AI’s sustainability applications both broad and deep

AI is accelerating sustainability initiatives across industries by turning massive datasets into actionable insights, says Kyndryl‘s Faith Taylor.

Faith Taylor has dedicated more than two decades of her life to corporate sustainability leadership. Today she holds the position of senior vice-president for global citizenship and sustainability at IT infrastructure services provider Kyndryl. Her journey has spanned academia and the hospitality sector, as well as leading global environmental and social impact initiatives at Tesla, and she was founder of the Monclair Global Center on Human Trafficking. We wanted to get Taylor’s perspective on what role AI plays in sustainability today.

“At Kyndryl, I’ve been pioneering an integrated approach to sustainability that leverages our technological expertise and AI, while fostering industry collaboration to accelerate meaningful progress on environmental and social goals,” she told SiliconRepublic.com.

“AI has tremendous potential in sustainability,” says Taylor. “While AI discussions often centre on productivity and efficiency, we need to recognise that AI encompasses diverse technologies with varied applications across the sustainability spectrum.”

AI Applications

AI’s sustainability applications are both broad and deep, she says, pointing to examples such as enhanced climate modelling, resource optimisation, supply chain transparency, circular economy enablement, energy management and carbon accounting.

On the climate modelling front, Taylor points to how AI will significantly improve climate modelling with more precise and actionable risk identification.

“AI can help identify areas most vulnerable to climate risks and enable required investment in infrastructure and disaster readiness,” she says. “It will help governments and organisations develop more tailored and efficient climate-related adaptation and mitigation strategies.”

Supply chain is another area where AI can play a crucial role, according to Taylor. “AI can transform the supply chain transparency by providing real-time tracking, traceability and predictive analytics, enabling organisations to better manage risks, meet ethical and sustainability standards, and optimise operations.”

When it comes to AI, sustainability tools are rapidly evolving, but implementation lags behind potential, according to Taylor, citing Kyndryl’s Global Sustainability Barometer Study. It found that 61pc of companies use AI to monitor energy consumption, establishing a critical data foundation, but only 34pc leverage that data to predict future energy use, indicating a gap in utilising predictive capabilities, she says. “80pc acknowledge technology’s role in sustainability, but just 32pc believe they’re harnessing its full potential.”

Implementation gap

“We’re seeing this ‘implementation gap’ across industries – organisations have access to powerful AI capabilities but struggle to fully integrate them into sustainability workflows and decision-making processes,” says Taylor. “Many companies are still in the ‘data collection’ phase rather than the ‘predictive analytics’ or ‘prescriptive action’ phases where AI delivers maximum value.”

Through both its consulting services and the Kyndryl Sustainability Advisor platform, Taylor says her organisation is attempting to bridge that gap.

Taylor says she remains “deeply optimistic” about the future, and AI’s potential to transform sustainability efforts, and she singles out three key growth areas that could accelerate AI’s impact – industry-specific solutions, cross-domain skills development and integrated ecosystem maturation.

Three growth areas

“Industry-specific solutions involve tailored applications addressing unique challenges in sectors like agriculture, manufacturing and data centres,” she says. “An excellent example is AI-powered precision farming techniques that reduce water usage, while increasing yields.

“Cross-domain skills development focuses on building teams with both sustainability knowledge and AI capabilities, whereas integrated ecosystem maturation involves evolving from standalone tools to interconnected sustainability platforms.”

She says the Kyndryl Sustainability Advisor exemplifies this approach by centralising energy and greenhouse gas emissions data to ensure insights flow across organisations.

“We’re also particularly excited about AI’s potential to tackle previously intractable sustainability challenges, including more comprehensive Scope 3 emissions tracking and circular economy enablement.”

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol provides the most widely recognised accounting standards for greenhouse gas emissions, and categorises them into three ‘scopes’. Scope 1 covers direct emissions from owned or controlled sources, Scope 2 covers indirect emissions from the purchase and use of electricity, steam, heating and cooling, while Scope 3 includes all other indirect emissions that occur in the upstream and downstream activities of an organisation.

Measuring results

Taylor has a pragmatic approach to how all business can be encouraged to up their sustainability game. “While I believe it’s important to promote our good work, l like to emphasise how sustainability supports business success by demonstrating tangible results,” she says. “This is more persuasive than rhetoric.”

Here too AI can be an asset, she says. “AI can help make this business case by quantifying sustainability return on investment, identifying efficiency opportunities, optimising resource allocation, and predicting regulatory and market shifts.”

Taylor is also quick to acknowledge the sustainability challenges inherent in AI itself, and says Kyndryl is committed to both advancing these technologies and measuring their impact rigorously.

“Generative AI models, while powerful, use significant resources for training and deployment,” she says. “We must actively work to develop more efficient AI models, prioritise clean energy sources for AI infrastructure, and implement responsible AI principles that consider all processes and systems.”

Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.