Putting the AI in sustainability, one machine learning bot at a time
A recent study by PwC has uncovered that artificial intelligence and machine learning could become the tool in business climate change action. Meanwhile, at ESP, we’ve gone from “could” to “should” to “is”.
Introducing CLIVE, our energy efficiency AI that has spent the last year uncovering new opportunities for NZ businesses to not just reduce CO2 emissions, but avoid them altogether.
Why AI?
Artificial intelligence (AI) offers surprisingly powerful opportunities in the fight against climate change.
According to PwC, applying AI could help businesses reduce their CO2-e by 4% – that’s the equivalent of removing the predicted 2030 emissions of Australia, Canada, and Japan combined.
Artificial intelligence is being used to design energy-efficient buildings, improve power storage and optimise renewable energy deployment. Meanwhile, AI’s cousin machine learning (ML) is used to analyse, monitor, and predict environmental disasters like wildfires and landslides.
Governments and industry organisations are becoming increasingly interested in AI. By leveraging this technology, they can identify patterns, make predictions, and inform decision-making on a grand scale with smarter, more informed sustainability strategies.
But why leave it to governments and industry? Every business is responsible for reducing emissions and improving energy efficiency. We developed CLIVE so more enterprises can benefit from the power of AI in their journey to net zero carbon.
Meet CLIVE – New Zealand’s first energy efficiency management machine learning bot
If your organisation aims for net zero carbon, you must include not only investments in carbon-friendly tech, but assurance that the reductions you’ve already achieved are maintained over the long term. That’s where CLIVE comes in.
CLIVE is an AI powered by machine learning. It autonomously and continuously monitors and assesses utility data, using dozens of factors (shift patterns, the weather, building occupancy, to name a few) to form a deep understanding of the business’ use patterns. If that use changes unexpectedly, CLIVE notices, analyses and alerts, allowing our engineers to find and fix issues that otherwise may have gone unnoticed.
“Our goal was to teach the AI bot to identify efficiency and waste reduction opportunities as good as, or better, than our team of energy consultants,” says ESP CPO Jeremy Allen.
“It frees up the consultants to spend their considerable expertise with clients working on the necessary actions to affect meaningful change.”
With CLIVE on board, organisations can:
- Intervene before small issues become large problems
- Identify issues they might not have been aware of in the first place
- Make decisions based on meaningful utility data
- Monitor reduction projects to make sure they stay on target
- Ensure that any behavioural or operational change stays changed
CLIVE does this without the need for human intervention and with incredible accuracy. It’s actually better at identifying meaningful problems than a human consultant.
One of the most interesting features of CLIVE is its networked learning. Every organisation with the AI installed uses an individual instance of CLIVE. It adapts to their specific utility use, but what it learns, it shares, and not just with our engineers and our customers. Every instance of CLIVE is part of a network, communicating with and learning from one another.
“It’s learning at a huge scale and it dramatically reduces the time-to-value for our clients and improves the savings opportunities for our clients,” says Jeremy. “That’s the power of the cloud.”
CLIVE adapts to every organisation, large or small. Regardless of whether the site under CLIVE’s charge a tiny office or a massive industrial complex, CLIVE scales according to whatever system it’s placed within.
Enterprise-level organisations can usually dedicate a person or even a team to energy efficiency, but SMEs certainly can’t. With CLIVE, everyone can benefit and, ultimately, more businesses can find ways to reduce their carbon footprint. This is the power of machine learning.
What has CLIVE achieved so far?
CLIVE monitors over 1,000 individual sites every day, handling terabytes of data from a wide range of different businesses. ESP clients using CLIVE includes local businesses and multinational giants, most notably ASB, which uses CLIVE across its entire NZ banking network, including branches, regional centres, data centres and corporate offices.
What it all comes down to is that CLIVE is an opportunity to bring sustainability via energy efficiency to businesses across New Zealand, allowing for companies of all sizes to help protect the world’s climate.
CLIVE integrates with UtilityHUB, our intelligent utility management, and monitoring platform. Book a meeting with us today to find out how CLIVE – and UtilityHUB – can help you meet your energy efficiency goals.
