With the metaverse, an investor will be able to communicate with the people affected, hyperpersonalize the benefits they want to generate, and monitor the results on a daily basis. The impact experience will be individualized, sensory, addictive.

The metaverse, in the futuristic sense of the word, is far from existing collective and remote gamification experiences (eg Roblox, Epic Games), creating online avatars (eg Second Life, Decentraland), or using reality glasses increased. In the more sophisticated version, and when enabled by blockchain and cryptocurrencies, it will allow a parallel, sensitive and singularized existence.

Sustainable investors will contribute capital seeking the superlative of experience, the height of sensation, the height of action. If for the generation of Millennials sustainable investments are a priority, for the A generation (born after 2012) daring to the metaverse, sustainable investments will be mobilized more by the experience of impact than by the ethics of impact.

And while sustainable investments solve concrete problems, investments made in metaverse platforms will only be real within the limits of this universe. They do not kill the hunger of those who are biologically hungry, but only the idea of ​​hunger created in a virtual cocoon. Investors will have to choose between making real investments with tenuous benefits or virtual investments with tangible benefits.

Another problem with the metaverse is that its operationalization and universalization do not depend only on the invention of new instruments, algorithms or technologies. The metaverse is above all contingent on the development of standards and an architecture that allows for their standardized use by people around the world. For example, the internet is based on protocols such as TCP/IP.

This type of protocol does not yet exist for the metaverse. And, so far, it has been induced from the top down, by a handful of companies, justifiably attentive to their financial and commercial interests. It is a solution in search of a problem and not a setback in search of its resolution. In the opposite direction, the internet does not belong to any government or corporation. It’s public and open.

Obviously, the metaverse can bring benefits to the world of sustainability. It will allow the video conferencing experience to be much more immersive and effective, reducing the need for physical mobility (smaller carbon footprint). The production, distribution and consumption of various types of products and services will be carried out virtually, reducing energy and water consumption and the waste of materials.

If I want to taste the best Port wine, I don’t need to visit Graham’s cellars in Vila Nova de Gaia or import a bottle to Brazil. Just buy the sensory experience of drinking a Graham’s Six Grapes Reserve Port in the metaverse. New pedagogical opportunities will also emerge from the metaverse to foster environmental awareness or emphasize the emergency nature of climate change.

That’s why the metaverse will develop in this bipolar ambiguity: is it a system to simplify and optimize our daily lives? Or is it an escapism?

Most of the companies that are at the forefront of their creation, such as Meta, Google, Microsoft, Tencent or Binance, are also companies with good sustainability credentials. The metaverse can become a mere toy or become a powerful tool, for example as a facilitator of decarbonization.

We can only hope that sustainable companies work for sustainability.