Tech solutions are slowly making the world more sustainable

Our insatiable desires have left an indelible mark on Earth, by some estimates the Anthropocene – a common name used to describe the geological epoch during which humans have had a substantial impact on our planet – started after World War 2, and we are now fast approaching the point of no return (thanks to growing CO2 levels). As easy as it is to be morose and pessimistic about the position humanity finds itself in, there are plenty of engineers tinkering with potential solutions to the ecological catastrophes that threaten to engulf us.

And considering the millions of engineers that India is home to, it should come as no surprise that Indian engineers , working for both MNCs and local companies, are consistently coming up with practical sustainable solutions for a wide variety of industries and sectors.

One such solution was developed by Boeing ’s development centre in India. Called the Jeppesen FliteDeck Advisor, the application provides real-time, in-flight, tailspecific speed advisories to reduce fuel burn, and increase mission range and duration, says Venkatesh Ramachandra, director of Boeing Digital Aviation Solutions India (BDASI). It supports pilots by providing speed advisories to optimise their operations and fuel efficiency, helping reduce cruise fuel burn by 1.5-2%.

A team of aerospace engineers, data engineers, data scientists, software developers, and project managers from the Boeing India Engineering & Technology Centre collaborated with the Boeing US team to develop this application, says Venkatesh.

E-commerce is another area where any incremental change in sustainability metrics has a substantial impact downstream due to the volumes involved. Chirag Taneja, CEO & co-founder of GoKwik, says that while he started dealing closely with e-commerce brands, the issue of orders being returned before delivery was brought to his attention.

“This problem not only impacts a brand’s bottom line but also creates immense pressure on the environment,” he says.

So GoKwik decided to leverage data science and tech-backed capabilities to address the issue. “We built an intelligence framework that analyses past shopper behaviour patterns, ranks them under the cohorts of riskiness and places risk-based interventions with an aim to significantly reduce the likelihood of returns right at the time of checkout.”

The result, he says, has not just been a marked decrease in double trips and concomitant fuel consumption, but it also cuts down on packaging waste, which relieves pressure on our landfills.

The construction industry is another major contributor of greenhouse gases. The production and use of materials such as cement, for example, has a significant carbon footprint. L&T, a major player in the sector, implemented a novel recycling technique to cut down on the use of such materials.

“While making highways, certain projects require rehabilitation of existing roads. The typical recycling process is hot recycling of the asphalt layer, but it requires a significant amount of energy. The improved version of recycling is cold central plant recycling (CCPR), which not only reduces the amount of virgin material consumed but also significantly lowers energy consumption,” says Pradeep Panigrahi, head of ESG at L&T.

Pradeep says his team at L&T implemented CCPR for the Meerut-Aligarh-Ghaziabad road project and plan to replicate it in similar project sites.

“The technology helped avoid usage of two million tonnes of virgin material (aggregates), it also helped avoid a total of 12,444 tCO2e, which is equivalent to planting 1.5 lakhs trees.”

Simple tech solutions

A lot of the time you don’t need to build sophisticated tech platforms to make a meaningful difference in our world. Take the case of Abhay Deshpande, founder & CEO of Recykal. Abhay wanted to find a solution to the perennial problem of plastic bottles being littered across the picturesque Himalayas. The solution he came up with was to induce a behavioural change towards responsible waste management.