Challenge description

The Potential

Human beings are increasingly connected by networks of devices. 

As of January 2019, 57% of humans were internet users – 4.39 billion people. By April 2019 it was 4.44 billion.  Users of mobile devices? 5.1 billion. 

Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) are pervasive. Our global network of ICTs is, in a sense, the ultimate social network: a vast, global, cyber-physical realm connecting humans, devices, and data.

ICT encompasses the technologies of networked computing and communications. Examples include:

• smart devices, remote sensors, and drones;
• machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI); and
• the processing, storage, and utilization of zettabytes of data from humans and networked devices.
  
  

The potential is hard to ignore. 

Smart ICT devices – devices with sensors to measure physical phenomena – can track and regulate resource consumption and environmental conditions. They can track movements of humans, vehicles, or wildlife. They generate and collect data – massive amounts that can then help train AIs, automate or refine processes, and make predictions about climate or climate-positive behavior.

According to one estimate (Malmodin & Bergmark, 2015), ICT has the potential to reduce GHG emissions up to 15% by 2030.

For individuals, ICT can help monitor and optimize the effects of our choices. For example, they can help us reduce home energy use, work remotely, or calculate estimates of our personal carbon footprints. 

The promise of ICTs for a sustainable future is encouraging.

But it doesn't happen by default.

The Problem

The enormous power and potential of ICT comes with both costs and risks. Among these:

• the ecological footprint of ICTs themselves
• e-waste, and the still pervasive planned obsolescence, epecially of consumer devices,
• the ecological footprint of data hoarding,
• barriers to data sharing,
• barriers to consumer use,
• security and privacy concerns associated with harvesting, sharing, and storing of data.

What’s Happening Now?

ICTs already help us realize efficiences in multiple sectors, including energy, logistics, and building technology. 

Google, Apple, and Facebook are investing in greening their infrastructures and products. Organizations like Greenpeace (2017) and IEEE (2017) are aiding the push with public awareness and policy. 

Green startups that use ICT were also prominent in lists from CES 2019 and Rocketspace this year. 

The Task Before Us

We can all do our part to ensure that ICTs connect us to a sustainable, climate-positive future.

People, devices, data – these are all part ot the network of ICTs. They are all parts of the solution. The key is to create solutions that truly support sustainability: merely adding ICT to a product is not enough.

We know better. We can do better.

Where will you put your energy?

Challenge vision

How do we ensure that ICTs realize their full potential in our fight against climate change?

Can we combine the power of cyber-physical networks with social networks to maximize our positive impact on the world's climate? 

How could a distributed network based on sensors, aggregated data and AI to help individuals make climate-positive choices? What devices and services could help us increase our positive impact?

What systems or processes will ensure that businesses and industries deploy ICT and IoT responsibly, with climate health and human safety in mind?

What Solutions Will You Work On at the Climathon?

Here are some ideas to get you started.

• A route-planning app for errands that minimizes the carbon footprint of multi-stop trips.
• An API to aggregate point measurements of environmental indicators based on data from smartphones and smart home devices (e.g., of metrics for air quality, UV index, or temperature).
• A networked, wearable bracelet or mobile phone sleeve that measures user exposure to chemicals or particulates in air and water.
• A system that takes information from distributed sensors and provides cities and citizens with easily understood feedback about air quality, temperature, or other environmental parameters in their neighborhoods, (e.g., see this project  in London England).
• A circular-economy phone/laptop that can be upgraded in functional modules (e.g., wireless, display, camera, etc.) so that the entire device can last10-20 years.
• A circular-economy phone/laptop designed so components can be reused to make the next generation device. 
• An app, service, or website where IoT device users can compete with each other to reduce energy usage in their homes.
• An Alexa application that provides answers to common consumer questions about reducing their eco-footprint (e.g. questions about transportation, AC/energy use, etc.).
• A web app that educates consumers about climate friendly ways to use smart home technologies.
• IoT devices that use social data to determine the best, most climate-friendly times to activate. Example, a device that automates downloads or uploads of media files based on network usage patterns.
• A white paper providing guidelines for the developing of green, ICT enabled consumer products.
• A study of user experience features to help consumers adopt green ICT devices and use them effectively.
• A ICT enabled urban gardening kit for apartment dwellers. (Bowery Farming is a startup example for commercial scale urban farming.)
• A research project that employs some of the data available via Amazon's Sustainability Data Initiative. What could you build?