What Does Big Data Mean For Sustainability?

Big data is the buzzword. Everything that surrounds you is impacted by big data today. The phenomenon took shape earlier in this decade and now it has become a full-blown reality. There are now a growing number of compelling ways in which big data analytics is being applied to solve real world problems. The biggest of these problems, environment sustainability is also not out of the scope of big data and this post is exactly about how big data analytics will help scientists of today solve problems of tomorrow and make the development of human race more sustainable and environmentally friendly.

Data gathering is becoming advanced and so is our ability to understand copious amounts of data. Better computational strength and enhanced connectivity are riding the information revolution. According to an estimate by IBM, in 2020 there will be 300 times more information than we had in 2005. Understandably, there are immense possibilities which arise from a proper utilization of this data and environment sustainability is one of them. Out of many promises of Big Data, environment sustainability is one of the most important ones to implement and maintain. Why so?

Climate change is happening and there is nothing that can deny its existence or its increasing effect on human life on earth. World leaders are discussing climate change at all major forums as the problem has moved to the forefront of world-scale issues, affecting every country and disrupting economies. It has been identified that human activity is the major cause of this change as CO2 emissions have increased by almost 50 percent since 1990. This environmental change is costing people, countries, and communities dearly today. While a major part of this damage is irreversible, it is still possible with the usage of a wide range of technological measures to control the global increase in temperature. The talks are on about how big data can generate useful insights and big data applications can be as relevant towards the cause of environment sustainability as they have been to other sectors such as healthcare.

Understanding the operations through big data

Big datas usefulness is in its ability to help businesses understand and act on the environmental impacts that their operations are having. Some of these are within their boundaries while others are outside their direct control. Big datas potential impact on sustainability rests on its power to present a clear picture of the complete impact their operations are having on the natural world. Earlier this information was disbursed across different formats, locations and sites. However, now businesses are trying to make out the end-to-end impact of their operations throughout the value chain. This includes things that are outside their direct control including, raw material sourcing, employee travels, product disposal, and likewise.

Assessing environmental risks

An important application of Big Data is in assessing environmental risks that the world faces right now or may face in future. Aqueduct is an interactive water-risk mapping tool of The World Resources Institute that monitors and calculates water risk anywhere in the world based on various parameters related to the waters quantity, quality and other changing regulatory issue in that area. This tool can be accessed online free of cost where users can choose the factors which they want to focus on and also zoom in at a particular location. 

Optimise resource usage

Another big contribution of Big Data to the corporate world is its ability to help them optimize usage of resources.   At the Initiative for Global Environment Leadership conference held in 2014,  David Parker, vice president of Big Data for SAP showed us how Pirelli, the Italian tire company, uses SAPs big data management system, HANA, to optimize its inventory. The company uses data generated by sensors in its tires globally to reduce waste, increase profits and reduce the number of defective tires going to landfills, thus doing its bit for the environment. Similarly, a Dutch company Alliander uses HANA to maintain the grids peak efficiency which in turn increases profits and reduce environmental impact. While at one time it used to take 10 weeks for the company to optimize the grid, now it takes only three days to accomplish the same. A task which Alliander used to do once in a year now can be accomplished once every month.  

Small improvements in efficiency due to resource optimization can result in big savings.  Paul Rogers, GEs chief development officer expressed his thoughts in the IGEL conference about the potential of Big Data to optimize performance in the business world. According to the facts presented by him, a meager 1% improvement in efficiency in five major industrial sectors including healthcare, aviation, rail, power and oil and gas can save $276 billion in the next 15 years.  This amount is a reflection of the kind of profit that companies involved can earn while causing a lesser impact on the environment.

Big Data helps better regulation

Big data can also be integrated with government policies to ensure better environmental regulation. Governments can now implement latest sensor technology and adopt real-time reporting of environmental quality data. This data can be used monitor the emissions of large utility facilities and if required put some regulatory framework in place to regularize the emissions. The firms are given complete freedom to experiment and chose the best possible mean of achieving the required result.

Keeping a complete track of how various business operations have an impact on the natural world gives way to new and innovative ways for bringing sustainability in an organisations structure also. In the business world, Big Data is actively helping create a change, cut costs and boost long-term profitability in a resource-constrained world. Thats the real objective that every corporate should be aiming towards. 

Other ways in which Big Data is helping environment sustainability is by helping us to understand the demand for energy and food as the world population increases and at the same time, climate change reduces these resources by every passing year.