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Around the world, more and more companies are taking climate change and sustainability seriously — driven by pressure from investors, customers and employees, and because governments have put in place increasingly strict regulations to limit the level of greenhouse gases that various industries can emit each year.
As a result, many companies have taken initiatives to reduce their environmental impact. Two of the biggest initiatives include setting new environmental, social and governance (ESG) targets, which are standards used by investors to evaluate the risks of their investment, and signing up for the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), which offers companies a way to reduce emissions in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement. To date, about 3,000 companies have registered with the SBTi.
These are the first steps to reducing emissions by helping companies measure how much they are currently emitting and setting targets for how much to reduce their emissions in one, five or ten years. However, they are less useful in showing companies how they can or should reduce their emissions without negatively affecting their production or profits.
Increasingly, investors and advocates want to see not only the accounting and targets of emissions, but real, tangible strategies and activities that reduce emissions. Ultimately, this is an issue that comes down to optimization of business processes and workflows, which are primarily driven by data and expertise. With data, companies can not only see what they produce, when and how much, but also optimize what, when and how something is produced, with sustainability at the forefront.
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This can be anything from showing structural designers which building materials are less CO2 intensive during the design phase, to optimizing truck capacities and routes so that less fuel is used to transport goods. On a large scale, this can have a huge impact on the environment and is essential to enable organizations to immediately make sustainable change using data they probably already have.
The sustainability case for data
Regardless of the type or size of your business, data is likely an important part of how you manage your operations. Because even if you’re not particularly tech-savvy, data is still vital for managing things like billing and invoicing, measuring product output, or coordinating transportation logistics.
While most companies have this data, it is not aggregated in a way that is useful for achieving ESG goals or reducing emissions, as it is often not connected across the organization, updated in real time, or actionable insights offer. Instead, it’s locked in disparate systems that don’t talk to each other, making it useful only to a subset of people or to a particular division.
Fortunately, that is changing now that companies have begun to connect data from different software systems, as well as connecting data from their physical assets (such as tractors, trucks or other machines) with data from their software so that it can be effectively aggregated and optimized, making it accessible. , understandable and doable.
For example, when data is linked, information from operating an excavator, such as how long the operator has used the equipment and the amount of debris moved as a result, can be aggregated and shared with the company’s CFO. That data can help the CFO see how all the excavators were used that day, week, month or year at the company’s job sites, providing insight into the productivity of the equipment and the profit it generates for the company.
But now, instead of just collecting and analyzing data for the sake of productivity and cost control — something many companies are already doing — it can also be optimized with sustainability in mind, as producing more efficient workflows can translate into fewer emissions, either through better supply chain management, less idling equipment and lower fuel consumption, or more precise and accurate farming practices, just to name a few.
Sustainable data in action
Optimizing data is all the more necessary given the complexity of today’s industrial operations, from the modern farm trying to maximize production while maintaining soil integrity, to the complicated construction site with an almost endless array of moving parts and processes. Data is the common thread that connects everything and provides the connections and insights needed to understand it so that it can be analysed, understood and optimized.
For example, data has been the main driver in enabling UK-based PX Farms to harvest more food while using less fuel and fertilizer and minimizing damage to the land. The company uses Controlled Traffic Farming (CTF), an agricultural approach that consistently uses the same vehicle tracks on all machines. The system is supported by hardware and software solutions that connect the farm field specialists, giving them the tools to make the farm more profitable and sustainable in real time.
This includes software that can integrate, simplify and streamline disparate data flows into one master system, allowing operations to be managed with just a few clicks. The software also provides tools to capture, integrate and analyze essential operational data to get the most out of every acre.
To maximize yield and reduce fuel costs, each field is mapped with surveying technology and machines connected to guidance and mapping functions that help ensure exact wheel placement, allowing PX Farms to operate equipment within tolerance of two centimeters. Precision drills and sprayers also direct the right amount of product to the right place in the field, allowing PX Farms to improve distribution accuracy and make the most of fertilizer as critical crop input.
As a result of implementing CTF, PX Farms has reduced soil compaction and land damage by 73%, fuel costs by 13% and input costs by 6%. These numbers are a testament not only to the productivity and cost benefits associated with connecting data between hardware and software systems, but also the sustainability improvements that come from better soil and using less fuel and fertilizer – ultimately leading to to less greenhouse gas emissions.
Enabling companies to feel encouraged
Businesses and governments alike should be applauded for the steps many of them have already taken to measure current emissions, which will provide the necessary basis for reduction. However, actually reducing emissions is a function of production and workflow optimization, with data at its core.
When data is effectively connected, it can deliver huge benefits, not only through improved efficiency and cost savings, but also through improvements in sustainability. Rather than feeling powerless about how to make progress on such an overwhelming problem, companies should feel encouraged to maximize the resources they already have at their disposal, including data waiting to be tapped into, connected and optimized for the benefit of both business and the environment .
Dietmar Grimm is the VP of Corporate Strategy and Sustainability Solutions at Trimble, a global industrial technology leader providing integrated hardware and software solutions that connect the physical and digital worlds in industries such as agriculture, automotive, construction, geospatial and transportation.
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