“ Today , we have already proven technology that will get us 80 % of the way to net zero . Today ' s challenge is , in fact , a commercial one ; it ' s one struggling with the complex decision-making that happens at community level and town level .”
But , whichever view you take , there are still remarkable positives to be taken from this – primarily that our current technologies have the capability to take the world where it needs to be .
AI as a tool in Google ’ s development of sustainability strategies There is no doubt that technology will pave the way to the cities of the future .
“ Smart cities are no longer a hypothetical concept – over 100 cities in the world have already implemented initiatives that warrant them smart in some way or other ,” states Amr Houssein , the Managing Director of eSIM as a Service at Mobilise .
“ From a telecoms perspective , it really is that perfect combination of IoT ’ s connectivity and 5G ’ s rich capacity of capabilities that have enabled automated systems and flows to be built across cities . On a citywide scale , it ' s things like smart energy grids and intelligent traffic management systems , but also smart homes too .”
An invaluable case study in this sphere is the work that Google is currently undertaking to use IoT and AI technologies to reach its sustainability targets .
Google ’ s deployment of sustainabilityoriented AI and IoT tools span a huge variety of use cases . Firstly , AI is actually being deployed as a tool to increase data centre efficiencies , meaning that the expanding data demands of future smart cities can be met more sustainably . sustainabilitymag . com 139