Designers are ready to dive headfirst into the metaverse. “The metaverse is where much of the architectural action and innovation will be happening in the coming period,” says Patrick Schumacher, Zaha Hadid Architects. The rise of the metaverse in the last several years has prompted architects to wonder what it means for our connection to the real world and the possibility to do in this new virtual realm.

We can see how it would aid economic sustainability, but how will it affect environmental sustainability? Is this the solution to our climate woes, or will it worsen them?

Environmental Benefits of the Metaverse

1. Virtual Products and Experiences

Nvidia launched its Earth 2 project, which will construct a digital replica of the whole Earth based on its Omniverse platform, in late 2021. To anticipate climate change and find solutions to the causes of global warming, this project will need the construction of the most powerful supercomputer in the world.

Digital twins have been demonstrated to have significant effects on ecosystems in research. Ernst & Young found that by using digital twins, buildings might cut their carbon footprints by up to 50% via more efficient use of resources and less waste. Cities are responsible for about 70% of global carbon emissions, and buildings are a significant part of that urban footprint; therefore, scaling this kind of digital twin initiative across major cities and urban corridors would have a profound effect on the global environment. This would enable progress toward a net-carbon-zero world.

We may extrapolate this to include other items and human endeavors. For instance, working from home in the Metaverse might become more efficient, reducing travel-related carbon emissions. 

2. Promoting Innovation advancement in Sustainable Technologies

While we’re all aware of using VR for flight simulators to educate pilots, the Metaverse takes simulations to a new level. In an interview, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang claimed the company was creating digital twins of real-world structures in a virtual environment called Omniverse. They can model how to improve the efficiency of air conditioning distribution and also where to position solar panels for maximum light exposure. It can also model how to alter the building’s architecture to reduce the demand for air conditioning during the warmer months. 

The “2°C increases in temperature” scenario may be taken from paper to simulation, allowing scientists to analyze climatic impacts better. This might be a boon to scientific research and innovation. There is much hope that it may be leveraged to propel R&D efforts toward resolving the sustainability challenge.

3. Eliminating or Reducing the need for Physical Spaces

The development of cryptocurrencies, distributed ledgers, and, more recently the metaverse have prompted designers and builders to rethink the relationship between the real world and the online world. However, beyond that, there will be an “in-between” of areas made to accommodate the technological escape offered by the metaverse and web3. Architects will play a crucial role in developing these cutting-edge digital environments by creating the physical infrastructure needed to run them in the real world.

The metaverse is distinct in other ways as well. The convergence of VR/AR technology holds great potential for bringing virtual environments closer to the real thing. Meta’s Horizon Workrooms, Microsoft’s Mesh, and Arthur are just a few examples of the new breed of remote work and virtual collaboration solutions that significantly improve Zoom by allowing users to interact with one other’s avatars and engage in group brainstorming and discussion. They will make buying everything from clothing to fine art more like the actual thing. It’s easy to understand how a technology this sophisticated may make cities and other physical places unnecessary.

On the other hand, this metaverse, like every other significant innovation wave before it, serves more as an adjunct to physical space than a replacement. 

While the metaverse will make the online experience more lifelike in many ways (by increasing our access to rich content and wider pools of talent, decreasing switching costs between locations and transaction costs in general, and greatly enhancing data-based decision-making and personalization), it will still fall short of recreating the emotional cues, body language, serendipity, and diversity that occur when humans cluster in physical space.

Ironically, although the metaverse broadens the concept of location and makes it easier for people to interact from anywhere, it may also shrink the number of significant locations. There are just a few major cities throughout the world with the population, economy, and transportation links to serve as true global collaboration centers. These megacities will still remain home to the world’s most prestigious museums, performing arts centers, universities, and scientific research facilities, as well as the headquarters of multinational corporations.

How Metaverse is a mechanism for enhancing the Physical World?

1. Virtual Museum Visits: When combined with metaverse technology, a museum visit takes on a whole new level of realism. This allows us to take a few spatial typologies entirely to the metaverse to avoid overuse of physical space and rather use it constructively. Artists, collectors, and fans from around the globe might gather and communicate in a perfect virtual environment. They may visit museums via computer or use VR headgear for a more immersive experience. 

Here are a few examples:

• While Musee Dezentral organizes shows coordinated by major players in the NFT community, frames may now be purchased. Owners of these frames can show their work at the museum.
• Zaha Hadid Architects built a virtual art exhibition dubbed NFTism for Art Basel Miami, investigating architecture and social interaction in the metaverse.

2. House Hunting: If someone is house hunting, they may do a far more in-depth virtual walkthrough of the house and surrounding area before deciding whether or not to see it in person. This negates the need to have sample furnished apartments.

3. Product Testing: If you’re watching a basketball game or a lecture that’s simultaneously being live-streamed, you may get additional information superimposed on top of what you’re seeing using augmented reality glasses. To be more specific, a corporation may use digital simulation and testing to gauge interest in a product (a new sofa design, for example) before manufacturing a real version. This, in turn, saves on wastage in production and manufacturing.

4. Digital Twin and Exploration: Rather than jumping from AutoCAD and SketchUp models, creating a digital twin can help in identifying errors and triggers prior to construction to save on hefty costs.

5. Virtual Meetings: The workforce may interact digitally to provide the groundwork for fruitful in-person meetings. By doing so, we save on the need for conference rooms and meeting areas.

How Lack of Materialism with Metaverse will help save the Environment?

The metaverse presents new possibilities and difficulties for achieving long-term sustainability. The prevalence of compute-intensive transactions prompts concerns regarding energy use and carbon emissions. However, the metaverse also holds the potential for carbon reductions via the substitution of digital for physical products and experiences, optimization through digital twins, and removing behavioral obstacles to climate action through immersive experiences.

Conclusion

Physical location will become more – not less – relevant in business as a result of the metaverse. This is already happening in certain places. For example, Dubai and Shanghai have both recently unveiled initiatives to entice firms and residents focused on the metaverse. This might imply prime testing grounds populated by eager early adopters, which is great news for companies. 

It will be important for businesses to deliberately plan out the locations of their offices and innovation centers to recruit and link talent, as well as the locations of their retail stores to attract consumers and increase brand recognition.

However, it is too early to determine whether metaverse and sustainability will go hand in hand. However, it is not that early for metaverse creators to consider this problem and make choices that will assist the metaverse in becoming a benefit, rather than a hindrance, to sustainability.