5 minute read
EXPLORING BIG DATA IN A SUSTAINABLE WORLD
Sustainable business. Many companies are already doing it but from 2025 they will also have to report on it. The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) requires them to provide detailed information on their entire value chain, which means that data must also be collected from suppliers and other stakeholders. About the impact of this operation and the technologies that are indispensable to track and manage such amount of data, Alumni Engineers KU Leuven and Ekonomika Alumni organised a well-attended theme evening on 8 October 2024 at Group T Campus.
EU member states have agreed to reduce the union’s greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030. By 2050, the EU should be climate neutral. CSRD is one of the measures to meet this target. Numerous companies have already started making adjustments to meet emission requirements, including the Green House Gas Protocol. That requires companies to report scope 1 and 2 emissions, which are direct emissions for which the company itself is responsible and indirect emissions in the form of purchased energy. However, a large part -if not the majority- of the emissions are located outside the boundaries of the company, which is scope 3. Examples include CO2 emissions from the end product, the degree of recycling of materials, maintenance requirements and the transport and logistics operations of delivery, service and maintenance.
Big data
In essence, it’s all about data. Digital transformation has left companies with gigantic datasets. The problem is that these data are stored in silos or separate databases, leaving management with no overview of what is where. Combine this fragmentation with the volume and it immediately becomes clear what immense challenge companies will face when they have to disclose over 350 data points from 2025 onwards. Not to mention the quality and reliability of the data.
In her key note, Els Meyvaert, founder of Web3 for Woman, gave an overview of the history and growth of Big Data and the technologies supporting them. The concept of Big Data became mainstream from 2010 as business began to focus on processing large amounts of unstructured data from multiple sources (social media, IoT devices, sensors, ...). The rise of AI and machine learning technologies in the mid 2010’s required massive amounts of data to train models and improve algorithms. This trend intensified data creation, particularly in industries like healthcare, finance and retail where large datasets are essential for predictive analytics and automation. The global shift to remote work, online education and e-commerce during the COVID-19 pandemic really accelerated data creation. With the 5G network, autonomous vehicles, smart cities and AI-driven systems, the rampant growth will intensify, predicts Els Meyvaert.
Of the various technologies supporting the Big Data evolution, blockchain technology offers the best prospects, Els Meyvaert believes. True traceability, exchange and verification of all valuable data regardless of whether it is human- or machine-made will be done by blockchain, with or without trusted 3rd partners who will have a different role in the value chain.
Supply chain
Prof Maximiliano Udenio of the Faculty of Economics and Business looked at the data challenges in supply chain sustainability from an academic point of view. He elaborated on the issue of reporting scope 3 emissions that are outside the direct scope of the company. As a potential way forward, he suggested combining the data of direct measure of scope 1 emissions at suppliers, the focal company and customers. Thus, a more or less realistic estimation of scope 3 emissions could be done. But even then it will remain a difficult operation. After all, supply networks are very dynamic. About a quarter of the networks is refreshed every year. The study by Prof Udenio and his team also shows that there is a discrepancy between upstream and downstream emissions. While most attention is paid to upstream emissions from suppliers, in many cases emissions are highest when the product has left the company.
IT sourcing
Peter De Meester, Executive Partner at the consulting firm Gardner, elaborated on the question: how sustainable are the technologies that can be used to improve sustainability? According to him, by 2025, 75% of the organisations will experience ongoing electricity shortages accelerating the push for sustainable IT. For many companies, sustainable IT sourcing is an additional challenge because an environmental IT sourcing strategy or culture is not always present internally. They will have to make an extra effort to promote the environmental literacy of IT staff.
During the panel discussion, not only the problems and obstacles of CSRD were discussed. Yannick Dylst, Senior Expert Sustainability at transport company H. Essers, called the EU directive an opportunity for transformation, improvement and transparency. Els Meyvaert summarised as follows: “Reliable and validated data offer benefits such as helping to protect products and consumers who can thus make sustainable choices. Open sustainability data also ensure greater brand visibility in the market, which in turn contributes to greater trust in the company.”
Yves Persoons
