Digitalisation and Sustainability: The synergy for decreasing emissions
Lowering CO2 emissions from 51 billion tons to 0 in 30 years is the global challenge. We need to get to zero emissions while bringing more products and services to more people in more places. Climate change urgency obligates humankind to restart, refocus and reshape business.
It’s for this reason that Globant and techUK recently held a webinar discussing the synergies between digitalisation and sustainability, and how they can contribute to decreasing emissions.
In the webinar, Elena Morettini - Director of Globant's Sustainable Business Studio, along with host Stuart Deignan - Managing Director UK Globant spoke about how all too often we can feel hopeless with climate change. The rate of CO2 emissions over the past 50 years has been exponential and this high rate of CO2 is impacting significantly our biodiversity and living conditions. The planet is risking a disequilibrium.
Yet there are many reasons to also be hopeful. There are new technologies on the near horizon that could accelerate our trajectory towards a green future. There are two main elements that technology organisations should be aware of:
- Use of carbon digital twins to better understand value chains. This is part of what we call “technology for green business” - the way businesses can use technology to rethink, repurpose, and reinvent solutions to be more carbon, energy and resource efficient. The creation of carbon digital twin processes allows businesses to quantify their impact to an extent that has never been possible before. The mapping and modeling of any process, with an associated carbon budget for each step, enables the calculation of emissions for an entire end-to-end operation - no matter how complex or extended your value or supply-chains are.
- Digital sobriety. Technology can provide much greater visibility into the environmental impact of different activities. Yet the tech industry itself has a significant impact. We expect therefore to see a shift in how the IT industry applies design, data, and infrastructure to software development in a way that results in reduced energy consumption and increased energy efficiency. Digital Sobriety is a novel way to reduce the impact of technology by developing digital products and services that are less energy hungry, as well as helping consumers moderate daily use of digital devices.
Watch the full webinar below. And after doing so, visit Globant’s Sustainable Business Studio where you can find a self-assessment tool to evaluate your own organisation’s sustainability readiness.
