We know that the use of AI can be detrimental to the environment because it requires so much energy, but at the same time, many tech companies are using AI’s data-monitoring abilities to reduce their environmental footprint.
Today, Amazon joined that group when it announced three AI tools—FlowMS, Base Building Advanced Monitoring (BBAM), and Advanced Refrigeration Monitoring (ARM)—that detect system irregularities that humans can’t to reduce energy, water, and food waste in its buildings.
“We’re innovating with AI to help us find new ways to decarbonize even faster,” the company’s chief sustainability officer, Kara Hurst, said in a press release, “including inventing new solutions that continue to make our buildings more energy- and water-efficient.”
That energy efficiency is the result of FlowMS and BBAM, AI-powered tools that keep an eye on the energy consumption of HVAC systems and utilities in Amazon buildings. Both tools were built by the company’s Decision Science and Technology team, and are currently deployed at 120 Amazon sites, with more coming this year.
Amazon is using ARM to supervise the temperatures of its refrigerators in its “grocery network”—by analyzing fridge energy meters, it can “predict potential operational issues,” which Amazon said prevents food waste. By the end of this year, Amazon said, ARM will be in more than 150 sites in North America, Europe, and India.
“This is just one example of how Amazon is leveraging our decades of experience in AI development and sustainability to think big about decarbonizing our business and operating more efficiently,” Hurst said of the tools.
According to Amazon, ARM, BBAM, and FlowMS are making progress toward the company’s 2040 net-zero decarbonization goals, which it set in 2019. In an announcement last year, Amazon said it powered all its operations via renewable energy in 2023, hitting one of its 2030 goals seven years ahead of schedule. (Though some experts criticized Amazon’s calculations, the New York Times noted.)
“We’re really excited,” Hurst told the New York Times at the time. “That’s quite an achievement for us.”
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