Salesforce And AT&T IoT Collaboration Drives Data Management For Net Zero Performance

Sustainability Salesforce And AT&T IoT Collaboration Drives Data Management For Net Zero Performance Felicia Jackson Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I write about innovation, finance, energy, climate and sustainability. New! Follow this author to improve your content experience.

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[+] electronic devices placed on purple cubes sells. getty Salesforce and AT&T have combined forces to provide new emissions management processes for industry. Much of today’s sustainability debate today seems to be about whether a business is sustainable operationally or in product terms – hence Musk’s fury that Tesla was evicted from the S&P 500 ESG Index while Chevron remained.

What this new collaboration suggests is that what matters now is to be both. Salesforce and AT&T are bringing internet of things (IoT) connectivity together with the Net Zero Cloud to enable direct monitoring of emissions causing activity, as Salesforce joins the collaborative Connected Climate Initiative (CCI). Headlines about corporate climate action are often dominated by what targets have been set, whether companies are net-zero, if they’re offsetting or even if they are moving towards carbon removal.

At the very least we’re now beginning to expect that companies should have a functional transition plan. Yet again and again problem arise with effective measurement and management of emissions. Demands for data have far outstripped capacity in understanding and the ability to access and process data – what is needed is not simply data but insight.

What Salesforce has announced in its partnership with AT&T is a means of enabling industries with large carbon footprints, like energy, manufacturing and transportation, to understand the behaviour of assets in use. It means tools such as AT&T’s Equipment and Machinery Solutions helpin g better track, monitor, control and optimize heavy machinery and equipment, such as bulldozers, forklifts and cranes, and help companies across different industries manage their performance. In the US, with the passing of the $1.

2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, construction and heavy equipment companies will be busy rebuilding America’s infrastructure. They will need to know where their equipment is and ensure proper maintenance to manage worker safety, as well as demonstrate their commitment to sustainability goals. What the platform does is use the IoT to help collect and survey vital equipment data, such as engine hours and fuel consumption of machinery, within a single view on Salesforce’s Net Zero Cloud.

Within the product, emissions are calculated, so businesses can better track their sustainability goals from the job site to the boardroom. As Mike Troiano, SVP of Product and Pricing, AT&T Business puts it, “Businesses will be able to gain greater clarity and accuracy about their carbon footprint and where they can take action to lower emissions. ” SAN RAFAEL, CALIFORNIA – MAY 17: A sign is posted in front of an AT&T retails store on May 17, 2021 .

. . [+] in San Rafael, California.

AT&T, the world’s largest telecommunications company, announced a deal with Discovery, Inc. which will spin off AT&T’s WarnerMedia and be combined with Discovery to create a new standalone media company. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Getty Images MORE FOR YOU Is Carbon Capture Another Fossil Fuel Industry Con? Sustainable Fashion Wants Brands To Redefine Business Growth Trouble With Predicting Future Of Transportation Is That Today Gets In The Way IoT solutions allows building operators to monitor and manage many different types of building infrastructure, including lighting, heating, cooling and other mechanical equipment to optimize their use.

AT&T used such technology internally, resulting in annualized savings of 63 million kWhrs – an important difference in an energy crisis. A&T’s internal successes with its technology is what led to the deployment of the solution for customers. Lineage Logistics, a US-based cold food storage operator, relied on smart meters and sensors connected by the AT&T Internet of Things to reduce electricity use by 33 million kWh annually across 78 different warehouses nationwide – which had multiple benefits in terms of keeping food safe, reducing emissions and saving $4 million in annual electricity costs.

As the products are integrated, such processes could automatically deliver insight into sustainability impacts and performance. Such a transition from internal experiment is an example of how identifying their own sustainability needs can help businesses not only solver internal challenges, but create new products for a rapidly growing market. For example, it was AT&T’s internal work on reporting GHG emissions that drove its interest in collaboration.

Reporting on emissions can be complex and labour intensive, because most operations are not set up to provide relevant data on a cross-business basis. AT&T is now using Net Zero Cloud to track its own emissions and enhance its management and reporting. Sign with logo at the regional office of Salesforce in the Silicon Valley, Palo Alto, California, .

. . [+] November 2, 2018.

(Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images) Getty Images hen it comes to sustainability, collaboration seems to be one of the more effective ways to address the challenges that go hand in hand with net zero transformation. Certainly this is something Salesforce believers – as Patrick Flynn, SVP and Global Head of Sustainability, Salesforce puts it, “When companies, customers, and suppliers work together to reach shared climate goals, we can achieve transformative climate action at the scale and speed the planet needs. ” For Salesforce, Net Zero Cloud is a product that also grew out of its own sustainability commitments and the need to track its performance according to its targets.

The company has set a net zero target with the Science-based Targets initiative (SBTi) and the company says it has already reached its net zero residual emissions goal across Scope 1, 2 and 3. Given its SBTi target, that also means it can only use offsets to contribute 5-10% of its emissions. It also achieved 100% renewable energy for its operations by purchasing renewable energy equivalent to the electricity it uses globally and is halfway to its 43 million tree planting target.

Salesforce has further net zero programmes in development, which Flynn expects to launch soon, one of which is a carbon trading platform for customers and suppliers. The offset issue is a complex one, as carbon credits can be criticised as a short cut that replaces internal action on emissions. Flynn however points out that not only will the platform have a quality threshold and demand third party credit verification but argues that data shows that a company using carbon credits tends to have other robust climate initiatives.

He believes that high quality credits to compensate for emissions that are currently hard to remove are also an effective tool to deliver finance where it’s needed most and that, like most tools, it needs to be understood as part of a greater whole and used in the right way. Flynn explains that Salesforces’ goal is driven by its values – to which sustainability was added only last year. He says the company is creating a culture of realising business as the greatest platform for change in a moment of climate crisis.

He says, “The way I think of us is as using our full power for a planet that doesn’t know how to scream more loudly for help. We have multiple levers, but our superpower is that we put digital tools to work to help customers navigate through the climate emergency. ” He continues, “We’re really at the dawn of a new chapter.

All of this change to the competitive landscape is now being made more acute with trusted data. It’s going to propel the green decarbonisation revolution in ways that will be delightfully surprising. ” The power of procurement, of large global businesses pushing demand for data and action down the supply chain is going to transform the market.

The power of the customer shouldn’t be forgotten, as they can change the way business operates through changes in their purchasing decisions. Today there are competing forces in the market, from inflation concerns, the energy crisis, energy security, supply chain bottlenecks. But the bright spot, according to Flynn, is the tsunami that is corporate targets and mandatory regulatory disclosure and it’ll be a spotlight on those who are serious.

He says: “Salesforces has trust as a core value and it gives us a convening power than allows us to pull people together at a time of crisis – there is enormous power here. We need to build collaboration between positive forces and trusted data that enables connection between different sets of data can be transformational. ” Climate change is one of the most significant differentiators in the competitive landscape that we’ve ever seen, and it’s not going anywhere soon.

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