The Social Affect Companion Highlight collection highlights numerous nonprofit group companions which can be leveraging know-how to assist remodel the lives of people and communities. This weblog options Splunk’s partnership with OpenAQ, Radiant Earth, and WattTime, demonstrating their efforts to boost 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 carried out at scale for optimum impression. Nonetheless, whereas a lot of the info exists, the datasets are huge. That implies that too typically, nonprofits, governments, and different organizations aren’t in a position to entry the info in a searchable and usable approach.
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 growing information entry and offering digital instruments to assist higher decision-making that can have a optimistic and lasting impression on our world.
Empowering a world group to enhance air high quality
OpenAQ is an environmental tech nonprofit centered 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 rapidly realized that information was both nonexistent or not brazenly obtainable, 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 folks on the severity of air air pollution. They envisioned a universally accessible, open-source database of air high quality information, and once they couldn’t discover one, they got down to construct one.
As we speak, 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 1000’s 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, increase 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 standard purpose: supporting a world the place everybody breathes wholesome air.
Making environmental information available to extra folks
Based in 2016, Radiant Earth allows data-driven choice making to handle 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 handle 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 important insights for functions like crop mapping, forest monitoring, and concrete planning. This strategy is designed particularly to empower researchers in growing 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 cut 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 growing revolutionary data-driven options that enable people, firms, and governments to make knowledgeable vitality selections, enhancing vitality effectivity and decreasing emissions.
WattTime makes use of real-time electrical energy grid information 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 mills working to fulfill electrical energy demand, combining this data with forecasting strategies to foretell when vitality has the bottom GHG emissions. It transforms that information into actionable alerts that may mechanically alter the timing of vitality use, shared with companions by way 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 occasions, with slight timing shifts including as much as important reductions in emissions. Equally, it may possibly assist assess the place constructing new clear vitality sources might have the best impression on decreasing energy grid emissions. That helps enhance the adoption of fresh vitality sources, benefiting each folks and our planet.
To be taught extra about how organizations are harnessing the facility of know-how to drive local weather options, go to Cisco’s Local weather Grants and Investments web page.
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