The Social Impression Companion Highlight collection highlights numerous nonprofit group companions which can be leveraging know-how to assist rework the lives of people and communities. This weblog options Splunk’s partnership with OPENAQ, Radiant Earthand WattTimedemonstrating their efforts to boost knowledge entry and digital instruments that assist knowledgeable decision-making for a more healthy planet.
Information, synthetic intelligence (AI), and digital instruments may also help uncover options to complicated environmental challenges that may be applied at scale for max impression. Nevertheless, whereas a lot of the information exists, the datasets are huge. That signifies that too usually, nonprofits, governments, and different organizations aren’t in a position to entry the information in a searchable and usable manner.
In October 2024, Splunk was happy to offer strategic grants to a few nonprofits which can be working to advance options for a sustainable planet: OpenAQ, Radiant Earth, and WattTime. Whereas every has a particular historical past and strategy, they share a dedication to rising knowledge entry and offering digital instruments to assist higher decision-making that may have a constructive and lasting impression on our world.
Empowering a world group to enhance air high quality
OpenAQ is an environmental tech nonprofit centered on rising entry to air high quality knowledge to assist communities take motion to pursue clear air initiatives. Its story began ten years in the past when founder Christa Hasenkopf was a State Division scientist working to compile knowledge on air high quality at embassies. She rapidly discovered that knowledge was both nonexistent or not brazenly accessible, and when existent, it was difficult to entry and never standardized. Christa and her partner, Joe Flasher, who labored at an engineering firm that applies vitality and environmental knowledge to international challenges, knew open knowledge was essential in educating individuals on the severity of air air pollution. They envisioned a universally accessible, open-source database of air high quality knowledge, and after they couldn’t discover one, they got down to construct one.
As we speak, Open AQ’s open-source, open-access knowledge platform is the biggest such platform on the earth. It aggregates real-time air high quality measurements from hundreds of monitoring stations worldwide, harmonizing the information for consistency, specializing in core air pollution like PM2.5, PM10, NO2SO2CO and ozone. That knowledge empowers communities to research and forecast air high quality, elevate consciousness among the many public, and develop options to fight air air pollution. Customers embrace scientists, journalists, authorities businesses, entrepreneurs and NGOs, united by a typical aim: supporting a world the place everybody breathes wholesome air.
Making environmental knowledge available to extra individuals
Based in 2016, Radiant Earth permits data-driven resolution making to handle challenges associated to sustainability and conservation. By offering a platform and sources for accessing and using satellite tv for pc imagery and geospatial knowledge, Radiant Earth is making environmental knowledge extra accessible to assist governments, analysis establishments, and civil society organizations handle complicated international challenges.
One instance of that is their work organizing the Cloud-Native Geospatial Discussion board, which brings geospatial knowledge customers collectively from throughout authorities, trade, and academia to develop open and extra accessible strategies for working with Earth science knowledge over the Web – together with satellite tv for pc imagery, climate knowledge, and local weather fashions – which might present very important insights for purposes like crop mapping, forest monitoring, and concrete planning. This strategy is designed particularly to empower researchers in creating international locations to entry and analyze knowledge that was beforehand solely accessible to analysis establishments with highly effective compute infrastructure.
Creating instruments that increase vitality effectivity and scale back emissions
What if three easy fixes may save 9+ gigatons of greenhouse fuel (GHG) emissions yearly: altering after we use vitality, the place we construct new clear vitality sources and which suppliers we procure from? WattTime is creating revolutionary data-driven options that permit people, corporations, and governments to make knowledgeable vitality selections, enhancing vitality effectivity and lowering emissions.
WattTime makes use of real-time electrical energy grid knowledge to find out the emissions impression of utilizing electrical energy at any given second. Based by UC Berkeley researchers, its instruments pinpoint the emissions from turbines working to satisfy electrical energy demand, combining this info with forecasting strategies to foretell when vitality has the bottom GHG emissions. It transforms that knowledge into actionable indicators that may mechanically alter the timing of vitality use, shared with companions via an API.
These indicators can be utilized to optimize sensible units like electrical autos, thermostats and water heaters to make use of electrical energy at lower-emission occasions, with slight timing shifts including as much as important reductions in emissions. Equally, it will possibly assist assess the place constructing new clear vitality sources may have the best impression on lowering energy grid emissions. That helps enhance the adoption of unpolluted vitality sources, benefiting each individuals and our planet.
To be taught extra about how organizations are harnessing the ability of know-how to drive local weather options, go to Cisco’s Local weather Grants and Investments web page.
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