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Technology paving the way for a sustainable future
Technology paving the way for a sustainable future

July 13, 2022

AI

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With shifts in consumer preferences and stakeholder-driven priorities, sustainability is not just a compliance issue in today’s world but is also becoming a key differentiator for competitive advantage. To add to it, there are new regulatory policies emerging across global economies aimed at addressing environmental issues, such as waste, pollution and carbon emissions. For instance, the US has set plans for 100% carbon neutrality by 2050 under the new president’s climate plan and the UK has pledged a ten-point plan to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. As a result of these, there is a critical need for companies to monitor and achieve their sustainability goals.

To accelerate their sustainability journeys and meet these goals, many successful organizations are adopting digital technologies and processes such as cloud computing, digital twins, internet of things (IoT) sensors, and artificial intelligence (AI). These implementations have greatly helped businesses in unlocking new solutions and transforming themselves to become efficient, resilient, and sustainable. From enhancing their monitoring and reporting abilities through analytics and AI, reducing waste through IoTs, and building transparent supply chains through blockchain and cloud, digitalization can help build long-term sustainable value for businesses.

Build a greener world with digital technology

With an increasing focus on renewable energy production, one of the major energy companies recently shifted from using fossil fuels and built offshore wind farms for green energy production. The company relied on a digital foundation, primarily based on automation, advanced analytics and artificial intelligence to achieve its goals.

Starting with the ability to improve the performance and efficiency of the plants, the company deployed sensors on the turbines that made it possible to collect information in real-time. This enabled them to reduce their production wastage through predictive maintenance and improve overall operations. Not only this, but the company also leveraged artificial intelligence to optimize its decentralized energy distribution grids to ensure supply vs demand is balanced in a way that any excess electricity from low-demand zones is directed to high-demand zones.

That said, digital technologies offer unprecedented opportunities to businesses to build environment and sustainability-focused business models, which were not imaginable a decade ago.

Rethink traditional sustainable business models through tech accelerators

Today, environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards have a direct connection with an organization's reputation and profitability. In addition, sustainability goals integrated with digital business models are helping organizations to build better resilience and ensure holistic business success while being future-ready. 

A leading global electronics manufacturer with a presence in over 160 countries, for instance, built a digital twin platform to innovate their sustainable business model which was earlier a siloed and complex structure lacking effective monitoring tools. This helped the company build a comprehensive view of its entire organization including the supply chain, products, manufacturing, customer experience, and all the functional departments. As a result, they were able to improve the utilization of resources, reduce waste, intelligently adjust the supply chain as per demand, minimize pollution from their manufacturing processes and adopt smart waste disposal practices.

In addition, it enabled them to produce smart products that had the ability to self-optimize based on consumer usage data and needs. This platform also allowed all the functional departments such as research and development, supply chain, manufacturing, marketing, and even the ecosystem of external suppliers to be integrated improving the resource allocations, adoption of responsible processes, and meeting regulatory compliances along with bringing environmental benefits.

Conclusion

Digital-led sustainability practices help organizations build a winning business strategy. The convergence of sustainability and digital technologies is driving optimization of resource consumption, reduction in carbon emissions, and building a more connected circular economy. The World Economic Forum (WEF) estimates that there is a potential of achieving 15.8 billion tonnes of net avoided CO2 emissions through digitalization and smart grid technology, which can translate to a US$454 billion value for society over the next 10 years1. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) recently set forth a digital transformation subprogram that focuses on accelerating and scaling environmental sustainability by applying data, digital technologies, and solutions. In summary, a range of data and digital technologies have demonstrated a huge potential to enhance the drive towards sustainability, and the benefits for industries, climate, nature, and the planet are significant.

About Author

Kshama Dhir is Strategy and Transactions Leader at EY Global Delivery Services. A senior consulting leader with rich experience in business transformation, global operations and developing new-age customer-centric solutions, she currently leads a team of 3000 professionals, globally. Views expressed are personal.

Disclaimer: The views reflected in this article are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the global EY organization or its member firms.

References: http://reports.weforum.org/digital-transformation/electricity-generating-value-through-digital-transformation/

 

 


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