IBM: How AI can Accelerate Sustainability Efforts

AI has been a hot - and controversial - topic for the last few years. 

The data centres behind AI models are estimated to produce 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions and models are trained on human data, an ethical concern of its own, which can lead to bias and discrimination.

IBM is a key player in both AI and sustainability, providing infrastructure, software and consulting services worldwide.

Christina Shim, Chief Sustainability Officer at IBM, says: “IBM serves as client zero for many of the technologies it brings to market, leveraging our own solutions and innovations to make a lasting, positive impact through sustainability and in our business. 

“From minimising climate-related risks to creating and implementing industry solutions that harness the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and hybrid cloud, we will create more pathways to better conserve natural resources and reduce environmental impact." 

The sustainability benefits of AI

With so many environmental and ethical concerns, why is AI being touted as a sustainability saviour? 

IBM describes data as the ‘lifeblood’ of sustainability efforts – if companies cannot see where the problems are, they cannot take action to solve them.

AI has the ability to accelerate the conversion of data into sustainability insights and find patterns.

The company is putting AI to use in a wide range of sustainability efforts, including to protect African forest elephants in a partnership with WWF.

Speaking to Inc., Christina says: “If we're trying to solve for net zero for a particular company, can we do that in five years rather than 15 years? And then how much more are we saving over the course of the lifecycle of the problem?

“IBM is heavily invested in the business side around AI for sustainability. 

“We have a partnership with NASA building geospatial foundation models, using that to identify heat zones and putting policies in place to be able to adjust. 

“We actually just did that with the Kenyan government and with the Emirati government. 

“There are a lot of really powerful examples of how it can help with climate from a data management piece, from a geospatial piece; around physical assets, around the supply chain.”

How to choose an AI model sustainably 

With the intense hype around AI, companies sometimes rushed to implement it without time to fully understand the implications.

Christina explains to Inc. that people often make the mistake of “just going out and getting whatever generative AI model is out there – the one that the partner you happen to talk to happens to have – but not really making the smartest choice about that model and just going for whatever was available at the moment.”

“Think about it from that vantage point: What is it that I need to achieve, and then what is the smallest model that I can use to get there? 

“That helps with sustainability, but also costs and speed.”

Using AI in the cloud 

Deploying generative AI requires massive computing power, advanced security architecture, huge volumes of data and rapid scalability. 

Hybrid cloud combines public cloud, private cloud and on-premises infrastructure to make a single IT infrastructure.

Using AI with hybrid cloud can retain security and privacy whilst offering the computer power needed.

Speaking to Inc., Christina says: “We believe hybrid cloud helps in terms of locating your processing in an area that’s close to clean energy.

“For us, 74% of our electricity consumed in our data centres came from renewable sources and that’s really important because even if you’re having to use more of your data centres, at least you’re using clean energy.”

IBM

Founded in 1911, IBM stands for International Business Machines Corporation.

As part of its sustainability targets, the company is committed to achieving net zero GHG emissions by 2030. 

Arvind Krishna, Chairman and CEO at IBM, says: “While we are proud of the progress we have made, we are mindful that advancing our environmental, social and governance goals is a continuous journey of improvement.”

The company is present in over 175 countries and is the largest industrial research organisation in the world.

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