With Earth Day behind us, what lies ahead? Environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals, strategies and necessities have become an urgent concern today, and technology has become a key driver in forging sustainability consciousness.
While there is definitely more widespread concern about the environment – about the baton and burden that we pass onto future generations, we are yet to reach a point where being conscious and considerate about sustainability becomes the norm – or a collective habit.
In this month’s editorial review, we look at the articles by our guest authors that focus on how leveraging the power of AI and the latest conscious tech innovations can help drive sustainability consciousness by identifying opportunities for improvement, optimizing resource usage, and making more informed decisions.
Let’s take a closer look at the articles in the spotlight this month.
Sustainable Profits With Effective ESG Strategies for Telecoms
The ESG-conscious route can not only enable the optimization of resources, but also lead to business success. The rise of mobile and IoT has necessitated an increase in base stations, which will likely increase the energy demands of 5G networks. In response, telecoms companies are reconfiguring their networks to reduce carbon footprints by implementing new network architectures, including edge computing, artificial intelligence (AI) and data and automation.Â
Knitting together these systems into an information architecture (IA) is key to accessing and exploiting their potential to optimise networks’ carbon footprints. AI and automation can also be used to offload processes from busy centres to cool ones, reducing wasted energy. Companies that fail to take ESG issues seriously will lose investors, employees and customers, who now expect businesses to make a profit and do good in the world.
Stephen Rose, GM of global telco industry and distribution at IBM adeptly highlights why business success and profitability need to be built on the pillars of conscious environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategies.
How Can AI Enable Sustainable Construction?
As environmental movement continues to pick up pace, an area that emerges as lacking adequate sustainability is the building and infrastructure process. Continued innovation in AI and robotics seeks to improve the quality of infrastructure planning and maintenance discusses Jeremy Suard, co-founder and CEO of Exodigo.
To achieve more climate-conscious construction, it’s important to consider all the components of the crisis, not just the ones during the build. Proper planning that accounts for what lies beneath the surface ensures safer and more sustainable builds. However, conventional methods of underground exploration and mapping rely on incomplete or inaccurate data, creating tremendous environmental risks for infrastructure projects.Â
To prevent costly and environmentally damaging faults, leaks, and accidents, construction leaders need to unearth what truly lies below the surface of a build site. The solution lies in harnessing the power of AI to tell them what is actually there with better accuracy. AI-powered underground exploration ensures safer, more sustainable projects across a wide range of industries.
How 5G and Telcos Can Help Reduce Carbon Emissions
The ROI of more sustainable operations is driven by sustainability-conscuious consumer decisions. Marisa Viveros, VP at IBM and Christine T. Dee, CTO, T-Mobile Account Team, discuss the interesting role 5G and telecom companies could play in reducing carbon emissions across sectors.
To meet their sustainability objectives, companies today are implementing sustainable business models by sponsoring e-waste reduction programs, using enhancements in semiconductor technology to reduce energy consumption, and leveraging 5G to drive efficiencies.Â
However, telcos need to shift their business model towards a connect and compute model to achieve additional revenue through connected services. They can reduce congestion and emissions by providing IoT-based smart parking services, for example. They can also help enterprises implement impactful and measurable changes in reducing emissions by offering intelligent emissions tracking solutions. The possibilities are endless telecom innovations since their impact traverses industries and geographies.
How Do ESG Regulations Impact Our Reality?
Smarter ESG standards can drive sustainability. Coupa’s CIO, Eric Tan, discusses how IT leaders can effectively play the dual role of ensuring that ESG reports are accurate and done in real-time and setting the organization on-track to achieve higher levels of sustainability.
Business leaders today are buying or building new technology, or acquiring new tools for measurement and analysis to help them benchmark, report and inform change. IT leaders play a crucial role in managing their organization’s tech stack for ESG reporting, ensuring data is transparent and utilized in the most efficient way, and driving forward ESG initiatives.Â
By breaking down inter-departmental silos and working closely across teams, IT leaders can define criteria for greenhouse gas emissions, material impact, and supply chain risks to better evaluate sustainability-minded suppliers and optimize supply chains. Collaboration among organizations through data sharing can ultimately serve the global community by providing more sustainable business practices.
The Tech-forward Path to Sustainability
Driving sustainability with technology, AI, and the cloud is a critical step towards creating a more sustainable future. The integration of these technologies into various sectors such as energy, transportation, agriculture, communication and waste management can help reduce waste, optimize energy usage, increase efficiency, and reduce carbon emissions.Â
The use of AI and machine learning algorithms can provide valuable insights and help identify opportunities for improvement. Additionally, cloud computing offers immense scalability, flexibility, and accessibility, making it an ideal platform for managing and analyzing large amounts of data.Â
As the world continues to grapple with the challenges posed by climate change and environmental degradation, the development and deployment of these technologies will be crucial in meeting sustainability goals. The collaboration between technology companies, governments, and the private sector is thus the key to drive innovation and ensure that these technologies are accessible and affordable across the board. Harnessing the power of innovative technology, AI, and the cloud, is an important milestone on the path to creating a sustainable and equitable future for generations to come.
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