Programme
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AI for the Earth: Exploring How AI can Enable a Sustainable Future
The planet is facing a fight. Climate change, rapid biodiversity loss, resource depletion and food and water security are just a few of the serious issues negatively impacting the Earth’s natural systems. The need to better manage them to avert further damage intensifies daily.
This presentation, based on a report by PwC UK and Microsoft, explores the economic and environmental potential that digital transformation and decarbonisation together will create by 2030.
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Preparing for the Future: How AI & Machine Learning Will Transform the Architecture, Engineering and Environmental Consultancy Space
Artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data are changing the face of every industry, including the architecture, engineering and environmental consultancy space. But where do you start? Javier Baldor, BST Global’s Executive Vice President, and Hank Tran, BST Global’s Director of Knowledge Management, will explain machine learning and artificial intelligence across industries before honing in on the unique architecture and engineering challenges that this technology could solve. This discussion will provide a deep understanding of these emerging digital technologies within the industry and how to drive firm adoption.
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Real-Time Carbon Footprinting
The regulatory, corporate and fiscal value of carbon is increasing, and the need for fully certified data is becoming more important. As more countries, corporations and organisations commit to becoming carbon neutral, the ‘easy wins’ are harder to find and a deeper understanding of activities becomes increasingly important if we are to continue reducing emissions.
Drawing upon real life examples from over 200 sites in the United States, we will demonstrate our approach, directly coupling software to automation and control systems to measure emissions and associated data enabling numerous clients to report on their greenhouse gas and air pollution releases. We will then discuss how we are responding to the increasing value of carbon, adapting and developing our software to provide real-time measurement and reporting to our clients in the UK and Europe. Our experience tells us that automation offers cost savings compared to annual carbon footprinting campaigns, providing data that can be fully traceable to source, verified and truly certifiable. However, the real benefits come with increased knowledge; real-time data enables companies and organisations to fully understand the contribution their assets are making to carbon emissions, and to better identify measures to reduce emissions through optimisation and step changes from minor and major modifications. We will present some examples to illustrate these benefits and ask ourselves, as environmental consultants, how can we best contribute to accelerating the net zero transition?
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Project CORaiL: Coral Restoration & Research
Researchers have long studied marine ecosystems to better understand the world around us. In the underwater world, coral reefs are some of the most important, and fragile living systems – responsible for protecting shorelines, fostering marine life and supporting economies around the world. In partnership with the Sulubaiï Environmental Foundation, Accenture and Intel have developed technology that allows researchers to monitor reef health, without human intrusion on these delicate environments. Using underwater cameras equipped with AI technology, we’re now able to count and classify marine life – a key indicator of reef health – to help inform how we nurture these ecosystems and provide a broader understanding of the world beneath the waves.
