Artificial intelligence (AI) offers a significant opportunity to solve various complex problems and plays a critical role in achieving sustainability.
Climate change is a global issue with a destructive ripple effect. Although we have made significant technological advancements in the last one hundred years, including creating automated systems, the planet still suffers from damage due to human activities and a growing population.
According to National Geographic, the health of the planet and the well-being of future generations are at stake due to greenhouse gas emissions, which are causing a rise in global temperatures. The sustainability trend might not be enough to mitigate global warming.1
AI is an ever-evolving technology that has revolutionised the world. It offers us an opportunity to think creatively and implement solutions to prevent environmental degradation and address the climate crisis.1
Artificial intelligence has been utilised to achieve results in various industries, but where it matters most is promoting sustainable living. AI will only improve in the future, and its advanced capabilities can help mitigate the predicted environmental challenges.
Artificial Intelligence for a Sustainable Future: An Overview
Our planet has experienced significant changes over the last one hundred years, including rising global temperatures, increasing sea levels, melting ice caps, and more extreme weather events.1
The deterioration of our natural environment due to human-induced climate change remains a serious problem. While we have advanced technology, it has always been at the expense of the environment.2
Our advancement in AI offers the potential to solve complex problems. The 21st century has seen global temperatures have reached an all-time high and the prediction for the coming years is even more concerning.
Environmental sustainability is essential and must be prioritized to ensure a safe and habitable planet for future generations. The concept of sustainability relates to how we currently meet the environmental needs of our society—specifically, our ability to conserve resources and protect the environment without compromising the ability of future generations to do the same.3
Climate change is a global emergency, and the world we live in today has taken sustainability-related issues more seriously than ever. Global warming threatens our existence on this planet.
Although we have advanced in technology, these advancements will be in vain if we cannot optimize them to resolve pressing global issues. The era of artificial intelligence and the growing sustainability trends present an opportunity to mitigate our carbon footprint by leveraging AI.
Learn more: Eco-Friendly Practices in Virtual Reality and Gaming Industries
The Sustainability Development Agenda
According to the UN, sustainable development has been simply described as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Adopted by world leaders in the past, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are an initiative to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and address the global issue of climate change. The SDGs apply to all countries and the new Goals call for action by nations to promote prosperity and environmental sustainability.4
Artificial intelligence has advanced its predictive capabilities, making it an important tool for improving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With its advanced abilities, AI can analyse complex problems, and vast datasets, and predict future trends.5
AI modelling capabilities allow researchers to implement proactive and preventive measures. These capabilities offer valuable opportunities for planning and policymaking.
With AI, environmental sustainability becomes more achievable through its enhanced ability to analyse data on supply chains, resource utilization patterns, and transportation networks. By running complex analyses, artificial intelligence can revolutionize future predictions on waste generation and enhance resource productivity.
The Importance of Artificial Intelligence for the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
Artificial intelligence is recognized as an advanced tool for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) due to its predictive capabilities across various sectors. AI is a powerful resource utilised by developed countries to bypass the traditional developmental process with its innovative solutions.6
The United Nations recognises AI as an advanced tool technologically equipped to achieve the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. AI can be a game changer, influencing decision-making and offering solutions to longstanding complex issues.7
The United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Amina J. Mohammed, addressed delegates at the opening of the ECOSOC Special Meeting. In her words, “Our task is to harness this powerful technology to accelerate sustainable development while mitigating its harm.”
“The Global Digital Compact must accelerate the application of ethical development and diverse AI tools to solve the challenges facing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”.8
The Deputy Secretary-General emphasized the importance of establishing a global understanding to utilize the new technology to advance sustainable development for all countries.
AI provides an opportunity for all to get involved—it provides support, especially for developing countries to get involved and benefit from the ever-evolving new technology taking over various industries.
How Artificial Intelligence Addresses Environmental Issues
AI has emerged as a technological tool due to its predictive and problem-solving abilities. With its capacity to process vast amounts of data and learn from patterns, AI offers a significant opportunity to revolutionize our effort to achieve environmental sustainability.
AI can be applied in various ways to monitor environmental changes. According to a study, AI can be used to analyse satellite data to observe environmental changes.9
Satellite imagery allows us to observe a vast area and collect data on environmental changes. With AI-powered remote sensing tools, analysing changes in forest density, vegetation cover, and land use becomes more efficient.
How AI Can Help Individuals and Companies Adopt Green Practices
Smart Energy Management
AI is a powerful tool and it can be utilized in different ways to achieve environmental sustainability. Technologically advanced, it can play a role in optimizing energy consumption.
AI-enabled energy management systems can convert homes into energy-efficient living spaces. With these advanced systems, users can feel more relaxed as the system can adjust their energy usage automatically.
The system analyses patterns in energy usage, and with the AI algorithms, it becomes easy to predict peak times and adjust energy distribution. This helps users save on utility bills while minimising their carbon footprint.10
Sustainable Transportation
AI can be utilised to establish a green transportation routine. It can influence individuals to prioritize sustainable practices in their transportation choices such as carpooling, biking, or walking.
Additionally, automated vehicles can improve fuel efficiency, while AI-supported traffic management systems can help improve air quality and reduce congestion. Incorporating AI in the new electric vehicles also plays a role in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.
Food Consumption
AI, with its predictive abilities, can revolutionize the future of food consumption. Regarding individual food preferences, an AI-powered dietary tool can assess the environmental impact of one’s food choices by analysing factors like carbon emissions, land use, and water usage.
These AI-powered tools encourage a healthy dietary plan. promoting less consumption of meat and recommends sourcing locally grown food.
Precision Agriculture
AI in agriculture involves utilizing an advanced system to collect and analyse data from satellite images. With the help of AI, farmers can use the collected data to establish the best farming routine. Reviewing the data, the farmers will know when it’s better to plant, irrigate, and harvest their produce.
The predictive abilities of these technologically advanced systems ensure efficient use of water and energy, making AI a valuable resource in agriculture.
AI Role in Business.
AI is already an integral part of many business strategies. According to PwC UK, it’s estimated that the use of AI for environmental purposes could contribute about $5.2 trillion to the global economy by 2030. AI could also reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 4% by 2030.11
With its predictive capability, AI has the potential to address pressing societal issues, including the need to establish sustainable solutions to complex modern problems.12
Ensuring Efficient Logistics
The transportation and logistics sectors remain major contributors to global carbon emissions. Incorporating AI can help businesses reduce the carbon footprint of their transportation and logistics operations.
According to ABMagazine, the American multinational retail corporation, Walmart is one company making an effort to minimize its transportation carbon footprint with AI. The company have adopted an AI-powered system for efficient delivery—using it to plan delivery routes, which helps to reduce CO2 emissions.13
Energy Reduction
Businesses are utilizing AI-powered systems for optimal energy management by analysing energy usage patterns. AI systems can identify areas of inefficiency and analyse data from devices (sensors, meters, and Internet of Things), helping to identify equipment that consumes excessive energy.
Case Studies of AI Application in Sustainability
1. Google’s AI for Renewable Energy Optimization
Top global tech companies and artificial intelligence go hand in hand. America’s multinational corporation and tech company, Google, prioritizes sustainability by using AI to minimize its carbon footprint through optimised energy usage.
Google’s technologically advanced DeepMind AI system, with its predictive capabilities, can determine future energy loads and apply its machine learning algorithms to ensure efficient energy use.14
Google’s DeepMind AI system has achieved significant results in its application. It’s estimated that these advanced systems have achieved a 40% reduction in energy required to keep cooling systems operational, with an estimated 15% improvement in overall energy efficiency.15
2. IBM’s Green Horizons Project
IBM’s Green Horizons Project is an initiative developed to utilize artificial intelligence to make accurate predictions of air pollution levels. The AI system collects data from weather reports, sensors, and industrial sources to determine pollution levels.
It’s well known that major cities worldwide struggle with air pollution. IBM Green Horizons Project has been implemented with significant results in air pollution reduction. Beijing, China is one of the major cities where the project was tested and according to reports, the city’s air pollution was reduced by 20%. It’s only a matter of time before the project expands globally to help other cities struggling to combat air pollution.16
3. Microsoft’s AI for Earth
Microsoft’s AI for Earth was developed with a genuine intent to collaborate with organizations committed to achieving sustainability. The AI tool developed by the multinational tech company can be implemented in different projects such as species classification and climate modelling.
In a wildlife conservation project, the AI-powered system was able to observe and protect a small population of endangered species. Monitoring the shrinking population of these species was made easier with the help of AI, which analysed collected data.
4. ClimateAI
ClimateAI is an initiative that utilizes AI technology to promote sustainability in agriculture. With its predictive analytics, agricultural practices can become more sustainable and resource-efficient, enabling farmers to make informed decisions about planting and irrigation methods.
By using the ClimateAI platform, growers have experienced positive changes in crop yields and adopted resourceful farming ideas with less environmental impact.
5. Siemens AI-Driven Smart Grids
Siemens AI-driven smart grid was developed to improve the efficiency of energy distribution from renewable sources. Siemens innovation is a technological system that predicts energy production and demand, balancing the grid to ensure stability.
The smart grid system improves the integration of renewable energy into the grid, which, in turn, minimizes fossil fuel-induced carbon emissions.
6. Wild ME- AI for Wildlife Conservation
Wild Me is an organization dedicated to wildlife conservation. Their goal is to support effective and rapid animal populations, working with conservationists to combat species extinction.
Wild Me uses artificial intelligence to track individual species roaming the wild. The organization’s AI system collects data, photos and videos to observe wildlife population and their movements.
The AI used by Wild Me provides conservationists with the necessary data to better understand animal behaviour and the best way to monitor endangered species. It’s said that conservationists have used Wild Me innovation to develop strategies to protect biodiversity.17
7. AI Application in Agriculture
While food security is essential for the current and future generations, sustainable agricultural practices should also be prioritized to avoid environmental degradation.
AI in agriculture has emerged as a powerful tool to ensure and promote sustainable agriculture. Integrating AI in agriculture optimizes aspects of farming such as energy and water management, and smart farming techniques.
Artificial intelligence plays a major role in improving precision agriculture, providing farmers with insight to efficiently manage irrigation systems.
AI also facilitates labour-intensive farming tasks like pruning, crop harvesting, and ploughing in agriculture.18
8. AI In Sustainable Education
Artificial intelligence in education plays an important role in promoting sustainable education. AI technologies have the potential to improve educational practices by upgrading learning techniques through realistic presentation in the classrooms.
According to a study, by harnessing the power of AI technologies like deep learning, artificial neural networks, and knowledge graphs, educational institutions can establish and improve sustainable development techniques for educational information.19
9. A Case Study in a Japanese High School
An AI-powered language app was developed to help Japanese high students learn English as a second language. The app uses speech recognition and natural language processing to assist students with pronunciation correction.
By using the app, the students improved their speaking skills in the new language. The student’s progress was attributed to the app’s technology, which provides suggestions, and feedback, and addresses specific areas such as fluency and intonation.
This case study shows the potential of AI-powered language learning apps and the importance of integrating them to improve learning skills, even for students learning a new language.
Role of AI in Shaping Sustainable Consumer Behaviour
The ever-evolving sustainability trend has made progress in influencing consumer behaviour towards sustainability in production and consumption in the last few years. The emerging awareness regarding the environmental impact of consumer decisions has increased demand for sustainable products.
Artificial intelligence plays in influencing consumer decisions to prioritize sustainability. The predictive ability of artificial intelligence has revolutionized product recommendations for consumers and improved customer service interactions.
According to a study, existing research shows that AI-driven recommendations play a vital role in shaping consumer preferences and decisions. Artificial intelligence technologies contribute to the adoption of sustainable practices as the world confronts its environmental challenges.20
Conclusion
Artificial intelligence is an ever-evolving technology that has revolutionised the world. It offers us an opportunity to think and execute solutions to avoid environmental degradation and the climate crisis.
Its application is vast but integrating AI to achieve environmental sustainability is the best way to utilize its abilities.
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- Nishant, R., Kennedy, M., & Corbett, J. (2020). Artificial intelligence for sustainability: Challenges, opportunities, and a research agenda. International Journal of Information Management, 53, 102104.
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- IBM expands Green Horizons initiative globally to address pressing environmental and pollution challenges. (n.d.). IBM UK Newsroom. ↩︎
- Marr, B. (2021, January 29). The amazing ways Wild Me uses artificial intelligence and citizen scientists to help with conservation. Forbes. ↩︎
- Mana, A., Allouhi, A., Hamrani, A., Rahman, S., Jamaoui, I. E., & Jayachandran, K. (2024). Sustainable AI-Based Production Agriculture: Exploring AI applications and implications in agricultural practices. Smart Agricultural Technology, 7, 100416. ↩︎
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