This text is part of the special section Higher Education
Often singled out for its environmental impacts, digital innovation can also provide solutions and ideas to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, in a context of climate crisis. It is with this in mind that Concordia University, in collaboration with the pan-Canadian hub of Future Earth, welcomes a new think tank that examines sustainability in the digital age.
The advent of technologies has brought major improvements in the daily lives of societies, while widening certain socio-economic disparities. What if these innovations could become key tools for reducing these inequalities and serving the fight against climate change? It is by asking this question that the group Sustainability in the Digital Age (SDA) was created.
“The idea is that digital innovation has fundamentally reshaped the world and in some cases this is accelerating and exacerbating environmental problems. But the tools themselves that have been developed have enormous potential to solve these same problems if they are oriented towards climate change and environmental sustainability”, underlines the scientific co-director of the SDA initiative, Damon Matthews, also holder of the Concordia University Research Chair in Climatology and Sustainability.
The think tank therefore brings together international partners and major stakeholders in the Quebec innovation ecosystem, including the Fonds de Recherche du Québec and the artificial intelligence institute Mila-Québec. Their research will focus on three areas of action, namely research and innovation, policy and best practices, and transdisciplinary training.
According to the Vice-Rector for Research and Graduate Studies, Dominique Bérubé, the formula of a think tank allows for a different approach, to better structure the transfer of knowledge and stay closer to society. “It brings together different stakeholders from the community, from society in general and from the university community at the same table, in conversation,” she says.
Create a force of reflection
The Executive Director of SDA and Director of the Global Hub of Future Earth Canada, Éliane Ubalijoro, underlines all the advantages of such partnerships for carrying out concrete climate actions. “With Mila, we are working on a project to determine how to use artificial intelligence to improve different agricultural practices and how to ensure that having more data helps us to have the right subsidies in the right place, which will have a positive impact on the environment, nature and biodiversity”, she illustrates.
The subjects in which the researchers will be interested are multiple and complex. “For support policies, we need data showing that with more sustainable agricultural practices, we can feed the whole planet, while ensuring that we do not damage the natural environment,” adds Ms.me Ubalijoro. And for this, digital innovation can contribute, by providing the necessary knowledge and accelerating the process of implementing good practices.
Train the leaders of tomorrow
There is also a whole national dialogue to be had thanks to this think tank, estimates Mme Ubalijoro. Training the young people of tomorrow to be leaders in the field, who know how to combine environmental sustainability and digital innovation, is necessary, and this is why the think tank is made up of different strengths. “It brings very different perspectives, to have people from a variety of backgrounds: private industry, NGOs and academia, presenting all the career opportunities in the industry,” she says.
According to Damon Matthews, young people are increasingly interested in these issues of climate change and are looking for more interdisciplinarity to solve these challenges. “There really is a big gap between the sciences and the social sciences when it comes to addressing this issue. The digital world and artificial intelligence also take time to assimilate, they are subjects considered fascinating, but intimidating. But it is essential to understand these digital tools in order to use them, they are powerful tools for environmental research”, he specifies.
“I think everyone knows that what attracts young people is above all interdisciplinarity, even if it’s not easy to come to grips with it. The advantage of this think tank is to bring everyone around the same table, with specific disciplines to come and seek and to make a real difference on the subject”, underlines Mr.me Berube.
It will also involve connecting research that attempts to create sustainability solutions with community stakeholders and decision-makers. The group’s objective is to contribute its stone to the building so that, by 2030, countries have sufficient knowledge to achieve the objective of a 30% reduction in GHGs on the planet.
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