- The initiative will support organizations such as United
Nations Development Programme, Sustainable Energy for All, Net Zero
Atlantic, Miyakojima City Government, and Environment Without
Borders Foundation for this IBM Sustainability Accelerator
environmental cohort
- IBM will donate $30M worth of
services by 2023 through the IBM Sustainability Accelerator
program
ARMONK,
N.Y. and SHARM EL SHEIKH,
Egypt, Nov. 10,
2022 /CNW/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced today at
COP27 the new members of its global
pro bono social impact program, the IBM Sustainability
Accelerator. This program applies IBM technologies, such as
hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence, and an ecosystem of
experts to enhance and scale projects focused on populations
vulnerable to environmental threats, including climate change. All
new members will focus on accelerating clean energy projects. IBM
has previously announced it plans to select five organizations for
this program each year and expects to provide $30 million worth of services by the end of
2023.
According to the International Energy Agency, the impacts
of the COVID-19 pandemic, 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.
"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," said
Justina Nixon-Saintil, Vice
President of Corporate Social Responsibility and ESG at IBM. "With
this new cohort, helping marginalized 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."
After evaluating more than 100 submissions from around the
world, IBM selected these organizations to become the clean energy
cohort of the program:
- United Nations Development Programme: UNDP is
working with IBM to increase access to sustainable, affordable and
reliable energy in African countries, focusing on those furthest
left behind. The goal is to forecast electricity access and develop
the 'clean electricity equity index' to better guide policy and
investment decisions, using UNDP's technical knowledge and IBM's
artificial intelligence and geospatial analytics.
- Sustainable Energy for All: IBM is working with
Sustainable Energy for All to build an intelligent model to project
energy needs based on current and future human activity. This model
will be designed to help to address key development challenges
(e.g., lack of energy access and poor healthcare) and support the
development of robust infrastructure planning, such as
electrification plans. IBM machine learning and IBM Cloud
technology and expertise will be used to build and scale
open-access datasets and an energy needs model using temporal and
spatial data. Kenya and India
are being explored as the first regions to pilot the
model.
- Net Zero Atlantic: Net Zero Atlantic is collaborating
with IBM to create an interactive digital tool that will
geospatially display environmental and socioeconomic impacts of
possible energy system futures for Nova
Scotia. Ultimately, the goal is for Indigenous communities
in Nova Scotia to leverage
advanced modeling capabilities to inform their input into energy
and development planning. The tool aims to be easy-to-use, locally
relevant and time efficient. It will be designed to produce
easy-to-understand visual results using IBM technology such as the
IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite and IBM Cloud.
- Miyakojima City Government: The Miyakojima City
Government is 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, with the goal
of helping their residents, who rely on a clean local environment
for the tourist industry and agriculture. Miyakojima City
Government and IBM will collaborate to leverage technologies such
as IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite weather data and IBM Cloud
to model electricity demand and advise energy infrastructure
development.
- Environment Without Borders Foundation: Environment
Without Borders Foundation's collaboration with IBM will be aimed
to develop a platform to forecast, track, and communicate clean
energy usage options in Egypt. The
goal is to enable resilient and sustainable infrastructure and
operations for clean energy in Egypt, helping residents of remote villages
for whom energy is currently both expensive and unreliable. The
clean energy management platform will leverage IBM Environmental
Intelligence Suite and IBM Cloud.
The selection process considered the applicant's commitment to
support communities who are especially vulnerable to environmental
threats, its ability to increase access to affordable clean energy
services, its strategic focus and transparency on measurement and
reporting, among others.
About IBM Sustainability Accelerator
Launched in
February 2022, the IBM Sustainability
Accelerator is a social impact program that addresses multiple
environmental threats around the world each year. The accelerator
selects 5 projects to scale solutions that benefit communities that
face challenges such as climate change, pollution, extreme weather
and more. The program currently has two active cohorts; the first
one is focused on sustainable agriculture and the second on clean
energy.
For more information, visit
https://www.ibm.com/impact/initiatives/ibm-sustainability-accelerator
Media contacts:
Carmen San Segundo
Global Communications Director, CSR and Sustainability
Carmenssg@ibm.com
Fernando Arreaza
Goodtech Media Relations Manager
Fernando.arreaza@ibm.com
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SOURCE IBM