In Brazil, practice and knowledge about the agenda ESG (acronym in English for environmental, social and governance practices) has been growing over the years. According to a new survey driven by Google and the technology company specializing in digital research, MindMiners, 27% of people have heard of the acronym. Furthermore, 83% value companies and brands linked to the ESG agenda.
With that in mind, last Wednesday (22), the Google presented different company initiatives to engage customers and consumers on sustainability fronts. One of them is the Green Light project, which uses artificial intelligence to make recommendations for improving traffic flow by optimizing existing traffic lights in cities. By coordinating multiple intersections to create waves of green lights, cities can improve vehicle flow and reduce CO2 emissions.
In the world, there are 70 intersections and 12 cities that use the technology. In Brazil, the practice takes place in Rio de Janeiro, with plans to expand to Campinas, in the interior of São Paulo.
The company also announced a partnership with the Rio Operations Center, COR-Rio, to identify and measure the sources of polluting gas emissions in Rio de Janeiro. As part of the partnership, COR-Rio will start using data from the Environmental Insights Explorer (EIE), which combines AI and aerial images to offer analyzes and identify opportunities to reduce greenhouse gases and pollution in cities.
The platform shows opportunities to reduce emissions; implementation of renewable and cleaner energy sources; improvement in infrastructure, by encouraging the use of other, more sustainable means of transport and construction with greater energy efficiency.
Climate change
Still at the event where the announcements were made, Luisa Phebo, leader of Social Impact Partnerships at Google, commented on how the company reports based on growing research. For example, this is the year in which people searched most about storms. She also highlighted the development of flood and extreme heat warnings.
Developed in partnership with the Geological Survey of Brazil (SGB/CPRM), the flood forecast alert allowed the sending of more than 2 million cell phone notifications, predicting riverine floods around seven days in advance, and more than 250 alerts were made available on Search and Google Maps, impacting more than 9 million people in Brazil.
By the end of 2023, Google will expand riverine flooding forecasts to an additional 40 locations (38 new cities). This alert system is part of Google’s efforts to provide detailed alerts about river water levels and flood forecasts.
Sustainability
Knowing consumers’ interests in topics related to ESG, Google has consultancy work for companies through the ‘Impact!’ program, which brings together data and recommendations to help companies and brands evolve in their ESG maturity journeys.
In this way, the company developed the possibility of showing collection points for recyclable waste on Google Maps. The idea came about in partnership with the Boticrio Group, which has a waste collection program in O Boticário stores, in order to encourage customers to return cosmetic packaging from any brand. Currently, there are more than 7 thousand points throughout Brazil.
*With information from Exame / Cover photo: Divulgao/Google.
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