The struggle for sustainability
The way we live, as a global society, is simply no longer sustainable. We’re currently exhausting the earth’s natural resources at a greater rate than they can be generated, and we desperately need to find a solution to reverse our impacts on the planet. The good news: data can help.
By gathering data from physical environments – whether that’s a building, city, or even an entire country – we can use the latest predictive technologies, like AI and digital twins, to improve efficiencies and reduce our impact on the world.
With the right insights into our physical domains, we can ensure a more sustainable use of resources, build smarter cities and roads, monitor waterflows, devise new ways of growing crops and gain a better understanding of climate change.
And we are doing this. Although small in scale, data projects are currently in place to improve almost every aspect of our daily lives. But the problem is they’re rarely able to grow. And their insights are often restricted by a limited sample of data.
This is the crux of the issue: data is always more powerful when it’s combined with other data. Doing so exponentially increases the level of the insight available.
For instance, if we could combine consumption data from smart meters with the distribution data from different energy companies, we could build a more efficient energy grid. And even recycle excess energy to the areas that need it most.
Or, if a city’s CCTV cameras could feed data about traffic flows to road signals, we could reduce congestion and lower emissions, all without any human intervention.
There are endless examples of what we could achieve by sharing data between companies and across industries to provide greater contextual understanding. But the problem is, organisations simply aren’t incentivised to do so. In fact, the opposite is true.