The United Arab Emirates has continued the momentum from 2023, declaring 2024 as the ‘Year of Sustainability’. In driving the adoption of sustainable practices, the tech industry is emerging as a powerful catalyst through various community-led initiatives and activities focused on sustainability. We see technology as a driver of concrete impact, through energy management and strategies for sustainable data centers, smart buildings, Internet for the Future, and industry solutions.
At Cisco, we identified five trends that should be top of mind for businesses to support sustainability efforts:
- Upgrading to smart electricity grids will become a top priority.
We now have a global mandate to transition to clean energy and triple renewable capacity by 2030. However, without significant upgrades, as that transition accelerates, the world’s energy delivery systems will start to show major cracks. Many traditional ‘power grids’ are already being stretched to their limits, and increasingly common weather phenomena will continue to add more and more stress. Micro grids and distributed power systems have already begun to show their viability, which is leading to an essential rethink of the system. To power the world with clean energy, grids require updated digital infrastructure. A data-driven, digital grid helps with improving efficiency, increasing resilience, improving energy storage, and integrating renewables.
- Although initially AI will represent a challenge in achieving sustainability goals, it will take the technology less than three years to make up for the initial drain on resources.
AI workloads increase demand for electricity and water as they place enormous demands on data center infrastructure. Analysis showed that by 2027, AI servers globally could be using as much energy as some small countries do in a year. However, if we get it right, the benefits of AI for sustainability will quickly outweigh the costs. Data is crucial to tackling sustainability challenges. AI makes sense of data and offers key insights and automation, allowing sustainability initiatives to benefit greatly. The emergence of AI may also inadvertently help solve another major challenge in sustainability by raising the standard and consistency of the data we use.
- 2024 will be a year of accounting for progress on climate action, and the tech industry will play a key role.
Globally, we targeted a reduction in emissions of 45% by 2025 to keep warming below 1.5°C. As we get closer to that deadline, it’s becoming increasingly clear that there is no consistent or accurate way to measure progress. A PwC Report found that 70% of respondents stated their company reports on ESG, and the pressure for mandatory reporting only continues to grow. Regulatory bodies are stepping in to ensure that plans evolve into concrete outcomes, but data quality varies, reporting is fragmented, and many lack the required technology. 2024 will see the emergence of new industry standards with a focus on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions accounting and climate materiality and double materiality. The tech industry will support these efforts with IoT sensors, Power over Ethernet, and visibility dashboards, and AI, that will help companies monitor and assess their footprint.
- A 20-year-old technology, Power over Ethernet (PoE), will finally get its moment in 2024.
Established as an IEEE standard in 2003, Power over Ethernet is a technology that allows electrical power to travel alongside data on twisted-pair Ethernet cabling. The IMD Smart City Index 2023 showcases the UAE’s leadership, with multiple cities in the top 20. As the country witnesses a surge in smart city growth, PoE, and the wider category of energy networking (the coupling of connectivity and power delivery) will become foundational. Today, the need for buildings to become smarter has never been greater. Building operations and construction accounted for an estimated 37% of CO2 emission globally in 2021 however, energy networking allows builders, owners and tenants to use the network to deliver power and connectivity together, enabling a true smart building.
- 2024 will see the transition from a primary focus on efficiency upgrades in technology, to an emphasis on efficient and intelligent infrastructure.
For years, networking device improvements have centered around efficiency. Energy improvements have coincided with the ability to introduce more power in smaller form factors. While instrumental in meeting growing demand, large network operators may eventually see diminishing returns from energy efficiency improvements in equipment.
Today, a new direction to energy efficiency is being considered: energy proportionality. This means we want networking devices to use less energy while underutilized. This principle is extended in other use cases like smart buildings, where turning off lights and heating or cooling in an office, or automatically turning off endpoints at the end of the day, is automated to meet demand. 2024 will be the year it becomes clear that it’s no longer enough to be efficient. Everything must also be smart.
