Tech Will Be Decisive in Saving the Planet

This year, we asked Indian companies and MNCs with R&D centres in India to give us a glimpse into their activities and tech solutions they are working on to build a more sustainable planet that future generations would be grateful for.

Mangrove Project in Gandhinagar
Ericsson has partnered with Aga Khan Agency for Habitat (AKAH) India to launch a biodiversity and climate change adaptation project in Gandhinagar. The project focuses on enhancing the resilience of coastal communities vulnerable to climate change and natural hazards. Under the project, about 100,000 mangroves and other plant species along select coastal villages around Porbandar. About 20,000 fruit-bearing trees will also be planted across 10 villages with the aim of providing alternate income opportunities to more than 2,000 local families. Ericsson’s technology will enable the use of geo-tagging services with sensors and peripheral devices to monitor the growth conditions for the mangroves and take data-based decisions to optimise that growth.

Real-time insights cut carbon footprints
Bosch says AI and IoT-based tools are enabling a comprehensive overview of energy consumption, enabling significant reductions in usage. Debasis Bisoi, president of SDS (software & digital solutions) in Bosch Global Software Technologies, says their tool, called Phantom Edge, uses non-intrusive sensors that integrate with any organisation’s infrastructure, providing real-time insights into electrical energy consumption, operational usage, electrical parameters, and equipment-level data. These insights enhance sustainability and productivity metrics, also offering real-time alerts for critical safety issues, machine maintenance needs, and early warnings on malfunctions. The tool, Bisoi says, is also serving as a catalyst for change, prompting industries to reconsider their energy consumption habits. “With Phantom Edge, we have achieved up to 17% reduction in energy consumption on HVAC systems and up to 40% reduction in power backup systems energy consumption,” he says.

Data-driven decision-making in power network
Schneider says its Digital Power Train, as part of real estate or commercial and industrial infrastructure, enables the digitisation of power trains for safe, reliable, and efficient power distribution. And it cuts across the complete power distribution network. Nikhil Pathak, VP of digital energy and power products for India, says an IoT platform provides the foundation for these advancements by providing a comprehensive and integrated ecosystem for managing and optimising energy and automation. It enables seamless connectivity of devices, advanced analytics, and real-time monitoring, allowing for data-driven decision-making and the implementation of predictive maintenance strategies. At a global level, Schneider has pledged to help customers save and avoid 800 million tonnes of CO2 emissions by 2025. Out of this 553 million tonnes have already been achieved.

AI doesn’t have to be a power guzzler
AI comes with substantially increased demands for energy and water, and Intel says it is committed to advancing AI responsibly. In the data centre, the Gaudi AI accelerators and Xeon CPUs, it says, are enabling vast efficiencies to help customers achieve their sustainability goals. The upcoming Gaudi 3 AI accelerator is projected to deliver on average 50% faster inference throughput and 40% greater inference power efficiency than today’s leading products – at a fraction of the cost. Intel’s next-generation Xeon 6 processors with built-in accelerator engines for AI will double the amount of AI capability per square foot of data centre space. This means data centre operators can achieve more compute from their data centre footprint, enabling a reduction in servers and energy use. Xeon 6 advanced telemetry also enables monitoring and control of electricity consumption and carbon emissions to reduce operational carbon footprint.

Improving solar panel efficiency
Tata Power has developed a solar axis tracker that works by continuously adjusting the position of the solar panels to maximise their exposure to sunlight. This enhances the efficiency and output of the panels. The tracker consists of a mounting structure, a controller, and a set of motors or actuators. The controller is the brain of the system, responsible for monitoring the position of the sun and dynamically adjusting the position of the solar panels.
Algorithms can optimise energy consumption

Capgemini’s energy command centre (ECC) in India remotely tracks energy use, carbon emissions, and equipment efficiency across offices in the country. The ECC has also enabled the development of AI/ML-based algorithms to optimise energy consumption in heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems, and data centre. “The ECC is a global first initiative that harnesses a data-driven approach powered by digitalisation to monitor and manage the performance of our state-of-the-art energy efficient assets, 11.7Mwp captive solar plants across Capgemini campuses, and aid in sustainability initiatives across our campuses in India,” says Viswanathan Rajendran, VP of engineering services & sustainability, corporate real estate (CRES) India, Capgemini. Built on IoT-based architecture, the initiative allows the company to measure and predict various metrics like indoor air quality, energy intensity, water intensity, health of critical assets, critical operations, renewable energy generation, and ultimately assess the overall performance across all energy assets. The ECC also supports the prioritisation of employee health and well-being. “Since the launch, a remarkable 29% of energy consumption per annum has been reduced through the ECC. The ECC’s success in India has encouraged it to expand across Europe and the Americas, creating a Global ECC for our operations,” Rajendran says.
Intelligent streetlights

In partnership with tech firm Quantela and smart lighting solutions provider Schreder, UST helped upgrade 35,000 legacy streetlights in Queensland, Australia, recently. Krishna Sudheendra, CEO of UST, says the company provided essential product engineering knowledge, which formed the foundation of the comprehensive lighting control system, encompassing both hardware and software components. Engineers can remotely manage the lighting system, promptly identifying outages. They have the capability to monitor energy consumption, adjusting lighting levels during periods of low traffic or footfall to decrease CO2 emissions, or increasing brightness in high-risk situations to mitigate accidents. “The solution is set to reduce accidents and save Queensland cities up to 30% on energy costs,” Sudheendra says.

Regenerative agri with IoT, Gen AI
Cognizant says it has a portfolio of sustainability solutions, and a good example is the offering for ‘regenerative agriculture’, which is critical for addressing challenges related to food demand. This offering includes IoT-based sensors in the soil that help track water usage in irrigation. It uses data provided by drones to prepare topographical surveys of agricultural land and make recommendations. Finally, it uses Gen AI to train small farmers in languages they are well-versed with, to help them take informed decisions. This includes best practices in farming, weather patterns, pest control and agricultural product prices.