Businesses that leverage the power of artificial intelligence (AI) in their sustainability strategies stand to achieve greater long-term impact than those that treat them as separate disciplines.
The Project Management Institute (PMI) surveyed more than 650 organisations across multiple sectors and regions, all of which are currently pursuing sustainability and AI strategies. It concluded that AI can be a key enabler in helping organisations achieve their sustainability goals with the potential to generate both short-term impact and long-term opportunities for value creation.
PMI divided the organisations into three groups – leaders, followers and laggards – based on their reported levels of success in implementing sustainability-focused projects that are aided by AI. It found that leaders, characterised by their ability to successfully combine AI and sustainability initiatives, achieve an average 26% reduction in carbon emissions compared with just 3% for laggards, who treat AI and sustainability as separate disciplines.
More broadly, it found organisations successfully integrating AI and sustainability consistently outperform peers across all ESG metrics, with the most dramatic leads in environmental compliance (32% gap) and strategic planning (28% gap).
AI has multiple possible applications for improving sustainability within food supply chains: from better inventory management and smarter logistics (through improved route planning for example) to food waste reduction and energy use efficiency.
A quarter (25%) of organisations surveyed said they use AI for real-time energy consumption monitoring and 22% employ it for carbon footprint tracking. Almost a third (32%) are using AI-driven tools to reduce waste in production processes and 26% for material usage optimisation.
Yet PMI warned that AI alone cannot drive positive sustainability outcomes and must be leveraged in the context of engaged leaders, clear strategy, clean data and a ready culture.
“Is AI the “silver bullet” that will solve humanity’s daunting challenges? Perhaps not. But, as this report reveals, it can play an important role in helping organisations deliver more effective sustainability projects and outcomes,” wrote Pierre Le Manh, president and CEO of the Project Management Institute, in his foreword to the report.
