Sustainability Magazine February 2025 | Page 89

EXECUTIVE INSIGHT
We consider AI ethics as part of every use case our technology addresses . We believe we can collectively be smart about the problems we ’ re looking to address with AI and rightsizing the models and infrastructure in order to address both the opportunities and challenges in the sustainability domain .
Q . CAN YOU TELL US A FEW OF THE KEY CARBON-CUTTING PROGRAMMES IBM IS LEADING ?

» Reducing emissions is a core goal of mine and we have implemented more than 2,100 conservation projects in recent years that have collectively avoided 256,000 MWh of energy consumption . In fact , in 2023 IBM reached its goal of reducing operational GHG emissions by 65 % ( from 2010 ) two years early .

This includes :
• Large-scale electrification project at our third largest energy-consuming location in our global real estate portfolio , set to go fully live by end of this year , with an estimated 70 % emissions savings .
• Another example is the upgrade in IT equipment at our data centres , which contributed to more than 58 % of our energy conservation savings in 2023 .
Q . WHAT IS IBM DOING TO REDUCE ENERGY CONSUMPTION BY AI AND DATA CENTRES ?

» IBM has been actively pursuing energyefficient AI across the full stack . We offer efficiently trained foundation models like Granite at a range of sizes and use a range of optimisation techniques to minimise energy use in their development .

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