Like politics or religion, artificial intelligence is a topic that elicits strong opinions.
Many in the environmental and sustainability communities sing its praises as a technology for combating climate change, citing its superhuman ability to optimize the integration of renewables into electric grids, or to detect deforestation and other threats to biodiversity, or drive corporate resilience planning using extreme weather models. The list of potential applications is long.
I’m definitely guilty of singing that tune. The energy management system developed by cold storage warehouse company Lineage Logistics is one of my favorite examples to extol: When I wrote about it a couple of years ago, the company had managed to cut power consumption in half for facilities where it was deployed, saving customers at least $4 million along the way. What’s not to like?
In fact, it’s unusual to find a big business that isn’t at least thinking about using AI as a resource for automating all manner of tasks that would take homo sapiens far longer to handle manually (if they could handle it at all). At least half the executives surveyed in late 2020 by McKinsey said their companies already use AI for product development, service optimization, marketing and sales, and risk assessments.
Why does this matter for ESG concerns?
Continue reading: https://www.greenbiz.com/article/when-ai-and-esg-collide
Many in the environmental and sustainability communities sing its praises as a technology for combating climate change, citing its superhuman ability to optimize the integration of renewables into electric grids, or to detect deforestation and other threats to biodiversity, or drive corporate resilience planning using extreme weather models. The list of potential applications is long.
I’m definitely guilty of singing that tune. The energy management system developed by cold storage warehouse company Lineage Logistics is one of my favorite examples to extol: When I wrote about it a couple of years ago, the company had managed to cut power consumption in half for facilities where it was deployed, saving customers at least $4 million along the way. What’s not to like?
In fact, it’s unusual to find a big business that isn’t at least thinking about using AI as a resource for automating all manner of tasks that would take homo sapiens far longer to handle manually (if they could handle it at all). At least half the executives surveyed in late 2020 by McKinsey said their companies already use AI for product development, service optimization, marketing and sales, and risk assessments.
Why does this matter for ESG concerns?
Continue reading: https://www.greenbiz.com/article/when-ai-and-esg-collide
