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IBM has named the five projects that will be joining its Sustainability Accelerator this year, as part of Big Blue’s initiative to develop artificial intelligence for greener cities.
The Sustainability Accelerator was set up in 2022. Each year, IBM accepts five new projects from non-profits and government agencies working on different strands of sustainability, from greener energy and water to making farming less ecologically demanding.
This year, the accelerator’s intake is focused on making cities more eco-friendly, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11, which states that cities should be “inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”.
IBM said it chose the five projects – C40 Cities, Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, Kora Kita, Mass General Brigham and the UN World Food Programme – because of “their significant level of support to the communities they serve, as well as the innovative ways each organization plans to leverage AI technology to build more resilient cities”.
C40 Cities will use its time in the accelerator to work on AI designed to examine risks around extreme heat – including heat-related deaths and increased energy demand – and how to tackle them. Cities are particularly at risk from rising global temperatures as urban design causes their air temperature to be several degrees hotter than the surrounding countryside.
The Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy will collaborate with IBM to create an analytics platform that will bring together spatial, socioeconomic and environmental data to help improve the quality of life of India’s urban population.
Kota Kita will team up with IBM on a plan to reduce the harms of climate stress in Indonesia. This includes building resilience to physical threats like natural disasters and improving socioeconomic goods, such as clean water access.
Healthcare organisation Mass General Brigham and IBM will develop an AI tool that will help other healthcare providers to deal with extreme heat. The idea is to predict when it will occur, building an early warning system to flag up when extreme heat events are on their way, and highlighting patients that are at risk as a result.
Finally, the UN World Food Programme and IBM will collaborate on adding artificial intelligence into the UN agency’s GeoTar tool, which generates ‘vulnerability maps’ showing areas that need most assistance with food security.
According to the UN, while cities account for just three per cent of land, they use 60-80 per cent of its energy and churn out 75 per cent of its carbon emissions. Because urban environments have a high density of people and economic activity in a relatively small area, they’re also particularly at risk from climate change and natural disasters. That vulnerability is only set to increase: back in 2021, cities were home to 56 per cent of the world’s population; by 2050, that figure is expected to rise to 68 per cent.
The next round of applications for the IBM Sustainability Accelerator is already open.
Big Blue is looking for projects around using artificial intelligence to support sustainable consumption and production. The company says the projects should look to “to accelerate sustainable economic development, boost supply chain efficiency and expand AI deployment and capacity” and could include work on logistics, food waste, supply chains, and recycling.
Applications are open until the end of April – there’s more information here.
