4 Ways That AI Can Help Small Businesses Take Climate Action
Using Data Analysis to Shape More Sustainable Companies
Small business owners often face challenges when deciding how to best apply their time, employees, and other resources to achieve their goals. This includes companies looking to improve their climate impact, according to a survey conducted by SME Climate Hub. The survey highlighted the common barriers to climate action among about 200 small and medium enterprises (SMEs): lack of resources, insufficient funding, and limited time.
Sustainability is a complex issue that requires consideration and strategy for each company’s circumstances. Tracking information — such as energy consumption patterns, transportation emissions, waste management, and sourcing materials —can be overwhelming for SMEs with limited resources. Artificial intelligence (AI) tools can help address this issue.
AI is evolving as a tool for SMEs, and we already have some examples of how it can be used for tasks such as making footprint calculations easily or more accurately. These include the Climate TRACE Coalition, which combines satellites and artificial intelligence to detect human-caused greenhouse gases from major sources.
By leveraging AI tools and applications, small businesses can examine their operational efficiency and shape decisions to reduce their climate impact. Here are four areas where small businesses could benefit from AI tools:
Energy Management
AI can be used to help analyze energy consumption patterns and identify inefficiencies. By optimizing energy usage, small businesses can reduce their carbon footprint and operational costs.
Supply Chain Management
Large volumes of data related to transportation routes and emissions can be used to identify patterns, forecast demand, and adjust inventory levels to help reduce waste and use resources more efficiently.
Product Design and Innovation
By analyzing customer feedback, market trends, and environmental data, AI can help optimize product designs and facilitate the use of eco-friendly materials.
Data-Driven Decision-Making
From identifying opportunities for waste reduction to predicting consumer trends, AI can help small businesses to align their strategies with sustainability goals.
In these ways and others, AI can help use data to evaluate key business areas to determine a company’s carbon footprint, suggest strategies to optimize resource allocation, minimize environmental impact, and drive long-term sustainability.
As AI tools become more accessible for businesses and others, they present an opportunity to help shape more sustainable practices at SMEs —about 90% of businesses around the world — and reduce their climate impact. I hope to see it become a reality.
B The Change gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of Certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.
