Sustainability meets digitization
With "SustainablilITy 2030", the FHNW School of Engineering recently launched the first conference combining the two topics of digitalization and sustainability. This first edition covered a wide range of applications and demonstrated the contribution that data and smart systems can make to the Sustainable Development Goals.
The first edition of the new international conference on sustainability and digitalization at the FHNW School of Engineering on August 26/27, 2021 clearly showed: In order to innovatively make our world more sustainable, digitization is an indispensable tool in all areas. And this is true not only in obvious sectors such as energy supply, but also when it comes to traditionally purely analog systems such as agriculture or waste disposal and recycling (cf. The collection point goes digital).
Over two days, around 80 experts from research, the public sector and the private sector gathered in Brugg-Windisch to gain new impetus, present their approaches and discuss obstacles. The focus was not only on specific solutions, but also on the question of how the two sectors can network sustainably, what financing options are available for completely new approaches, and where there is still a great need for development.
"Digitalization is a global megatrend that has already significantly changed our everyday lives and wide areas of production and communication," said Petar Mandaliev, researcher at the FHNW Institute for Biomass and Resource Efficiency and organizer of the conference. "SustainabilITy2030 allows us to show how we can use the opportunities of digitalization to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations Agenda 2030," Norbert Seyff of the FHNW Institute for Interactive Technologies continued.
Avoid waste and empty runs thanks to data
Today's possibilities not only to collect data, but also to gather it by means of machine learning and artificial intelligence, enables in all possible areas to increase efficiency and thus to save resources as well as to reduce CO2 emissions. Doris Agotai, head of the Institute for Interactive Technologies FHNW, presented as an example a project that has gained additional importance especially in Corona times: In the online trade of clothing, there are many returns because the ordered garment simply does not fit. This not only causes unnecessary transportation, but also means that tons of new garments end up in the trash after being returned. Digitization can help here, too. Using a depth-imaging camera, customers could measure themselves before ordering and thus ensure that the new jeans actually fit as they should.
Numerous other examples showed how much potential for optimization exists in numerous areas: for example, networked beverage stations and waste collection points that prevent unnecessary trips; digital markers on packaging that make it easier to sort waste; or robots that detect weeds and thus prevent unnecessary pesticide use.
With pitch to success
At the end of the conference, companies from Switzerland were allowed to present their innovative solutions from the fields of waste management, energy and mobility, agriculture and food, and the building sector in a pitch competition. One expert each from the fields of sustainability, economic efficiency and digitalization evaluated the companies' pitches. The company that scored the most points and thus took first place was AgriCircle AG based in Rapperswil. The company brings digital innovation to agriculture. The aim is so-called "precision farming", which is intended to produce food not only more efficiently, but also in a more environmentally friendly way. The technology makes it possible to use satellites and drones to record 18 soil parameters relevant to agriculture. This enables farmers to see precisely, for example, which resources such as lime, nutrients or organic material they need to use and where, or where the targeted use of crop protection products is necessary. The platform also makes it possible to calculate the carbon footprint, manage fields, and offers detailed forecasting models for disease risks and growth rates.
The second place reached Eturnity AG from Chur. Their goal is to digitize the process of selling photovoltaic systems, heating systems, batteries, and charging stations, from acquisition to planning and installation to support, and thus to accelerate it while making it more customer-friendly. In this way, the team wants to contribute to a faster decarbonization of the building sector, in which fossil fuels are still used to a large extent for heating.
About the third place was pleased with CLEMAP AG another company from the energy sector. The startup specializes in measuring and evaluating energy data. To this end, the team has developed a modular solution consisting of networked energy measurement sensors and an intelligent platform that analyzes the data and breaks it down by device category in real time, for example. This enables companies or private individuals to reduce their energy consumption in a targeted manner.
The audience award vote won FarmXa project from the agricultural industry. FarmX offers a platform that enables the exchange of agricultural machinery quite simply via app or website. Combine harvesters, slurry pumps and hay cranes are not used every day on every farm and are not cheap to buy. In this way, farmers can not only reduce their production costs, but also contribute to the consumption of resources in the production of agricultural machinery as part of the sharing economy.
There was no shortage of innovative ideas. The conclusion of the event: It is high time to bring together the two areas of information technology and sustainability. Central to this: The goals do not always have to be achieved with digital technologies, but the right tools are needed for the right task.
Press release FHNW
