AI for Sustainability
Published on : Tuesday 07-12-2021
AI can improve energy efficiency and arrest climate change to help build a robust circular economy, says Prafull Verma.
As the world races ahead economically, socially and technologically, the climate and the environment that feeds our progress are also changing, and not for the better. To put that in perspective, the 2021 Earth Overshoot Day – the day of the year when the cumulative demand of ecological supplies in the form of environmental resources and services exceeds what the Earth can generate in a year – was as early as July 29. In other words, we have exhausted our annual supplies within a little more than half a year, leaving us with an ecological deficit of more than five months.
AI has been heavily used in the past decade for business, especially by 21st century enterprises, to quickly generate money without much consideration of social responsibility and environmental sustainability. Things are changing now and there is a growing emphasis on environmental sustainability, and business leaders are being increasingly cautious about not only the means of production, processing, and distribution but also the product itself. Enterprises are undertaking time-bound carbon footprint reduction and sustainable development goals (SDGs). They will need wise AI systems that will take or augment them to make right decisions for SDG. Fortunately, current advancements in AI technology are showing the possibilities. We shall explore the possibilities in this blog.
Climate change: AI is critical to reversing the trend
The world is collectively taking action. According to a recent report, 21% of 2,000 largest corporations in the world have already pledged to meet the Net Zero objective in the near future. In fact, the UN has urged governments and corporations to aim for and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 to arrest the rapid acceleration of global warming. AI has been earmarked as a vital tool for tackling climate change and impacting sustainable development goals. Studies show that AI is expected to have a 79% positive impact on SDGs, including a remarkable 93% positive effect on the environment and 82% effect on society.
Apart from slowing down climate change, AI is also critical for driving a holistic climate strategy that helps meet the various SDGs. From proactively predicting climatic changes to devising corrective actions through data-driven insights, AI has much to offer to us in our efforts to contain the problem. In fact, AI is expected to directly assist in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by at least 16%.
Another crucial impact area for AI is energy efficiency, which it can improve through predictive and unassisted maintenance, contingency prevention, and end-to-end monitoring, reporting, and recommendations. By predicting various climatic patterns and accurately forecasting weather conditions, AI can improve energy efficiency by 15% to foster benefits on both industrial and societal levels.
AI can also combat climate change by optimising clean energy and enabling improved waste management. With the capability to identify sites best suited for least GHG emissions and recognise the most viable alternatives of fossil fuels, it can also aid in reducing energy wastage by charting the demand-supply curve better. Also, it will be a crucial element in redefining operating models that ensure minimum wastage of energy and other environmental resources.
And finally, AI’s impact in the transportation and automotive industries will have a definitive impact on carbon footprints and environmental pollution. AI is helping governments and organisations to develop better transportation models and intelligent transit systems by expediting the global emergence of electric and autonomous vehicles. Reducing the number of vehicles through shared commute and introducing green energy-driven vehicles promises to slow down climate change radically. Deploying AI driven analysis has resulted in faster hypothesis & testing and ultimately swift discovery of energy efficient solutions.
Circular economy: AI will facilitate future-ready regeneration
Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, the global economy has relied heavily on ecological resources. As a result, climate change has turned into the single largest issue, plaguing not only the economy but the planet and its tenants in large. We must decouple growth from the consumption of finite resources available to us in order to witness the real change.
The problem can be answered with a well-thought, circular economy based on principles of smart designing, intelligent recycling of resources, and regenerating the environment. Researchers note that there can be a net benefit of almost $2.2 trillion by 2030 in Europe alone if the continent were to embrace a circular economy today. And, yet again, AI is a key facet in the world’s pursuit of a circular economy.
Enterprises can leverage AI for new product development, which will lead to more eco-friendly outcomes for their customers. These circular products and services will be quickly turned around through rapid prototyping and testing, enabled by ML-assisted design processes. AI is also useful in analysing historical and real-time data to identify the most conducive business models for a circular economy. For instance, leasing and product-as-a-service are already seeing wider acceptance. With the help of AI, those processes can be streamlined and made economically viable.
Furthermore, AI can enable enterprises to optimise the circular paradigm by building and improving the infrastructure, especially for reverse logistics. This will enable smooth disassembly and reassembly, remanufacturing, and recycling of components. AI is accelerating the research & development of new solutions in building an intelligent system that propels the emergence of a robust circular economy
Prafull Verma is Fellow & Chief Architect, HCL Technologies. He has deep and blended experience with the tools and processes to guide leading-edge business IT Security/IT Governance/ITSM projects and initiatives. Transform requirements into solutions, ensure continuity of services, design and implement best IT Governance, IT Service management (ITIL V2, ITIL V3) and Information security solutions, and employ dynamic resolutions to infrastructure issues.
Article Courtesy: NASSCOM Community – an open knowledge sharing platform for the Indian technology industry:
https://community.nasscom.in/communities/ai/ai-sustainability-arresting-climate-change-building-robust-circular-economy
