Article published online by essmag.com 15 November 2024
By Fredrik Jansson, Chief Strategy and Marketing & Communications Officer at atNorth
AI is transforming industries by enhancing productivity, streamlining processes, and driving innovation. From revolutionizing healthcare with faster MRI scan reviews to enabling engineers to simulate complex designs in hours, AI is unlocking efficiencies and solutions across countless applications. It is poised to fuel advancements in decision-making, product development, customer service, and risk management, making it an invaluable tool in today’s digital-first economy.
The colossal amount of energy required to fuel the digital infrastructure necessary to cope with the rise in AI technology is at odds with any ESG and related sustainability targets a business might have. AI uses such large amounts of electricity due to both the sheer volume of data to be processed and to power and cool the associated computer equipment. For example, a ChatGPT query needs nearly 10 times as much electricity to process than a Google search. If these operations are powered by energy with high CO2 emissions, ESG targets will not be met.
This is where the Nordics emerge as a critical part of the solution. With abundant clean energy resources, a cool climate ideal for energy-efficient cooling, and initiatives like heat recovery from data centers, the region offers businesses a way to achieve both performance and sustainability goals. Moving IT workloads to Nordic data centers significantly reduces carbon footprints while delivering cost benefits. For example, Shearwater Geoservices transitioned part of its digital infrastructure to atNorth’s Iceland data center, achieving a 92% reduction in CO2 emissions and an 85% cost savings.
As AI and ESG continue to compete for boardroom attention, organizations must consider the holistic impact of their technology. By considering how closely your tech aligns to your company values and ESG policy, and taking steps to future proof technology in a sustainable way will ensure today and tomorrow’s digitalization and innovation, while also protecting the environment for our future generations.