Article

Collective climate action & digital innovation for a better world

Home
Insights
Articles
Collective climate action & digital innovation for a better world

Video

The Decarbonization Journey to Success

This week is not just the week of Earth Day, but also the historic gathering of more than forty global leaders that will address the climate crisis at US President Biden’s virtual summit. The conversations taking place this week will only serve to accelerate momentum leading up to this year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in November. This year we are moving from conversations and pledges to taking demonstrative action.

At this unique moment in time, the UN, global innovators, grassroot activists, industry forerunners and governments who are on the frontline of climate change are coming together to drive collective action towards restoring our planet and building a new era of resilience.

Against the backdrop of Earth Day, Microsoft hosted an installment of their live sustainability panel discussion which amplifies the voice of some of the world’s most transformative thought leaders and executives as they discuss sustainability, the impacts of the pandemic and how to improve access to technology on a virtual stage.

Alongside Marsha Trant of Avanade and Gretchen O’Hara of Microsoft, I joined the event to share ENVision, Wood’s real-time digital emissions management and reporting platform. Delivered through Microsoft’s Azure cloud, ENVision enables companies to monitor, manage and report on their environmental emissions, ultimately helping accelerate and achieve their decarbonisation goals. The platform focuses on Internet of Things (IoT) and sensor-driven real-time emissions monitoring by streamlining and automating diverse types of data to provide a clear, auditable, and accurate view of an asset, organization, or city.

Decarbonisation is a vital aspect of the 1.5 C science-based target, one of the ten ambitions of the UN SDG Ambition framework released in 2019. As co-founder of the SDG Ambition with the UN Global Compact, I had the privilege in developing this measurement framework for the business world to guide sustainable transformation. This valuable tool will be implemented alongside ENVision to help clients reach their sustainability ambitions.

In 2021, we will see carbon reporting become a vital part of business operation standards, as well as a huge amount of clean technology solutions developed across various industries. This will fuel an increased push to deliver on public and commercial sustainability commitments – strengthening the need for partnerships to explore the right answers and the best technologies.

In a recent joint interview with Microsoft hosted by Ideagen, a global platform for cross-sector collaboration, I discussed how organisations can forge a successful carbon reduction journey through strategic partnerships, new technologies and digital innovations.

Today, many companies lack the metrics and visibility which investors and shareholdings are demanding. Effective sustainability requires processing massive amounts of data to provide real-time insight that operational managers can act on. As the world pushes for net zero, more organisations are seeking to align their ambitions with strategic partners to implement sustainability measures that are data-driven, enabled by real-time digital technology, and that can make an immediate impact on decarbonisation.

Wood is actively collaborating with Microsoft to help clients access innovative, artificial intelligence (AI) powered data science solutions on cost-effective technology platforms that are proven, tested, and scalable. As more companies commit to setting science-based targets at 1.5 C, who you choose to partner with can make or break your journey to achieving sustainability, driving the energy transition and enabling sustainable infrastructure, delivering a brighter, cleaner future.