Meeting the need for sustainable energy solutions is a national challenge of the highest priority. Progressive Dialogue II experts identified a number of key factors impacting the ability of enterprises to move forward with regard to energy security and sustainability. This report explores, through the lens of enterprise “users,” the private sector’s role in driving energy system transformation and identifies the enabling conditions that government must provide to support this process.

Since 1986, Motorola has been using high performance computing to model cellular networks and telephones, an approach that has given them a clear competitive advantage and made the company a leader in wireless communications. The firm accesses the supercomputers at the NSF-funded University of Illinois National Center for Supercomputing Applications to create highly complex models of their wireless devices and infrastructure as different communications technologies emerge. They are now creating models that reflect the newest generation of cellular systems. Their work continues to help Motorola retain its leadership position in the global wireless marketplace.

Five for the Future lays out what the Council considers to be the critical components of America’s competitiveness agenda for success in an increasingly global economy.