The climate crisis presents unique and unprecedented challenges to businesses in all sectors. Climate-related damage is becoming more common and affecting everything from employee safety to supply chains and business operations. The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2021 recently identified the three most likely risks for businesses in the next 10 years: extreme weather, climate action failure and human-led environmental damage. Companies are also facing pressure from consumers, investors and regulators to improve sustainability and reduce emissions.
To meet these environmental challenges, companies need to analyze their data to identify carbon emission hot spots, optimize energy usage and prevent weather damage to infrastructure and operations. Unfortunately, most companies currently rely on manual data collection and analysis to try to improve sustainability metrics. Anticipating climate-related disruptions to business operations and reducing emissions will require more than just manual data collection. With AI-driven advanced analytics, companies can predict how the climate crisis will impact their infrastructure, customers and employees and allow them to respond in real-time.
To meet the sustainability needs of modern businesses, IBM introduced its Environmental Intelligence Suite. The Software as a Service (SaaS) is designed to help companies anticipate and respond to climate-related events that disrupt supply chains and business operations. The goal is to improve sustainability and resiliency using AI-enabled advanced analytics.
"The future of business and the environment are deeply intertwined. Not only are companies coping with the effects of extreme weather disruptions on their operations, but they're also being held increasingly accountable by shareholders and regulators for how their operations impact the planet," said Kareem Yusuf, general manager of IBM AI Applications. "IBM is bringing together the power of AI and hybrid cloud to provide businesses with environmental intelligence designed to help them improve environmental performance and reporting, create more efficient business operations to reduce resource consumption, and plan for resiliency in the face of climate disruptions."
AI-Enabled Insights with IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite
Using geospatial, weather and IoT data, the Environmental Intelligence Suite helps companies predict and plan for adverse weather events driven by climate change. Geospatial data can help assess climate risks in real-time that could impact critical infrastructure, operations, and employee safety.
An overview of IBM’s Environmental Intelligence Suite
Without requiring a team of data scientists, the Environmental Intelligence Suite provides insights via custom dashboards, maps and APIs to assess immediate threats that could impact operations while highlighting areas for long-term improvement. For example, the software can help utility companies assess which areas of vegetation, such as tree branches, need to be trimmed to protect power lines during future storms.
Included in the software are weather API services, including accurate local forecasts and comprehensive historical data. The software can even generate industry-specific data sets for companies involved in agriculture, aviation and utilities, among others. The geospatial analytics engine uses six petabytes of data to provide in-depth knowledge for the platform. The operations dashboard presents data insights in easy-to-understand modules for anyone. No data science experience is required. Finally, action items can be sent as alerts to employees in real-time to respond rapidly to changing weather.
Multiple APIs Available to Drive Advanced Analytics
Through the IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite, APIs are accessible through the cloud and curate climate, environment and weather data. The software uses current and future forecasts, seasonal forecasts, severe weather events and historical data for analytics to help businesses anticipate disruptions to supply chains and operations. Standard APIs packaged in the software include a core API with radar and satellite data for current conditions; an enhanced current conditions API that uses data from high-resolution weather observation networks, such as METAR and SYNOP; and an enhanced forecast API with advanced forecast modeling capabilities. Plus, the lifestyle indices API incorporates environmental conditions related to air quality, disease outbreaks, extreme heat and even mosquito activity. Finally, the historical weather data API uses past events to help inform how weather influences business activities.
Premium APIs expand beyond the standard set and include geospatial currents and forecasts, severe weather, seasonal and sub-seasonal forecasts, probabilistic, renewables and agriculture. The three premium weather-related APIs provide enhanced short-term and long-term forecasting analytics, while the renewables and agriculture APIs provide industry-specific analytics. The premium probabilistic API can then help companies make informed decisions based on the likelihood of a given weather event and its potential effect on the supply chain and operations.
Robust Data Analysis with the Geospatial Analytics Engine
Within the Environmental Intelligence Suite, the Geospatial Analytics Engine is designed to query and analyze geospatial-temporal data from maps, satellites, forecasts, IoT and more. In the era of machine learning, the 800 data layers create an industry-leading repository of information. Companies can also add their proprietary data to use in combination with the platform-provided data. The final product is a searchable catalog of continually updated information to help companies make informed decisions related to climate events. The platform is designed to allow data scientists to focus on advanced analytics as opposed to data processing.
User-Friendly Data Visualization with a Customized Dashboard
In a single, user-friendly dashboard, the software suite visualizes weather reports for all locations related to a given business. The dashboard then allows users to zoom in on individual sites to assess real-time weather events and threats.
Real-Time Action with Scalable Alerts
The built-in alert console allows messages to be sent directly to employees to respond in real-time to weather events. A dashboard report is also generated following message delivery to help companies analyze how an alert impacted operations. Real-time message delivery can help protect the safety of employees in the field and identify critical areas of infrastructure that could be affected by an adverse weather event.
The most up-to-date forecast data inform the alert system. It is updated every 15 minutes with 100 times more coverage than public data.
How Can It Be Used?
Carbon Performance Engine
In many locations around the world, carbon accounting is becoming a necessary component of business operations. With the Carbon Performance Engine, the Carbon Accounting API can help companies keep track of and report on greenhouse gas emissions. The Carbon Accounting API can help companies locate carbon emission hot spots within their supply chain to identify areas for intervention and improvement. Six data endpoints are generated within the carbon accounting APIs: stationary emissions (e.g. industrial equipment), fugitive emissions (e.g. leaks), mobile emissions (e.g. fuel consumption), location-based emissions, market-based emissions and transport and distribution emissions. By understanding where and how supply chains produce emissions, companies can identify key areas for investment to reduce emissions and meet target sustainability goals.
Vegetation Management
The software suite offers an end-to-end solution in the form of Vegetation Management to help companies deal with the dangers of uncontrolled vegetative growth in utility-based industries. The program uses AI and advanced analytics to assess vegetative growth across a company’s service area and help prioritize sites most at risk of damage due to overgrowth. Regular maintenance at these priority areas can then help prevent future power outages. Plus, the software can help optimize preventive maintenance to keep costs low while protecting power lines.
Regenerative Agriculture
Applications in the software suite for Regenerative Agriculture combine AI, IoT data inputs and advanced analytics to help companies make informed decisions. For example, the software can help agribusinesses increase profitability and crop quality through AI-driven analysis of satellite data, weather forecasts and agricultural IoT. Companies can also increase sustainability through insights gained on energy and water usage.
Advanced Analytics Will Help Companies Meet Sustainability Goals
As climate change increases the frequency and severity of adverse weather events, companies can improve their supply chain and operations’ resiliency by predicting and responding to natural disasters. Beyond anticipation of disruptions, using advanced analytics to understand company operations can help to optimize energy usage and reduce carbon emissions, ultimately lowering costs and improving sustainability. With an AI-driven SaaS like the IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite, this is now possible without an expert team of data scientists.