The technology industry is going into a phase where taking care of the environment and being smart about it is becoming really important for innovation.
For a time software companies were mostly worried about making things bigger automating tasks using cloud infrastructure and getting more users.. Now something else is becoming very important:
Environmental impact.
Think about it: from cloud computing and data centers to making things and getting them to people digital systems are contributing a lot to carbon emissions. As governments make rules about climate change and people expect companies to be more sustainable businesses are looking for smarter ways to keep track of and reduce their environmental footprint.
This is where technologies that track carbon are becoming really important.
I recently looked at Enviro Forest, a platform that focuses on keeping an eye on the environment analyzing the air in forests looking at how soil breathes and monitoring ecosystems in a way that's good for the environment. Their work shows how data, sensors and being smart about the environment are changing the future of climate technology.
What does carbon tracking mean?
Carbon tracking is the process of measuring things that people release into the air and how much carbon is being used across systems, industries and ecosystems.
New technologies that track carbon can measure:
CO₂ emissions
How much carbon is coming out of the soil
How clean the air is
What is happening in forests
How the environment is changing over time
This information is necessary for:
Reporting on sustainability
Following rules
Checking if carbon credits are real
Coming up with strategies to reduce emissions to zero
Doing research on the environment
If we do not have data it will be hard to know if we are meeting our climate goals.
Why should developers care about this?
Most developers do not think about climate technology when they are writing code every day.
Systems that track environmental data are becoming huge software ecosystems that involve:
Devices that can connect to the internet
Networks of sensors that can talk to each other without wires
Analyzing data in time
Cloud infrastructure
Artificial intelligence
Systems that show data in a way that's easy to understand
Climate technology is becoming more and more dependent on software engineering.
Platforms that track the environment need:
Backend systems that can handle a lot of data
Pipelines that can move data in time
Sensors that can talk to the system
Dashboards that can show data in a way that's easy to understand
Analytics that use artificial intelligence
Infrastructure that uses application programming interfaces
This creates big opportunities for developers who are interested in:
Climate technology
Startups that focus on sustainability
Analyzing data
Making infrastructure smarter
Engineering data
Software for climate change may become one of the growing technology sectors in the next decade.
The Rise of Environmental Internet of Things
Keeping an eye on the environment is really dependent on internet of things infrastructure.
Sensors that are put in forests, fields and industrial areas can constantly monitor:
Temperature
Humidity
Bad things that are released into the air
Conditions of the soil
How ecosystems are responding
These systems make a lot of data that needs to be processed and managed in the cloud in an efficient way.
Platforms like Enviro Forest show how advanced technologies that track the environment are being used for analyzing the environment and managing ecosystems in a way.
Artificial Intelligence + Climate Data = The Future
Artificial intelligence is changing the way we track the environment.
AI systems can analyze:
Trends in climate change
Patterns of carbon use
Changes in ecosystems
Risks related to weather
Predicting emissions
When combined with internet of things and environmental sensors AI enables us to predict what will happen with the climate.
In the future systems may be able to automatically:
Report on sustainability
Alert us to risks
Come up with strategies to reduce carbon use
Analyze if we are following climate rules
This is becoming a whole new ecosystem of technology.
ESG Is Driving Demand
One major reason carbon tracking is growing fast is because of ESG reporting.
Businesses are facing a lot of pressure from:
People who invest in companies
Governments
Consumers
Environmental regulators
Companies must now show that they are making an effort to be sustainable.
This creates a demand, for:
Software that tracks carbon accounting
Tools that analyze environmental data
Dashboards that show sustainability data
Systems that verify emissions
Developers who are building things in climate technology today may be getting into one of the impactful industries of the future.
