The second cohort of the IBM Sustainability Accelerator comprises five organizations helping marginalized communities get just and equitable access to sustainable energy resources around the world.
IBM has announced the new members of the IBM Sustainability
Accelerator —
its global, pro bono, social impact program that applies IBM technologies and an ecosystem of experts to
enhance and scale projects focused on populations vulnerable to environmental
threats, including climate change. All new members will focus on accelerating
clean energy projects.
According to the International Energy
Agency,
the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, disruptions to global supply chains, and
diversion of fiscal resources to keep food and fuel prices affordable have
affected the pace of progress toward the United Nations Sustainable Development
Goal (SDG 7) of ensuring access to
affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy by 2030.
"With the IBM Sustainability Accelerator, we are convening experts and using
innovative technologies to help tackle the toughest environmental challenges our
planet faces; and transitioning to clean energy is a critical step right now,"
said Justina Nixon-Saintil, VP of
Corporate Social Responsibility and ESG at IBM. "With this new cohort, helping
marginalized communities get just and equitable access to sustainable energy
resources not only helps the world achieve SDG7, but can help in the larger
global energy transition."
After evaluating more than 100 submissions from around the world, IBM selected
these organizations to become the clean energy cohort of the program:
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United Nations Development Programme — UNDP is working with IBM to increase access to sustainable, affordable
and reliable energy in African countries, focusing on those furthest
left behind. The goal is to forecast electricity access and develop a clean
electricity equity index to better guide policy and investment decisions,
using UNDP’s technical knowledge and IBM’s AI and geospatial analytics.
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Sustainable Energy for All — IBM is
working with Vienna-based nonprofit Sustainable Energy for All to
build an intelligent model to project energy needs based on current and
future human activity. This model will be designed to help to address key
development challenges (e.g., lack of energy access and poor healthcare) and
support the development of robust infrastructure planning, such as
electrification plans. IBM machine learning and Cloud technology and
expertise will be used to build and scale open-access datasets and an energy-needs model using temporal and spatial data. Kenya and India are
being explored as the first regions to pilot the model.
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Net Zero Atlantic — Net Zero Atlantic
is collaborating with IBM to create an interactive digital tool that will
geospatially display environmental and socioeconomic impacts of possible
energy system futures for Nova Scotia. Ultimately, the goal is for
Indigenous communities in Nova Scotia to leverage advanced modeling
capabilities to inform their input into energy and development planning. The
tool aims to be easy-to-use, locally relevant and time efficient. It will be
designed to produce easy-to-understand visual results using IBM technology
such as the IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite and IBM Cloud.
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Miyakojima City Government —
The Miyakojima City Government is working with IBM to support the
development of a renewable energy strategy including a microgrid on
Miyakojima Island — a distant community facing severe climate issues due
to typhoons in Japan — with the goal of helping their residents, who
rely on a clean local environment for tourism and agriculture. Miyakojima
City Government and IBM will collaborate to leverage technologies such as
IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite weather data and IBM Cloud to model
electricity demand and advise energy infrastructure development.
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Environment Without Borders Foundation —
Environment Without Borders Foundation’s collaboration with IBM will be
aimed at developing a platform to forecast, track and communicate clean
energy usage options in Egypt. The goal is to enable resilient and
sustainable infrastructure and operations for clean energy in Egypt, helping
residents of remote villages for whom energy is currently both expensive and
unreliable. The clean energy management platform will leverage IBM
Environmental Intelligence Suite and IBM Cloud.
Launched in February 2022, the IBM Sustainability Accelerator is a social impact
program that addresses multiple environmental threats around the world each
year. The accelerator selects 5 projects to scale solutions that benefit
communities that face challenges such as climate change, pollution, extreme
weather and more. The program currently has two active cohorts; the first one is
focused on sustainable
agriculture
and the second on clean energy.
The selection process considered the applicant’s commitment to support
communities who are especially vulnerable to environmental threats, its ability
to increase access to affordable clean energy services, its strategic focus and
transparency on measurement and reporting, among others. IBM plans to select
five organizations for this program each year and expects to provide $30
million worth of services by the end of 2023.
Published Nov 10, 2022 1pm EST / 10am PST / 6pm GMT / 7pm CET
Sustainable Brands Staff