Today, more than ever before, we’re seeing companies implement digital tools at a grandiose scale allowing them to streamline their productions, enhance the customer experience, and solve complex tasks at a speed faster and more accurately than what humans could do.
The impact digital technology, and in this, Artificial Intelligence (AI), has had on the world, showcases a transformational evolution that can produce the tools and resources needed not only to advance human life but to improve sustainability efforts on a macro scale.
We already see how AI can fast-track development for a more sustainable and greener future.
The introduction of AI in agriculture meant that producers can now improve their harvests year-round, allowing for more sustainable practices and boosting global food security.
Computers are now able to build and read algorithms that can help energy providers lower the cost of green energy through condition monitoring and cost-maintaining projects supported by AI.
The everyday presence of AI has meant that experts are hopeful that in the coming years, these technological advancements could pave the way toward a more sustainable future for all.
AI's superiority against the human race means that the transition to a greener future will be more efficient and take place at an accelerated pace.
Despite all the good it has brought human civilization over the last couple of decades, AI, and more so in part, technology, has also been a big contributor to a growing climate crisis.
With technology now embedded within our everyday lives, and economies becoming increasingly digital - the tech sector contributes about two to three percent of global emissions.
While it’s impartial we remain open-minded to the impact technology has had on the direct environment, it’s perhaps better for us to consider how artificial technology and intelligence will become key drivers of the green revolution.
AI and Energy Production
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), approximately 60% of America’s electricity is generated by burning fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas. Electricity production is the second largest contributor (25%) of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.
In the U.S., under the Biden Administration, the federal government has been working to introduce new policies and laws that look to promote the acceleration of greener and more renewable energy sources.
Through the use of artificial intelligence, companies can mitigate their contribution to climate change, as advanced digital tools can be implemented across the entire value chain.
A United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report found that digital technologies can help companies track their energy consumption, promote the adoption of low-emission equipment, improve energy management, and introduce decentralized renewable energy opportunities.
Additionally, there’s a chance that AI can deliver more accurate predictive models, including maintenance, demand, and changes in weather patterns.
The direct use of AI within renewable energy could also mean that issues within the value chain can be resolved more effectively, helping to lower the cost burden for both producers and consumers.
AI and Electric Vehicle Adoption
In the last few years, electric vehicle (EV) adoption has grown widespread, seeing several high-end competitive manufacturers come onto the market.
Globally, battery-powered EVs (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid EVs (PHEVs) sales grew by 75% and 37%, respectively. During the first half of 2022, more than 4.3 million new EVs were sold globally.
In the United States, EV adoption has also seen cataclysmic growth, with 5% of new car sales for the first half of the year being predominantly battery-powered according to a Bloomberg analysis.
Though the market has been growing at a stratospheric rate, several challenges in terms of sustainability infrastructure and supply chain management have led to a decline in consumer sentiment over the last several months.
Alternatively, artificial technology and several digital tools have delivered surprising solutions to the industry’s most severe problems.
For starters, AI can now help provide more cost and time-effective models that can help manufacturers build cars at a lower cost while delivering models that are equipped with high-performing materials and battery efficiency.
Furthermore, AI will lend itself to developing improved algorithms that can control and provide more realistic driving-range estimations, and help vehicles optimize their energy consumption, while ultimately reducing consumer “range anxiety.”
On top of this AI can help improve vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, allowing EV owners to earn additional revenue to provide power to the energy grid.
In terms of what AI can do for the EV sector and consumers at the same time, we see how this technology ultimately aims to optimize supply chain disruptions, reduce charging station congestion and manage EV energy distribution more efficiently.
AI Satellite Imagery and Sustainable Land Use
As we’ve already mentioned, artificial intelligence has already seen producers and farmers around the world implement new-age technology that can help improve the quality of their crops and boost their annual harvest as AI helps to build more predictable algorithms.
Sustainable land use has been a growing issue for decades as the global population continuously grows, leading to more natural land being developed for urban development while displacing thousands of endangered species.
More so, agricultural development has also seen exponential growth, as the global population requires an increasing amount of farming land.
Now that AI can be used to monitor and control crops year-round, we’re able to have integrated AI satellite imagery that can help to monitor land use, vegetation, and biodiverse forest cover.
There has also been a major development in the field of crop disease detection, and through the use of AI-powered agriculture robotics, producers can now monitor the health and sustainability of their crops and land use.
Uncontrollable agricultural expansion has led to widespread deforestation and contributes around 18.4% of greenhouse gas emissions globally.
The problem does not only lie with the destruction of natural habits such as forests and the displacement of native species.
In recent years, the agriculture sector has been tied to the pollution of soil and water resources, increases the risk of poverty in developing nations, and consumes roughly 69% of the planet's freshwater sources.
With AI, producers and governments will be able to automate corrective measures that can help with data collection and improve the overall supply chain, from farm to fork.
Additionally, agriculture could become more resilient to extreme weather anomalies that are caused due to the rapid change in the climate.
Both producers and consumers carry the same amount of responsibility to ensure that the products they farm and purchase have been sourced through ethical and sustainable means and have little to no impact on the direct environment.
AI and Improving Sustainable Mining of Natural Resources
The practice and process of natural resource extraction has been a major cause for concern in recent years, as population growth coupled with consumer growth has led to a soaring increase in consumer demand.
According to a study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), around 62 billion tons of natural resources and minerals are extracted from the earth each year.
Despite the mind-shattering amount of natural resources needed to sustain our human need for consumption, around 20% of those resources are wasted every year.
The expansion of urban areas around the world has led to a change in consumer behavior, where more individuals now have access to unresourceful products that have a direct and severe impact on the environment, causing only more severe environmental stress in extraction regions.
One way how AI can help improve resourcefulness in cities and extraction regions is through the use of Smart Grids, which allows computers to monitor conditions of both air and soil quality.
These grids can also help to distribute energy towards different regions and impart help, improve renewable energy resources, and the distribution thereof.
While the technology to support sustainable mining and resource extraction is still somewhat far and wide between, the impending issue still lies with overconsumption and global consumerism.
Consumers’ constant consumption has led to an environmental catastrophe that has become increasingly difficult to resolve.
Though it could be possible that AI and technology can help humans become more resourceful, the adoption of these tools and resources on a wide scale could still take years.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, it will be up to human ingenuity and digital innovation to deliver artificial technological solutions that can help resolve the growing climate crisis. Efforts from both the public and private sectors will be required to see more widespread adoption at all levels of the industry.
Green-tech and artificial intelligence could only see more expansion in the coming decade, and it could prove successful if we allow it to become more integrated within our traditional systems and value chains.
AI won’t be our saving grace, and nor will it solve issues caused by human intervention. Rather we could see how it can lead us to change our habits, improve and adapt new ways of thinking, and be the key to the next stage of our green revolution.
Photo by Dan Meyers on Unsplash