Big Data and Climate Change Innovation: The Key Relationship
In the constant stream of media and news that reaches society today, there are two common concepts that are developing an increasingly-intertwined connection - big data and climate change. While climate change is not a new notion, big data is a more modern concept that is not commonly understood. To provide a surface level definition, big data can be described as large, unstructured volumes of data that are generated by organizations. These massive volumes of data can turn into patterns that allow organizations to discover insights that drive strategic decisions.
How AI helps process Big Data
As a subset of “big data”, other increasingly-common terms are machine learning and deep learning, which both exist as types of artificial intelligence (AI). Machine learning and deep learning are essential tools in the field of data science to discover the insights and patterns that were discussed above. These tools are both faster and better than its human counterparts at discovering patterns that exist in large datasets, and humans only come into play when it’s time to use these patterns to determine how decisions should be made.
The Connection between Big Data and Climate Change
So how exactly is this important to climate change? Climate change innovation is based on the idea that the current state of the world is progressing at an unsustainable rate, and dramatic changes must occur to prevent surpassing the 1.5°C warming threshold. However, institutions such as large governments and corporations are challenged by factors such as excessive cost and difficulty of implementation that make it hard for them to realize impactful change. It is exponentially more difficult to justify these changes when there is a lack of evidence or methods of measurement for them.
Big data can help by allowing these organizations to understand their shortcomings and discover where certain changes may have the biggest impact. For example, internet-of-things (IOT) devices, such as sensors in built environments can track the emissions of buildings and locate inefficiencies in energy use and waste generation. From a financial standpoint, big data can provide the evidence for investors and management to justify new decisions oriented towards climate protection, with increased transparency allowing for a more-informed balance of risk and reward. Moreover, big data can track the increasing effectiveness in renewable energy sources and therefore help society better understand changes in the climate.
The Future with Big Data
The concept of big data is often described as a new phenomenon - the world has never experienced a time where organizations have access to vast amounts of data that is far beyond what can feasibly be used. Further developments in AI tools means more opportunity to use and manage this untapped data to better inform society on how to protect our global climate.
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About RyeStrategy
Based in Seattle, RyeStrategy is a CDP-accredited, mission-oriented company specialized in carbon accounting, mitigation coaching, and climate disclosure solutions for organizations at any point in their sustainability journey. Learn how RyeStrategy helped Salesforce, Ideascale, and Wazoku achieve their sustainability goals.
From exhaustive carbon footprinting and mitigation coaching, to setting science-based targets and reporting climate data to CDP, SBTi or custom reporting platforms, RyeStrategy acts as a hands-on extension of the team, custom-tailoring services to fulfill climate disclosure requirements easily and accurately.
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