IBM announces new clean energy cohort for sustainability accelerator

During COP27 last week, IBM announced five new members to its Sustainability Accelerator Program, which uses technologies such as cloud and AI to enhance and scale environmental projects.

All new members of the initiative, which launched earlier in the year, will focus on accelerating clean energy projects among vulnerable populations.

The enterprise technology giant has previously announced it plans to select five organisations for its social impact program per year and will provide $30 million worth of services by the end of 2023.

An earlier selection focused on sustainable agriculture while the latest cohort was focused on clean energy, with firms chosen from over 100 submissions.

New members include the United Nations Develop Programme, which hopes to work with IBM to increase access to sustainable, affordable, and reliable energy in African countries through use of the computing giant’s AI and geospatial analytics, which it hopes will guide policy and investment in this area.

Sustainable Energy for All, an organisation focused on helping governments and industry provide access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy by 2030, was another recipient.

Big Blue said that this project will use IBM machine learning cloud to build and scale open-access datasets as well as an ‘energy needs’ model using temporal and spatial data.

Kenya and India are being primed as the first regions to pilot SE for All’s model.

New member Net Zero Atlantic meanwhile is collaborating with IBM to create an interactive digital tool that will geospatially display the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of energy system futures for Nova Scotia.

And Miyakojima City Government is also 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.

Finally, the Environment without Borders foundation will use IBM’s Environmental Intelligence Suite and IBM Cloud to develop a clean energy management platform to forecast, track and communicate clean energy usage options in Egypt.

According to the International Energy Agency, the impacts of Covid, 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.

Justina Nixon-Saintil, vice president of Corporate Social Responsibility and ESG at IBM said that this was something the firm hopes its sustainability initiative will help to rectify.

“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,” she said.

“With this new cohort, helping marginalised communities get just and equitable access to sustainable energy resources not only helps the world achieve the goal of UN SDG7, but can help in the larger global energy transition,” she added.

In January we reported that  IBM acquired Australian sustainability data analytics provider Envizi to add to its offerings that help companies measure environmental impact.