Digital twins are becoming critical tools across industries due to their innovative use cases, which cut costs and improve process efficiency, from surgeries to business operations.
A lesser-known benefit of digital twins is its sustainability use case. Digital twins can accurately replicate physical counterparts in real time and improve operations’ efficiency by mitigating risks and enhancing optimization on the fly. In turn, improved sustainability leads to enhanced environmental protection with fewer resources needing to be used. One example is Siemens’s partnership with Mercedes Benz to build an energy digital twin. The energy twin aims to improve operational efficiency within Mercedes Benz automotive factories to reduce carbon emissions by lowering planning time in the development of cars.
The very nature of digital twins enables this to happen because they give stakeholders the power to optimize processes in real-time, plan before production occurs, and mitigate risks before they even happen. This saves time and money and reduces carbon emissions due to better efficiency and sustainability.
Siemens’s Mercedes Benz energy twin is just one example of how these digital twins can be effective tools in the fight against climate change. Similarly, institutions such as the European Space Agency are developing digital twins directly to tackle global warming. The European Space Agency will create a digital twin-earth that can survey and predict the world’s health while forecasting human activity and simulating the earth in real time. Thus, organizations actively use digital twins to monitor and protect the planet from climate change.
As highlighted, digital twins can effectively combat environmental degradation. Global warming is warming the planet’s temperature, impacting its conservation. Governments and international organizations are working to protect the environment but with limited impact due to the difficulty of convening world powers to act as a unified whole in supporting environmental protection. Balancing sustainability with economic growth is a difficult equilibrium to strike, slowing down the progress of nations globally.
Likewise, multinational corporations are also trying to become more sustainable. Nevertheless, the results are also far from positive, with some companies, such as Netflix, not even setting emission targets, and those that have, like Microsoft, still struggling to reach their targets due to the need to maintain their profits. Furthermore, Levi Strauss has seen its emission levels grow despite setting targets.
Digital twins may act as an antidote to this problem. Global powers should utilize these twins in the fight against climate change due to their cost-saving, efficiency-improving use cases that make operations more optimized and sustainable, naturally reducing outputs such as C02 emissions. Much like the energy twin built by Siemens for Mercedez Benz, digital twins are becoming a viable alternative for businesses and nations that want to reduce emissions while not hindering operations.
Likewise, twins are used for city planning and simulating environmental scenarios, enabling stakeholders to understand the impact disasters may have on cities and other areas of concern. An example is the University of Florida’s development of a digital twin to monitor the city of Jacksonville and test for potential ecological disasters. Governments and multinational companies should take note when assessing adequate measures in tackling climate change; digital twins are your answer.
Check out our intelligence platform for more information on organizations using digital twins in environmental protection.
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