Circular Economy 2030: Cloud Computing for a Sustainable Revolution (Cloud Next '19)

My. Name is Lisa Roche and I lead our data, for social and environmental impact, initiatives, here at Google cloud and very. Excited to talk to you all today about. The circular economy sustainability. And the, opportunities, to advance sustainability. With technology, and, also to kick off an exciting panel discussion, as well now, before we actually jump into the circular economy more. Specifically. And in particular, I want to take a step back and actually talk a little bit more about you, know what sustainability. Really is why are we talking about why is it important, today. So. Kind of setting the stakes in, 2018. The global demand for resources was, 1.7. Times what, the earth can support in one year between, our agricultural. Energy, and consumption practices we are currently consuming, more resources than the earth can support a. Circular. Economy aims. To redefine growth and focus on positive, society-wide, benefits, in three key ways by, designing out waste and pollution by, keeping products and materials and use and even, regenerating, natural, systems now. It's really at the core of the circular economy is, this idea, of decoupling. Economic, growth from, resource. Use and. It. Also has the opportunity to generate, four point five trillion, dollars, of new economic output. Especially. When considering, the advances, in technology that we have today. Considering. Shean learning and AI, in particular. But. What is a circular, economy what are tangible, examples. Of a circular economy well. According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Who developed, the diagram, that you see pictured here, a circular, economy seeks, to rebuild capital, whether, that is financial, manufactured. Social, or natural, this, allows them for a continuous, flow of technical. And biological materials, or, nutrients, into these value, circles, as you can see they're quite broad. There are agricultural, inputs. There are electronic, inputs, and as, a result, the circular economy can take a variety of shapes, and forms. It. Can be a bio-based. Material, for single-use, food Tanner's so, what is pictured here is actually an example of a disposable cup made from the cassava root and so, while this is more environmentally, friendly and compostable it, actually, is additive, to the environment, as well and helps, to promote soil regeneration, a. Circular. Economy can, also be, a rooftop, hydroponic. Based, farm where. One acre of previously, unused roof, space can feed up to 2,000, people per. Year with fresh produce. And. A circular economy is also an e recycling, model for electric. Vehicles as we know there's an increasing demand for electric.

Vehicles And that is also matched by an increasing demand for the batteries that power them and there's. Them the question of how can we recycle, the precious. Minerals, materials, etc that went into making those batteries. But. What our Google Cloud and si P doing. Around sustainability, how are we driving, innovation. Well. Looking at the partnership more broadly Google, Cloud and si P announce our partnership, in 2017. With, the goal of giving customers, the best of both worlds essentially, unmatched business, expertise, industry-leading. Cloud infrastructure, and machine learning solutions. So, together we provide the flexibility, and the. Performance. Necessary, in order to drive impactful, decisions for. Customers around the world we, work together and, we work for you now. In. Addition to this we can also help organizations. Scale sustainably. From, Google, sustainable, data centers where 100, percent of global energy use, is, matched with renewable energy to. The 91, percent, landfill, diversion rate, that we have achieved in 2017. And looking, at si P and their sustainable, solutions what they're working towards making, wind energy more cost-effective. For example with customers, and also helping to simplify, risk, management. Overall. Together, we believe that investing and environmentally, responsible management. Means investing, in a collaborative future, and. That. Is where circular, economy 2030. Comes in where Google cloud and si P and now you I can, come together to create a more sustainable world. Circular. Economy 2030. Is a contest, it is a sustainability. Contest, for social entrepreneurs, where we asked applicants, around the world to submit a proposal, for a revenue generating idea that advances, a circular economy and also SDG, 12 one, of the United Nations sustainable development, goals that range from taking, climate action, to promoting gender equality, SDG, 12 is focused on responsible, consumption and production in, particular, and so it's very closely tied to, the concept. Of the circular economy. From. The applicants, the top five eligible submissions, are to receive funding Google, cloud credits and also mentorship opportunities, there's. Also an additional phase of the, competition that is taking place this week an in-person, hackathon, here, in San Francisco, this weekend, where the finalists will be competing, for the opportunity, to win the grand prize of.

$200,000. In in-kind benefits, across. Funding, and cloud credits in addition to the mentorship, opportunities and, the. Google cloud for startups bootcamp, experience. And. We're, not doing this alone it's not just Google cloud and sa P we're also working, with leading ideas, and nonprofits, in this space including. UN Environment the, global partnership for sustainable, development data, and the, Ellen MacArthur Foundation. So. With that we're about to announce the finalists, I'd like to welcome my colleague Jim from s ap to the stage. Thank. You so much, wonderful. So. The. Finalists a quick note before we dive in we received over 250. Applications. From, over 50 countries around, the world which is really exciting so the. Fun fact is every from every continent, except Antarctica. Which. Is great and definitely, spent a lot of time reviewing these applications, we worked, really hard on this also with an interdisciplinary and cross-industry, panel, of expert judges and, are. Happy, to introduce them all to you today so. The. First finalist, the first social entrepreneur, is and runnel from reverse resources, focused, on textile, waste reverse. Resources, vision is to help textile material flows reach their highest potential, their highest environmental, potential. Value so, that the need for new materials, can be minimized, globally. Thanks. The second finalist, is Dismas, Kissel ooh and his company is solar fries they are a pioneering, portable, cold storage, units, powered. By solar energy for, small-scale room. Rule farmers of, perishable. Products, so it's a company that's looking at the food waste topic, from a developing. Country perspective. And, also converts, the waste into, useful. Energy in bio alcohol so exciting, project absolutely. Next. Is Jasmine Crowe founder, of gooder focus on food waste, the mission of gooders to reduce food waste by connecting businesses that have surplus food to, those who need the meals and. Fourth. Is Michael, groves the company is top oolitic switch is a smart, grid for the world's waste using, big data mapping. And analytics, to mace waste, management, more transparent, more. Efficient, and more effective both, commercially, and for, the environment. And. Then. There's Patrick Peter founder of circular mcc's focused on e waste the, mission of circular makes is to maximize efficiency for, the circular battery economy, with the goal of achieving zero waste. And. With. That we'd like to welcome the panelists, to the stage the remaining panels to the stage for the discussion, portion of today's session so welcome. Kate Brant Google, sustainability. Officer, Jim. Sullivan, who's already on stage head of the global sustainability, innovation, accelerator at, sa P Darien. Sturges global partnerships, manager at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. And Alonso. Ortiz Galan Community. Engagement Manager at, the global partnership for sustainable development. Data. Wonderful. Thank you all for joining first, and foremost to kick things off would be great if you could tell us a bit more about your, work and background in sustainability, what. Drew you to this work and why is it particularly, critical today. Well. Huge, congratulations, to our winners, I think can we can we give them a round of applause as we do a round of applause for our winners. Elyse. Is right I got, to serve as one of the judges and there was some really stiff competition and. Some other really exciting proposals, so thank you to everybody for, participating and. We're thrilled to be here and it's been such a great partnership with you Germany SAV team yes. So as a least mentioned, I serve. As the Google sustainability. Officer, and, circular. Economy is, something that I'm personally really passionate, about and that we have been very. Focused on at Google so, going. Back to 2015. We, made a commitment that we wanted to embed, circular, economy principles. Into our infrastructure, our operations, our products, and our culture, and. A big part of making that commitment was also our global partnership with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

Whom We've worked with really closely ever since then and, for. Us this work really spans across our, operations, from how we manage our data centers that of course make Google Cloud possible, to our global real estate portfolio our. Supply chain our, consumer, hardware and, also, thinking about the role of Google technology, and enabling, everyone, to accelerate, this transition, to a circular economy and, so. Some of you noticed my favorite, things that we've been up to lately are. Looking. At the role of AI and accelerating, the transition to a circular economy we, had some really interesting applicants. In that space, and. We see this as a tremendous opportunity to. Sort of combine these megatrends for major impact, and we. Also are doing great work in our data centers in this space looking at how we can reuse. Remanufacture, or sell in secondary markets different, components, of our servers, and really driving towards a more circular data center ecosystem, so just, a few things but I know we'll get into more on the panel. Hi there Darien sturgeon from the MacArthur, Foundation I. Would, like to echo, some, of Kate's thoughts on how exciting, it is I think from. My perspective to, see the. Geographic. Diversity. Of the. Finalists here this. Did this this, conversation, about circular economy can, be a little bit esoteric and, at least in my experience a little Eurocentric. So seeing. That there's some take-up obviously. In Europe but, here in the US and then in Africa is it's pretty exciting so, as I mentioned I lead us partnerships, for the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Which. Is an organization, that is about, eight, years old now with. The the mission statement of accelerating, the transition to, a circular economy, and, we, can get into a little, bit about what that means later but. The. Broad brushstrokes, are we work with organizations around, the world from the private sector big. Global companies like Google. Universities. We work with the public sector both of the city level and the national level to. Drive, change and. That. Runs, the gamut from very, tangible, projects, Kate, gave a few examples to more.

Thought Leadership pieces. About what. Technology. Can mean for sustainability. In the circular economy from. Cloud. From, artificial, intelligence. Etc. So that's. That's, an overview, of the, element kartha foundation again. I'd, like to say. It's great to be here and see so much interest in the work. Thank. You a thank you for the invitation also, very excited to be here in, San Francisco guell, next and to be pouring with. This exciting, initiative and thank, you all for being here I know it's hard. A decision. To like with everything all the amazing. Panels. Going on so thank you I am. The Community, Engagement Manager, for. The global partnership for sustainable development, data and we. Are a global network, committing. To ensure that we have the necessary data, to, achieve, and monitor, the SDGs we. Bring together governments. A civil, society, multilateral. Yeren agencies, and the private sector, together, to collect Li collectively. Solve a problems. And gaps around the production, and use of data. We. Don't provide the data ourselves or or. Collect, data or rather we provide strategic, partnerships. Advocacy. A technical. Assistance, and. Pilot. Initiatives, with partners, from the, national regional and, global level, we. Strive. To reduce technical, barriers, but. Also political, ones. So. I have a confession, to make I'm a selfish. We're not live-streaming. This are we it's. Recorded, oh we are good. So. I grew up in upstate New York I love the outdoors, I love the winter I love skiing cane and I just had a wonderful conversation I, got involved in the climate change discussions. Probably 20 years ago because I love those outdoor spaces and I'd like them to be available for my lifetime but, I've also had some of the best times with my family with my kids in the mountains hiking around skiing, and I want those spaces to be available in their lifetimes, as well. The second point my daughter as a is, an athlete his. Road crew for many years she spends four or five hours a day on. The water in the rivers and you, know comes back with a report on what's floating down the river that, particular. Day so two really sobering statistics, on climate change in the US alone. 1.5. Trillion, dollars, in damages, from. Natural. Weather, events, and disasters, related. To extreme. Weather around. That and then for plastics I think everybody's heard the stat there may be more fish, than plastic in the ocean by, 2050. So on a personal level I'm doing this for my kids for our planet, but, it also needs to make a lot of business sense so from an SI p perspective, for, the past 47, years we have been managing had. The privilege to manage our customers financial. Data flows and material, data flows we run seventy, percent seventy, seven percent of financial, transactions. Flow through our systems, on a daily. Basis, typically close to 80 percent of material, flows whether sneakers. Whether plugging, in your iPhone whether, that and if we can merge that data along with. Environment, and social data to allow businesses throughout the world to make better business. Decisions we, can really make a huge change in the in the world so. Wonderful. Thank you for the introductions, and sharing more about your interest and background in this space so, another question for you about the circular economy it's, a tough one to define how. Would you define, a circular, economy in, a simplified way and how, can the circular, economy help, to navigate the often inverse relation, between, economic. Growth and. Environmental. Degradation. Whoever. Wants to jump right. Well. I have to say I like. The definition of the circular economy that, we've gotten from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. That it's about keeping. Products and materials and, use designing, out waste and pollution and, regenerating. Natural systems, I think that to, me feels like a fairly, concise way of conceptualizing, what, I know can feel feel like a very complex topic and, and. And, I really appreciate, they also, the element as Jim was saying of the economy. In circular economy and, Elise shared some great statistics, that I often cite as well you know particularly the Accenture, study, that showed us that there's four, point five trillion, dollars, of value that could be realized by 2030, and what, I love so much about this competition, and our fantastic winners, on all of you who applied is you're showing this is a reality you're developing new businesses, new, approaches, that are, decoupling. Growth. From our use of natural resources you're, showing that we can build. On all of the great work and innovation.

That's Taken place over the last 200 years but chart an entirely different course, forward that is one of abundance and one of a totally different relationship to natural resources so, I really, commend all the great work you guys are doing and I think it's really showing how we can put this theory, into practice in, a really powerful way in a way that makes business sense I. Would. Add to, that by, saying at the foundation, at least we we, tend to shy away from defining. Specifically. What. The circular economy is, what we want to do instead is provide more of a direction. And, especially, a positive, direction I. At. Least mentioned the inverse relationship, between growth, and resource use and we. Want to provide more of a positive framework. That. Allows, for, resource, use without or. I would. Say a better, use of the resources we have is probably a another. Way of defining, it and I think the other, slight. Differentiation. I would make is that we. Think about a circular, economy as, an upstream, and a systems, design, issue. Rather. Than just managing, the symptoms, of, the problem waste, for example, to. Us it's it's the choices you make early. On in the process the. Materials, you use, whether. Or not you design, for. Single-use. Servings, such, as the water, bottles below. Us. That. Has impact. And. Making. Those choices early, on in the process has, a much bigger exponential. Impact than, just trying to figure out what to do with, the. Plastic that that we pump out every year at the end of at, the end of its life the, final differentiation. I would, make is. Thinking. About things. Like consumption. In a slightly different way. For. Instance we tend to even, shy away from sane, consumption. Thinking, that you know you don't really consume anything unless. You eat it so, thinking about the, resources, that businesses, or individuals use, as. Materials. That are going to be used over and over again or at least can be used over and over again rather than simply, consumed, I, think, is another, way of sort. Of at least directionally. Getting at what, we mean by by. The term circular economy I. Think. What's interesting about. Circular. Economy is that, it seems something that's, kind, of revolutionary. And in the end it's because we married. To idea that the way we produce right now is the only possible. Way we. Are just so anchored, on this, power, them and I think it's, very interesting to, see how many, like. This 5a finalists. Are attempting. To change that and I think sometimes it's, also about, we. Think, it's. Only the. Solutions, are only gonna come from one sector. For example government, pushing, policies and, pushing, everyone to comply, but it's, not about that it's a win-win, in. Which actually. Businesses, can benefit, from. Inspecting. Their processes, and making. A conscious, decisions, about how. To reduce costs, they're ways that they're inspect, their impact and how to think of how. They insert themselves in a brother ecosystem and how they impact theirs themselves, and future generations, I. Think. It's a from, my, thought I think it's really a paradigm change and, the. Reason so we've been in the space for years and years of ERP, enterprise, resource. Planning and what you're really seeing is the definition of Enterprise changing, it used to be if you did a good job in your own four walls check, the box you're all set and, now consumers, are demanding and transparency. Was the kobold and my battery sourced, from slave, labor or from child labor what, happens at the end of life it doesn't go away anymore it goes into a river and it goes somewhere. So you know from that definition, you need to not only take responsibility. For your own actions but your, suppliers actions, your customers actions and how do you pull all that together. And the second thing is the definition of a resource is really changing in the past it was enough to know form fit function and we're good and of day and now we need to know again the Associated, attributes, how much water was. Used in the making of this resource how much, carbon. Was used in the making of this resource what happens to that resource at end-of-life and, increasingly. I like to think of it in stocks and flows if, you look at some of the circular statistics, we're really only cycling. About 9%, of materials, globally. And some of those you know maybe should be in place for a long period, of time but some of those if you open. A brand new good. And you take the packaging, off and you throw the packaging, away you've.

Engaged With that material for all of five seconds, and it added very, value, for you so it's just the, way we think about that so that's, a bit of a negative view the positive view is we're in the age of hyper transparency. With, data and if we can allow visibility, into those material, flows that, little packaging, that I threw away becomes, a valuable resource for somebody else in the right place with, the right technology so, I'm very optimistic about, our approach. Here moving forward. Wonderful. So. Speaking. To the. Industry, as a whole what, sustainable, or circular, economy principles. Or practices stand. Out to you as particularly impactful and why. I. Think. A. Sustainable. Development practices. That really, focus, on the. Issue a rather. Than on the solution. Are. The ones that I could have more impact and be more successful and gather. More acceptance. For, example, un environment, one of the partners in this initiative who cannot be here they, developed, an online platform, in, which they. Help countries to find hotspots, on of unsustainable. A consumption. And production practices, and, I think there. Are many organizations. Advocating. A two. For. Several, issues and many. Making. The. Needs visible. So. The information is out there I think sometimes, we just the focus is in the in the right place so, making, a, the, practices. Respond, to solutions, and thinking, of the audiences, and who they benefit I think it's the right way right. I. Would. Say I. Am. Obviously, excited by a lot of the new innovations that. That, are popping up including, the the winners, or the finalists of this contest but I think what, I'm probably the most. Jazzed. About is the, new collaborations. That are popping up because when you talk about system change or, changing. The paradigm. It's. Gonna require collaboration. Across the value chain but also between, the private sector and the public sector and that's happening so this, this collaboration, with Google and si P is one example. The foundation is launching a new initiative around the global food system which, is, helping. To spearhead a partnership between some of the leading food brands, and for. Global cities so, it's that sort of spirit of collaboration that, I think is really going to drive systemic, change. That's. Great yeah I was gonna touch, on I'll, pick up on food system I think. This is an area where I see is so much opportunity and you know at least showed us that the butterflied diagram, as it's called at, the beginning of the presentation and I think that whole left. Side of the diagram looking, at the bio cycle, presents, such tremendous, opportunity, and and.

I Know one of our finalists, today is working in this space in applying. Technology, to reduce, food waste which is fantastic and, this is something that that I'm really personally passionate about this is something we've been thinking about at Google, we've. Done a lot of work on applying technology to food waste in our own kitchens, we're, now applying machine. Learning and gaining new insights, and so, I see. A tremendous opportunity there, and I was thrilled to see one of our finalists, really looking at that topic and the other one that I think we, don't, often focus, on in these conversations but that we really like to bring up is the role of safe chemistry, and healthy materials that when we are endlessly. Cycling, material, back into the system we, also need to be really confident that that material is safe for people and for the planet and so, that's an aspect of the circular economy that, I believe is really important, and that we have done done work with a foundation, you may have seen a paper, we published on this last year but, I also see that as a really important, piece of the dialogue and I know I met some folks in the audience who are developing, a materials marketplace, to great create more transparency we've, done a lot of work on this particularly in the building materials space but that's, another aspect of the circular economy that I think is really important to focus on. Out. There for a business which is. If. You, have a supplier that's providing, you virgin materials, you can, ask. For form-fit function, price everything, exactly, to your specification. If, you were looking at secondary, markets, for materials, what if the quality isn't, what you expect what if the quantity that you're expecting, isn't what you expect what if the, quantity and quality are good but they show up in a location that you didn't expect so, one, of the proofs of concepts we've run fairly, recently is really how do you do that at a commercial scale, for a large company that's gathering these, secondary, market materials, and how. Do you tie it into integrated, business planning, for, your business what happens if the quality isn't quite there can. I still get away with making my products what do I need to do to post-process. It in order to do that what, do I need to do with my logistics systems for just in time to get the right quality components. Together in. The right place so for, the first time it's really tying. It to the core business process, and tying it to profitability, as you look at that at scale so I think there's a lot of great examples of Circular within closed loops within companies, there's, becoming, a lot of great examples of closed loops within small. Ecosystems, auto. Manufacturers. And certain battery recyclers, and parts suppliers there's not really a good example of open ecosystem open, loops that, are happening and as we get to material, marketplaces, we really need to get to that point of increased. Supply and transparency, to to handle some of those risks. To business. Great. Thank you so, pivoting a little bit to talk about technology, here we are at Google cloud next we've you know mention machine learning and artificial intelligence but, you, know what in your mind and your opinion is the role of data and sustainable, development and in, sustainability, more broadly that's, also one to start with Alonso given the global partnership team. Sure. I'm just preaching to the choir but data. Is the lifeblood of sustainable, development it's. The way we understand, the, problems we have at hand a word, they're, located, who are they affecting, a what. Are the right policies, to put in place a house to course-correct these, policies, and ultimately, to achieve impact, so, data, the. Data value chain crosses. Across the policy-making and I. Think, that for data to truly, power, sustainable. Development, there's two, conditions, that need to be met and one, is data has to be about social, justice so. Oftentimes, the most marginalized. People, in the world are, encountered. In the data they, are either, a, Miss, by censuses, and surveys. They, are hidden behind. Statistics. And averages, and. In. Order for data to be truly about sustainable, development it, has to be about all and for all and the, second condition I think it's for data, to. Be a public, good so, oftentimes, data, or, lately. Data is referred as the new oil I think. This. This, is this framing just, kind of conceals. The power of data data. Is infinite. Data, increases, value, as. It's, used and it's collated, with other data and if. The right standards. Policies, and infrastructure, are put in place data. Can truly be.

A Public, good. Keep. Mixing it up I'll go. The. Other thing I think is incredibly important is getting people the right data at the right time as they're making a decision becomes, vital you can have the best state in the world and if it's not there when you're acting on it it's, not gonna be helpful so our. Team in the UK ran a project, called the plastics, challenge, last year it was a guy named Steve Jameson, Michele Hickey, great. Great work they followed consumers, around not in a creepy way but in a gathering data kind of way for, about. A month and gauged. Their every interaction with, plastic, I get up in the morning I eat my yogurt I throw the aluminum lid away I tossed the cup here, I grab my plastic water bottle I go to the gym what do I do with that all and out. Of that through partnerships, we ran a three-day design think and came up with a lot of cool. Solutions, but if you come up to me afterwards I've got one app that is. Really. Interesting and, what it does is it takes the idea of the, data that's. Collected around this puts it into a machine learning algorithm so with your phone you can snap a picture of a water bottle and know, what, it's made out of it's PE T o and then, it'll use geolocation to, know where you are and know what the options for, recycling, that water bottle is a consumer, might be within that region so this is up and running in. The UK and it's one example of putting data in the right hands to make a decision at the right time. We, just announced last week the the pr, went. Out with bumblebee, tuna doing blockchain traceability, with tune again a really cool app and. It. Allows you to look at scan, a barcode on, your tuna, that, you're buying and it will show you exactly where, that fish was caught what the fisherman's lifestyle, was like what, the normal catch for that product is whether it's endangered and, then with the company the fair trade, implications. Of that like oh this is a community that we're providing gloves, for so they don't hurt their hands when the when. The lines come in all super. Valuable data at the right time is you're making a consumer, buying, decision, and then it has to be fun too so if you go to the next page it's got recipes, for, how you use all that delicious tuna so it's combining kind of the traceability. And the social aspects, along with you. Know consumer aspects and really, interesting, projects. I. Want to hear more about your take a photo, identify. The product. Yes, I totally agree and I think just to build on that you know the way that I think about it is I think we're really moving, from, the age of information to the age of knowledge you know we've generated, so, many data sets over the last couple of decades but now we're able to unlock, those data sets to be really actionable and and. And I think there's tremendous, opportunity. To utilize data, to empower, communities to empower policymakers. To empower individuals to, drive. Sustainable change, and one, of my absolute, favorite examples of this is. A project that, we worked on with two wonderful ngos Oceana, and sky truth which is called global fishing watch and, so, this is one of these amazing examples, of we were able to take this, huge global data set which is that every ship that is on the high sea is constantly.

Pinging Out its location, every day and, so we were able to take that data set and with the machine learning algorithm. Recognize, what, did a fishing, boat look like as compared to a cruise ship or a tugboat or any other kind of vessel and then what it actually looked like when it was fishing, and then, we, utilized, our massive, cloud compute, and our, geo mapping capabilities, to create a real-time heat, map of where is global fishing activity, taking place and, then, communities, have been using this data to create marine, protected areas so there's actually five new marine protected areas that, have been created just since we launched this tool a few years ago and, it's, enabling, community to take, control of their resources to, drive, towards conservation and, to partner with the fishing communities, to, also enable them but to do it in a much more sustainable way so just, one, example that I love but I think of really putting that data in people's, hands so they can drive really positive sustainable, action. So, also, follow up on on technology, so what are the opportunities to, leverage in addition to the examples that you shared the leverage modern technology especially machine, learning and AI for, a sustainable, future what, can we do today I think it'd be great to hear some you, know insights from the AI and the circular economy report, that. Went out just a few months ago. Yeah. Absolutely. So. I alluded, to this a little bit but we we did a report that we published I'm just back in January, with the Ellen, MacArthur Foundation. And with McKinsey, of really looking at this intersection, point of circular economy and, AI and we, particularly, did, a drill down into, into. The food system and into, consumer, hardware and. I think some of our major, takeaways. Were, the, ways in which sort, of as we've been talking about AI can, help us to drive new, insights, so for example we looked at the opportunity for. To. Design better products, and we're starting to see examples, for for, instance that, European. Space Agency, they, have been using AI to develop, better, more, sustainable materials. So. We're seeing that as a tremendous application. Equally. We're starting to see a. I applied, in really interesting ways to business, models so some of you may know the. Company stuff ster they're a great circular, business and they, utilize. Machine learning to, set the price for their products, for their kind of secondary, use product so they are able to scan, what. Is the price for a new product how do they set a fair price but that also enables them to make a profit and continue to run their business and so. We're I think we're starting to really see that AI, and, particularly machine learning can, be applied, to accelerate, these new business models and. And enable, new insights, and, in fact many of our our, applicants, for this contest really showed that in exciting, ways so I'll it I really thought, those insights were useful and equally, we've been experimenting on this in Google inside, of our data centers so we took, a machine, learning algorithm and applied, it to our data center cooling, system, and we, basically created, an AI powered, efficiency, recommendation, system, so it looked at power, temperature, pump speeds other data sets that we had for. How the cooling system was operating, and then, it wouldn't, it would recommend. How could we operate more efficiently and, then we put it on autopilot so then it was just making those recommendations on its own and getting, a 30%, increase in efficiency, and are already very, highly optimized, data centers and I love that example because it means we can deliver cloud even more sustainably, but also it points to the huge, opportunity. That machine learning presents to optimize many other systems so. Those are just some of my favorite, examples. Yeah. I think Cates grabbed all the all, the good ones, we're. Doing stuff, in similar areas that one I would add is logistics and, the ability, to move. Things around much, more efficiently, look at loads look at the way factories, operate and kind of pour on business.

Which I think is vitally important I got back I'm you know kind of a funny aside but from you. Talking about the data centers I got back from our shanghai labs and they've got this all set up within the coffee machine, so if your milk is running low somebody, gets a warning and it can predict which machines and what milk times so you. Know simple, examples like that of real world experience we've, done it in our Vancouver labs, around the trash bins to. Know when the when, the recycle, and when the trash is is getting full and learned, some real-world results. From that like in a mobile. Environment like that the sensors might not be as robust as you would want them to to. Be but, I think I think the big areas, are within within logistics, certainly it's within dematerialization. It's, looking at ways, of moving contracts. Around rather than moving containers, around if you have similar things with different, companies. In different areas so and I think we're really all just scratching, the surface on, the, potential so this contest was a great way to work. With a number of companies that have some brilliant ideas the space and figure out ways to make those reality. And. What I would add to that taking, it back to the very high level is is. When. I think about the evolution of our foundation, we, spent five years basically. Just trying to get the message out creating, a framework. Mobilizing. Folks. Around that message. We've. Needed to evolved because, the debate has now. Or. The acceptance level, of that message, has, led us to, to. Need to put those principles into practice, we've. Said things that were again. Very high level things like waste. Plus, information, equals. An asset, actually. Putting a phrase like that into. Practice is an extremely, difficult thing, and it's. Only through partnerships, and interest, from companies like si P and Google and some, of the advances, that have happened in computing, and AI and machine learning over, the last couple years makes. That a reality, and Jim mentioned the app of. Taking. A photo of plastic, and and, advancements. In image recognition. Allows. You now to basically. Take. A photo of waste. And. Rethink.

What That means what's. What. Or it. Allows, you to make that link between the physical world and the digital world and that, opens up just an enormous amount of possibilities, to. Get that waste to places, situations. Where it's got, a value and by, definition isn't, waste anymore. That's. Great thank you I'm so also a follow up question on, something. That we touched on briefly, before, that I discussed in the presentation, earlier, the, SDGs, we've. Been talking about sustainability we've been talking about the circular economy but. Digging a little bit deeper into, the sustainable, development goals and especially into, SDG. Twelve responsible, consumption and production what. Would you say is one. Of the or some of the challenges, unique to SDG twelve what. Is something that needs to be addressed today in order to achieve that goal by 2030, we would love to hear your thoughts on that Alonso, thanks. Of course at least am. I think. What's. Interesting about the SDGs is that they present a, B while. Their individual, goals in, the end it's a comprehensive, picture of all the things we need to tackle in, order to achieve long lasting change, so, all, these. Goals are inter interconnected. To each other so for example, as DG, 12 cannot, be achieved if we don't, also work on gender equality and. Protecting. The, environment and. Resources. And. For example a, many. Other things, but I think the challenges, and I talked. About our, work we we. Think. About this all the time how, it's. Not only about the technical, barriers but also the political ones, and I think as g2 has the same things it. Like, it requires, a more, coordination, at the national level, ensuring. Kind. Of the right approach, a scientific. Evidence, obviously, the use of data bringing. Different stakeholders. Together to, innovate, and think of new ways to. Improve consumption. And production so. Once, again in order to kind.

Of Work, towards, a circular, economy we. Need to think of the broader picture right and how all of this is connected to each other so. For. The non geeks in the audience when you put environmental, people together with technology, people you get an awful lot of acronyms. SDG. 12 sustainable, development, goal is about the production and consumption, you know as Elise said, and for the geeks on stage that have that have douve into the details it has. Some sub targets on like having, food waste in the, world so two of our winners are, looking, at the food waste is a major. Issue. One from a developing country perspective. One from a developed country perspective. Same issue two, very different solutions, to how, you address that it's. Got a goal of reducing chemical. Wastes it's got a goal of reducing waste, in general, to, me the one that's most interesting, is there's a goal. In an aspiration, for companies, to report publicly, on a, sustainability. Data and this is where I think you, get the biggest bang for the buck is actually, tying, financial. Data for corporate reporting, to environment, in social, data and at, si P were on year, 8 now of our integrated, report, where we're reporting, all of that but, we're looking at the environment and the social impact, on our company in reporting, that out on how it affects our profitability, so I'd encourage you to take a look at that we just put a new report. Out a couple of weeks. Ago and we've got a diagram. Where you can transparently, follow the flows of which, of our, KPIs, as a corporation, not environment, and social affect each other and. Some of them like employee retention, has, a fairly, big effect. On. Profitability. If we lose 1% of employees it's 55 to 65, million. Dollars in profitability. Hit for, that so it's a really good way of tying together environment. And social along, with core financial performance and, it's one that I think, more and more companies need to do because it really helps steer the company to make the right decision, for financial. Reasons which also has a pretty big economic. Environment. And social. Great. Well thank you so. Thinking, about the finalists, they've, come up in the conversation, today you mentioned, food waste in particular, I'm looking, at their applications, and at their proposals. What from their, proposals, was particularly noteworthy for, you and assessing, them and in your opinion what was innovative, what, is their potential to drive the impact at scale. Well. I mean, as I said I I'm thrilled, about all the finalists, and frankly I think there were many other really strong applications, and, I think, what what I really. Appreciated about them you know hysteria and said it was just the wide variety, of applications, the geographic, diversity, from. You know looking at the food system totally more technical materials, like batteries, I was, really heartened by how representative. All. Of the finalists, were of the many different, opportunities, and areas. That we can innovate and so. I was particularly excited about that and as, I sort of hinted at I've gotten, really interested in the food system and I was really excited to see that focus, in the food system because you know let's face it a third of food, getting wasted we, have to figure this out and I think technology has such, a critical, role to play and.

Also It was just so heartening, to see you know how people are thinking about using our technology, and of course that's atps technology, too because we ask ourselves this question all the time how, can we utilize Google technology, to enable more sustainable outcomes and you all thought of things that we had never thought of before so, that too was I thought just really exciting, to see. And. I would say I don't have a favorite as well I think. At. The foundation, we focus on material, flows and when you look around the world at the important, or at least the. The key, material, flows that we need to tackle as. As. An economy. You. Look at textiles, you look at food waste as, s. Kate mentioned you look at e waste and, you, ask the question are we using resources. The, resources that we have in the most effective way possible and. I think all. Of these applicants, all these finalists. Have. Figured out how to do that or. At least have a model that gets, us to, start attacking that so all, all, really, cool all great applicants, looking. Forward to seeing over the next six months bring, absolutely. So, we're getting close on time and definitely want to allow some. Time for questions but, as a lightning, round quickly. Closing. Question for the group what, is one thing that everyone today, can do to be more sustainable and, to, minimize their footprint. You. Know I was thinking about that earlier. When you wouldn't you first threw that at me, and I think whether you, know you're a business or an individual, every. Decision really comes down to two, key, questions that you need to ask, about a product, or a thing whether. You're producing it or using it one is is how is that thing going to be used and then to what's. Gonna happen once it's, done being used and. I think just having. That in your head. Can. Really go a long way to to. Helping, you or your company make better, choices. That's. Great and and, I think you know of course so, many opportunities for us to, solve, these challenges and, drive solutions at work but also I think bringing this home with us is so powerful, and I always, get so excited I feel like I've had so many people recently tell me how much their kids are interested in this topic and I think you know this is their future as Jim said so. I think bringing this home and engaging with your family, you know doing composting, at home ensuring your recycling. Looking. At bringing you know green cleaning products, into your home thinking, about more sustainable, ways of you know getting, to work or getting your family to you know an outing on the weekend I think these can feel like really small decisions, but they really do add up and, I think it's an opportunity for all of us to lead by example and. To really partner with the next generation and see this behavior really early because if we all do this stuff the world would look very different I.

Have. To agree it's about like those. Consumption. Decisions and, whenever. Like, confronting. A new. Buy or purchase just, thinking of where. Is it coming from and how. Does it affect someone, like. Either someone. Who's producing, it and as I said like at the end of the. Lifecycle, of that product worse, it going to end up but also like. Asking, do I really, need that thing. That I'm going to buy I think that's really important, and well, it's hard to always having. To think, and rationalize. Every. Purchase. That we make it's it's important, it's those small. Changes that really add up I agree and I, think the more we can know in. Not. Getting, to techniques like Marie, Kondo or, like the clutter or life or things like that because, we're constantly asking, these questions would. Be great, yeah. Speed. Around I have two really quick things but. One is in personal. Life so I have another confession to make I'm a musician and I like collecting, cool instruments, and it, became a problem you know a few years ago but I've. Put into place for my own purchasing, a one in one out rule so, if I want to buy anything, whether it's a new, symbol. Or a sweater. Or something, I need to decide what I'm gonna donate in order to buy that and it really changes, your mindset in purchasing, because, I might think I really like something but when I I think of what I have and what I would get rid in order to acquire that a, lot, of times I'll just say you know I don't really need that so. Just one personal, little interesting, hack it works with food too at the end of the week with. My daughter we do a pasta a la refrigerator, and we go through and we have to invent a recipe with all of the food that we're gonna have to throw out the next day in order to make a new a, new dish, so there's, innovative ways to do that without sacrificing. But just making more conscious, decisions, and the final thing I would say is when. You're making purchase decisions when, you're giving somebody your hard-earned cash you, have the ability to ask hard questions and, make choices and, don't. Always make them on the value of the transaction make, them on the values of the company you're transacting. With for the long term and just those two things will I think really help change, behaviors, I. Guess. The final thing I would say too is that. The. Reason why we talk so much about systems, design, and changing, the system, is because we don't want people to make sacrifices, when. We, think about SDG, 12 or responsible, consumption or however you want to term it. We don't want Jim to buy less cool. Guitars, we. Just want the. Old guitars, to, go, to the right place, and. You. Know if we can create those kinds of systems then there aren't really bad choices. But. But again that's a tall order and that's a that's a huge left so we would say that that's a long-term project and. But. But that is that's the end goal, wonderful. Thank you so much.

2019-04-16 22:21

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