How can Digital help to accelerate Environment Sustainability?
- Jagadish Rao Raghavendra
- Dec 6, 2019
- 3 min read
Updated: Nov 27, 2020
Our environment is degrading at a faster pace. Australian bush-fires have now been raging for months with rains as the only hope. Delhi smog is a constant for months at a time. Time for action is now. Can technology help? Boards, led by Non Executive Directors, can inspire caring for sustainability using Digital
“But I don’t want your hope. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I do. Every day. And want you to act. I want you to behave like our house is on fire. Because it is” says Greta Thunberg a 16 year old girl from Sweden in this morning WEF (World Economic Forum) post, who has been nominated for a Nobel Prize.
I am an advocate of the benefits of new Technologies and its potential to improve business outcomes ethically. We have always considered Power consumption reductions in all our Transformation and Modernisation propositions. This recent article from the World Economic Forum gave me a rude awakening jolt, as if really hit by that million-volt lightening. Are we really that close to causing the decline of nature itself? In doing what I am doing can I look at doing something more?
I also came across this article providing great detail on how Companies, Governments and Civic organisations can use Digital technologies, AI alongside Industry40 to minimise the adverse effects of climate change.
Our ancestors had taken great care to nurture of nature. Will we only leave a Mixed Reality based vicarious experience as our legacy? We seem to be depleting nature at a much faster rate than our ancestors took to leave us a great legacy. Can Digital technologies help give the co-inhabitants of our planet can equal right and opportunity to survive?
I continue to be a strong advocate of IoT/IIoT, Big data & Analytics, micro-services architecture, SaaS / Cloud, machine learning, pattern recognition, video analytics, automation, artificial intelligence, robots, drones and Mixed reality to re-imagine business models. Would these be of help to Afforestation, Agriculture, Environment departments and/or charities? Can the digital dreamers of Industry4.0 re-imagine and re-purpose some of these digital technologies?
That led me to think about the “What if” question. What if there are people thinking about it? What if there are others who are already doing it? What if we research, promote and share on Social media to accelerate awareness and inspire actions? Here are a few examples I came across on LinkedIn. Credit to the people doing great work.
Water catchment and conservation - Here is a great way of using IoT sensors, data and analytics to adapt and conserve water usage but also improve harvests.
Forest cover - Use of drones for mapping, canopy cover tracking, pest infestation assessment is all happening. I liked this World Bank initiative to not only track but also build water sources.
Here is another smart initiative to use drones and robots for mass seeding to improve forest cover
Rainfall - There are people working on making cloud seeding work. Digital – Analytics, Drones and Robots to be specific – seems to be the underlying tools. Would this help governmental organisations intervene in the drought prone regions of the world?
Animals facing extinctions - Tagging and analytics is being done for some time now.
While the above is how it is being done, I recently read articles about (a) Animals getting their own facebook or data exchange hubs to allow researchers to upload images and videos, (b) Wildlife pictures postings on facebook and social media being scanned for unique identity – There was a picture of a black leopard. Great use of Social media, Video analytics, pattern recognition and image scanning. All digital:-)
Traffic congestion - The future is also about smart traffic management. Read about Hangzhou's AI assisted city brain, which has resulted in fewer congestion and leading to reduced vehicular pollution.
It does appear that Digital can definitely help improve the Environment and Sustainability. Are there other low-cost examples that could be promoted or implemented?
PS: This is a personal reflection. I am merely the messenger, a vehicle, spreading the message. I acknowledge all copyrights, IP of the original authors of the article
About the Author
This article was first published by Jagadish Rao Raghavendra on March 15, 2019
Jagadish is a Strategic Board adviser, senior Executive leader with specialisation in reimagining business models; who has been successful at building and/or turnaround Practice advisory, Presales, Sales enablement, Solution consulting capabilities for:
- Applications & Enterprise applications
- Modernising and Transformation to a secure hybrid Cloud
- Service Integration and Management in a multi-cloud environment
- Digital workplace solutions
- Digital transformation using IoT, IIoT, Big Data, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Drones and Robots
- IT Infrastructure services
More recently, Jagadish has influenced re-imagining a digitally enabled business model for a leading enterprise
#IoT, #IIoT, #Bigdata, #Analytics, #artificialintelligence, #drones, #robots, #RPA, #cloud, #hybridcloud, #aftermarketservices, #sales, #presales, #salesenablement, #strategy, #managementconsulting, #boardadvisor, #nonexecutivedirector, #applications, #digitaltransformation, #mixedreality, #integration, #collaboration, #API, #microservices, #marketplace, #solutionconsulting, #servicemanagement, #governance, #riskmanagement, #cybersecurity, #saas, #CRM, #ERP, #customerexperience, #customersuccess, #businessdevelopment
Comments