IBM’s new AI-driven software for environmental intelligence

The new IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite combines weather, climate, operational data and environmental management into a single solution. 

With this combination of technology and information, the solution helps companies anticipate and respond to climate risks, such as flooding and wildfires while providing insights to help improve resiliency and meet sustainability goals. In doing so, it addresses the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) ‘Top Three Most Likely Risks for Businesses’ over the next decade.

"The future of business and the environment are deeply intertwined. Not only are companies coping with the effects of extreme weather disruptions on their operations, but they're also being held increasingly accountable by shareholders and regulators for how their operations impact the planet," said Kareem Yusuf, PhD, General Manager at IBM AI Applications. 

"IBM is bringing together the power of AI and hybrid cloud to provide businesses with environmental intelligence designed to help them improve environmental performance and reporting, create more efficient business operations to reduce resource consumption, and plan for resiliency in the face of climate disruptions."

Automated processes to mitigate business disruptions

By leveraging AI technology, companies using the new software can prepare for and respond to weather and climate risks that may disrupt business. It also enables them to more easily assess their own impact on the planet, and reduce the complexity of regulatory compliance and reporting.

To support organisations as they look for ways to reduce the environmental impact of their business, the IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite is designed to:

• Monitor for disruptive environmental conditions. This can be things such as severe weather, wildfires, flooding and air quality. The solution also send alerts when this is detected
• Predict potential impacts of climate change and weather across the business using climate risk analytics
• Gain insights into potential operational disruptions and prioritise mitigation and response efforts
• Measure and report on environmental initiatives and operationalise carbon accounting. It is designed to do this while reducing the burden of this reporting on procurement and operations teams.

Reducing climate damage with IBM’s AI-enabled technology

The announcement of this new SaaS from IBM comes as companies are facing climate-related damage to their assets. 

Along with disruptions to supply chains and operations, businesses are also under an increased expectation from both consumers and investors to be as environmentally savvy as possible.

In the WEFs ‘Global Risk Report 2021’, extreme weather, climate action failure and human-led environmental damage were cited as the top three most likely risks for businesses over the next ten years.

Considering these findings, businesses now need actionable environmental insights to address these challenges. An issue facing many businesses in the past was that current methods are cumbersome and complex.

Now, with the IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite, companies can now streamline and automate the management of environmental risks. They can also operationalise underlying processes, including carbon accounting and reduction, to meet environmental goals. 

It is the first offering of its kind that brings together AI, weather data, climate risk analytics, and carbon accounting capabilities in such a way. As a result, it allows organisations to spend fewer resources curating this complex data, and more on analysing it for insights and taking action to improve their operations