The Social Influence Companion Highlight collection highlights numerous nonprofit group companions which are leveraging know-how to assist rework the lives of people and communities. This weblog options Splunk’s partnership with OpenAQ, Radiant Earth, and WattTime, demonstrating their efforts to reinforce information 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 optimum affect. Nonetheless, whereas a lot of the info exists, the datasets are monumental. That signifies that too usually, nonprofits, governments, and different organizations aren’t in a position to entry the info in a searchable and usable manner.
In October 2024, Splunk was happy to supply strategic grants to a few nonprofits which are 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 growing information entry and offering digital instruments to assist higher decision-making that can have a constructive and lasting affect on our world.
Empowering a world group to enhance air high quality
OpenAQ is an environmental tech nonprofit targeted on growing entry to air high quality information 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 information on air high quality at embassies. She shortly realized that information was both nonexistent or not overtly out there, 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 information to world challenges, knew open information was essential in educating individuals on the severity of air air pollution. They envisioned a universally accessible, open-source database of air high quality information, and after they couldn’t discover one, they got down to construct one.
Right this moment, Open AQ’s open-source, open-access information platform is the most important such platform on the planet. It aggregates real-time air high quality measurements from hundreds of monitoring stations worldwide, harmonizing the info for consistency, specializing in core air pollution like PM2.5, PM10, NO2, SO2, CO and ozone. That information empowers communities to investigate and forecast air high quality, elevate consciousness among the many public, and develop options to fight air air pollution. Customers embody scientists, journalists, authorities companies, entrepreneurs and NGOs, united by a typical purpose: supporting a world the place everybody breathes wholesome air.
Making environmental information available to extra individuals
Based in 2016, Radiant Earth allows data-driven choice making to deal with challenges associated to sustainability and conservation. By offering a platform and assets for accessing and using satellite tv for pc imagery and geospatial information, Radiant Earth is making environmental information extra accessible to assist governments, analysis establishments, and civil society organizations deal with complicated world challenges.
One instance of that is their work organizing the Cloud-Native Geospatial Discussion board, which brings geospatial information customers collectively from throughout authorities, business, and academia to develop open and extra accessible strategies for working with Earth science information over the Web – together with satellite tv for pc imagery, climate information, and local weather fashions – which may present very important insights for functions like crop mapping, forest monitoring, and concrete planning. This strategy is designed particularly to empower researchers in creating international locations to entry and analyze information that was beforehand solely accessible to analysis establishments with highly effective compute infrastructure.
Creating instruments that enhance vitality effectivity and scale back emissions
What if three easy fixes might save 9+ gigatons of greenhouse gasoline (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 modern data-driven options that enable people, corporations, and governments to make knowledgeable vitality selections, enhancing vitality effectivity and lowering emissions.
WattTime makes use of real-time electrical energy grid information to find out the emissions affect of utilizing electrical energy at any given second. Based by UC Berkeley researchers, its instruments pinpoint the emissions from turbines working to fulfill electrical energy demand, combining this data with forecasting methods to foretell when vitality has the bottom GHG emissions. It transforms that information into actionable alerts that may routinely alter the timing of vitality use, shared with companions by means of an API.
These alerts can be utilized to optimize sensible units like electrical automobiles, thermostats and water heaters to make use of electrical energy at lower-emission instances, with slight timing shifts including as much as important reductions in emissions. Equally, it might assist assess the place constructing new clear vitality sources might have the best affect on lowering energy grid emissions. That helps improve the adoption of fresh 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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