Tech and Sustainability Innovation

Big data is ubiquitous in the current day and age. However, its evolving nature – not to mention its vague name – led for a long time to a mystique around what, exactly, it was, where it lived, and what it was for.

The first definition of big data appeared in a 1997 NASA paper. Scientists described it then as a visualization problem that affected computer systems, caused by the volume of information. Essentially, there was too much data for the system to handle.¹ Over the years, the definition has changed. In 2013, it gained popular recognition when it was placed in the Oxford English Dictionary; the OED describes it as, “Extremely large data sets that may be analyzed computationally to reveal patterns, trends, and associations, especially relating to human behavior and interactions.”²

Today, big data is finding new avenues of opportunity in a world searching for solutions to sustainability challenges.

The potential of big data

Computing power and global connectivity have led to rapid advances in data gathering. Collecting, analyzing, and processing data offers unique insight into diverse environments, including political and socio-economic spheres. From the point of view of sustainability, data allows businesses to understand the external climate, make better-informed business decisions, decrease waste, predict economic and market trends, and save financially. Insights into these factors enable organizations to grapple effectively with the needs of sustainability and realize its benefits.

While environmental and industry effects are often beyond a business’s control, they’re also the factors that can have the most significant impact on a business. Before the age of data, achieving a holistic understanding of internal business operations was a challenge; understanding the external, natural world was unimaginable. Now, businesses can interpret data and achieve an insightful perspective on their influencing markets and the interactions between the business world and consumers, suppliers, and other organizations.

Once interpreted, data can reveal a rabbit hole of insights, showing, for instance, the true origins of emissions in the supply chain. This information is invaluable for large corporations that typically have the greatest environmental impact but also need to contend with an overwhelmingly complex value chain. Emissions in such complicated systems can come from sources outside the known control of these corporations but can be unearthed using data analytics techniques. Without the use of big data, information about these emissions and where they come from would be inaccessible, making it difficult to achieve sustainability goals.

Gaining an understanding of the entire end-to-end impact requires major metric measurements. However, big data offers the possibility of revolutionary and transformational gains in measurement and commensurate gains in the pursuit of sustainability.

Sustainability goals

Sustainability has evolved over the years. Previously, only environmental-based organizations and governments felt the pressure to be sustainable. However, it also impacts the social and economic environment. The United Nations (UN) has acknowledged the all-encompassing nature of sustainability in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).³ The program consists of 17 global goals that each UN Member State has adopted and hopes to achieve by 2030. The SDGs include environmental goals such as:

• Climate action
• Life below water
• Life on land

Socially and economically, it includes development plans for:

• Quality education
• Sustainable cities and communities
• Industry, innovation, and infrastructure
• Decent work and economic growth
• Gender equality

To achieve the SDGs, metrics from all UN members will need to be evaluated in a global sustainability indicator and publicly shared – and new sustainability technology holds the key to doing so. Climate change can potentially be measured by combining satellite imagery, crowd-sourced witness accounts, and open data to track deforestation.⁴ Industry and governments can investigate solutions for improving traffic and infrastructure by collecting data from GPS devices. This is just one way in which technology is harnessed in efforts to improve the sustainability profile of infrastructure. Take a look at the video below to learn more:

By analyzing financial transactions that reveal the spending patterns and different impacts of economic instability on women and men,⁵ new sustainability technology can also be used to interpret the pace of gender equality development.

As the population increases, technology advances, and the Internet of Things (IoT) weaves an even bigger web of connectivity – data increases exponentially. However, to ensure the system remains robust, the UN’s proposal measures SDGs by depending largely on simple tech interactions: cell phones, computers, and banking. All are basic personalized technologies that exist across the globe.

Big data poses dynamic potential for sustainability innovations. Accessibility of data has been enhanced by technological advancements in information gathering and analysis. Tech’s improvement in analysis also means that data provides unparalleled insight. As innovation continues to develop, so do the possibilities of how data informs our global landscape. Currently, big data enables businesses to realize, manage, and act on their environmental impact – what has otherwise been unknown and beyond their influence. For the foreseeable future, society will be looking at innovative tech to guide, expose, and inform our business and sustainable decisions.

Examples demonstrating the technology-sustainability revolution

Behind each data innovation lies a disruptive technology that enables it. Ultimately, it’s technology that builds the core foundation on which data is processed and interpreted, enabling new methods of realizing ever greater sustainability. Efficiently managed, technology far surpasses any manual method of coordinating and tracking data.

Tackling food waste

Key drivers in the tech-sustainability movement are startups that utilize technology to improve sustainability outcomes while unlocking new value. It is, for instance, a common dogma that a third of all food grown is wasted due to the gaps and inefficiency of the distribution chain.⁶ Not only does this put food security in peril, but food waste is a major contributor to methane emissions. Startups are tackling the problem by turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to massively boost efficiency, and ultimately design systems that eliminate food waste.⁷

A third of all food grown is wasted, simply due to the gaps and inefficiency of the distribution chain.

The power of microgrids

Technological innovation is also rapidly finding a home in the energy sector, where a new phenomenon is taking hold: microgrids. While traditional energy supply is built on centralized systems of generation and large transmission networks, microgrids are semi-autonomous, localized power grids. These small-scale systems use peer-to-peer networking functionality and blockchain technology to not only manage the generation and provision of electricity but to trade surplus energy to peers on the grid.⁸

Water in dry lands

Yet another emerging sustainable technology example resides in water security. For nearly a decade, the water crisis has ranked among the top global risks by both impact and likelihood.⁹ Globally, 2.8 billion people don’t have access to safely managed water sanitation services.¹⁰ Predictions estimate that by 2030, there will be a 40 percent gap in global water supply if current practices continue. Water sustainability is a pressing challenge.¹¹ Again, innovation experts and technology leaders are capitalizing on new approaches to improving resource management.

Globally, 2.8 billion people don’t have access to safely managed water sanitation services.

Among the solutions being pursued, blockchain’s ability to create transparent and shared transactions could revolutionize how water resources are managed and traded. The technology offers the ability for consumers and businesses to make better decisions by enabling the effective collection and analysis of water-use data. It will allow families, market consumers, organizations, and governments to access the same data on water quality and quantity, leading to greater transparency and, ultimately, greater equity in water rights.¹² As the data is easily available, it helps to reduce the risk of corruption within water tampering and even encourages resource sharing. Allowing broad access to data on water quantity and quality can inform various decisions, such as a farmer sharing water resources based on weather, crop, and market data, using information accessible through mobile devices.

Creating sustainable cities with the latest technology

By 2045, the number of people living in cities will explode, from 4.2 billion in 2020 to over 6 billion.¹³ This makes sustainability in urban settings unavoidably urgent. Although the broader environment is the biggest cause for concern, as cities expand, there’s increasing pressure on public infrastructures and supply chains. Increasingly, overpopulated urban communities are likely to struggle to provide basic amenities, including clean water and safe, reliable electricity.

By 2045, the number of people living in cities will explode, from 4.2 billion in 2020 to over 6 billion.

The IESE Cities in Motion Index analyzes 174 cities from 80 countries. A “smart” or sustainable city balances, for example, social cohesion, economy, environment, urban planning, mobility, and transport. According to the index, a sustainable city should create a landscape that reduces pollution, builds strong and efficient public spaces, and facilitates growth.¹⁴

Topping the Index in 2020 was the city of London, which excelled at creating efficiency by relying on smart technologies and big data to enhance and innovate basic public necessities. The city relies on an open data source containing more than 700 datasets to inform its approach to urban challenges and public services.¹⁵

Big data plays an essential part in creating sustainable spaces, as society will interact and access information from smart systems using their phones and other digital devices. Turning cities smart may seem a costly and advanced trend among the globe’s biggest and best cities, but it’s simply cities and governments responding to the pressure placed on vital infrastructure – a sustainable transformation that will become a global standard. Eventually, cities will run off data-driven systems that manage energy, water, transport, waste, and even safety.

The business benefits of sustainability

Sustainability has historically been strictly associated with the public sector. However, private businesses have finally begun to recognize its benefits. Today, many private corporations are developing the sustainable innovations changing our world.

There are good reasons: becoming sustainable can lower business costs as companies reduce waste and save on input expenses. Consequently, sustainability can drive additional revenue for further innovation or business developments. Sustainability practices can even be a source of new revenue, as the journey to sustainability uncovers new business opportunities. As noted in GetSmarter’s sustainability report, sustainability can also be used as a tool for talent retention.

The path to sustainability is reshaping businesses and encouraging a level of transparency that was previously avoided. The honesty of data has made businesses accountable for their methods. It’s changing the way consumers choose their brands and products, and how businesses interact with suppliers and production methods. Eventually, every company will have to evolve for new sustainable standards established by the consumer market and enforced by regulations.

Businesses developing their approach to sustainability will need to contend with several factors:

1. Identifying compliance as an opportunity
   As sustainability has been left mainly in the hands of governments, it’s generally been achieved through regulation and enforcement. Environmental regulations vary across countries and even within them, and the compliance process is complex for multinational companies. However, adopting specific standards and investing in sustainability offers the opportunity to realize the economic benefits and improved consumer sentiments associated with sustainable practices.
2. Making value chains sustainable
   Achieving holistic environmental goals will only work if every aspect of production follows suit. Sustainability needs to be adopted by suppliers and retailers throughout the chain to further reduce waste and prevent downstream environmental implications.
3. Designing sustainable products and services
   The economic benefits of sustainable products and services are clear. Environmental awareness has reshaped customer expectations – many now prefer eco-friendly brands and products. Innovation opportunities exist for those able to redesign or create sustainable products. To the benefit of business, this reinvention also tends to produce significant savings and profits as companies reduce their waste, input and output costs, and increase efficiency.
4. Developing new business models
   Sustainability provides the opportunity to redesign business strategies and how customers and businesses think of conventional practices. Business leaders and managers will need to develop the ability to create sustainable business solutions.
5. Creating next-practice platforms
   Finally, businesses that wish to remain relevant will be pushed to develop new innovations and practices. Sustainability has led to the revolutionary integration of disparate markets such as groceries and digital tech. Conventional platforms will soon be insufficient, and business leaders will have to assume responsibility for the sustainability of their companies and the greater environment.

The latest technology and innovations have created powerful new pathways to achieving sustainability. Harnessed together, technology can enable sustainability to be a realistic initiative that every citizen assumes responsibility for. As an individual, it offers the space to be an agent for positive change; as a business, it’s linked to economic benefits. Although laced with a number of challenges, the future has the potential to fulfill the promise of sustainability.

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