IoT and Sustainability – Use Cases and Real-Time Examples
Leaders across the world acknowledge that energy is precious and resources are finite. Here is where IoT extends its capabilities in building systems that cut waste and save energy. Specifically, in the recent decade, the IoT-driven innovations in sustainability are inspiring. These solutions help in decision-making, resource use, and climate conservation on a broader scope. This article extends some of the most prominent IoT and sustainability use cases we see in our daily lives and how some global giants are making them happen.
IoT Use Cases for Sustainability
Here are some of the most promising use cases that are in practice to enhance sustainability through IoT:
Smart Grids
A smart grid is one of the essential IoT-enabling technologies. As the world is progressively adopting renewable energy sources, smart grids are crucial in distributing electric power. These smart grids help remotely control energy sources such as solar power. Outages can be prevented, and effective distribution of power is done quickly.
Smart Meters
Smart meters are an addition to the workings of smart grid technology. Smart meters provide a detailed view of daily, weekly, and seasonal patterns by gathering energy consumption data at short intervals. The responsible authorities now have real-time fault detection and maintenance capabilities. Consumers are also benefited from usage reports through mobile apps for better control.
Precision Agriculture
Due to climate changes and limited resources, modern farms apply numerous technologies to improve yields. Precision agriculture is gaining popularity among farmers owing to the use of sensors, drones, and automation. These machines are equipped with sensors to check the soil quality and moisture content and look for crop diseases and pests.
Smart Waste Solutions
The amounts of municipal and industrial solid waste generated are increasing worldwide, placing stress on available resources and health systems. Speculated IoT solutions such as intelligent compaction and route optimization are worth noticing. Smart bins with GPS chips provide the locations where they are dispatched from, allowing garbage trucks to be directed with the shortest miles covered by a remote system.
Smart Water Management
IoT is necessary to mitigate the crisis through intelligent metering and sensor systems in urban water networks. This is because wastage is more frequent in urban areas. These water meters with communication modems help water service providers fix leakages by sending hourly pressure readings over various networks. Along with even fragile leak detection devices under pipes, such as ultrasonic flow monitors, leakage less than gallons per minute can be accurately pinpointed.
Air Quality Monitoring
It is done through an extensive sensor network, which measures a particular region’s particulate and gas composition, temperature, and so on. It then gives a perfect insight into governments, agencies, and people involved in controlling the emissions level of the entire area. IoT-equipped exhaust stacks fixed in manufacturing units and connected to analytics dashboards can promptly facilitate monitoring and jetting off hazardous gases in the atmosphere.
Green Transportation
With climate change awareness concerning electric vehicles and their emissions, transport organizations are using the IoT hybrid model to improve their fleets’ operations in an eco-friendly manner. With smart vehicles fitted with IoT telematics and AI-powered dashboards, fleet managers can know what the drivers are doing, how efficient the routes are, and when a part needs replacing, even before it breaks down.
Wildlife Conservation
Digitalization holds promise for wildlife conservation efforts as well. By combining IoT, AI, and cloud services, rangers and researchers have advanced tools to monitor threatened species. Let’s take the case of Rhino conservation. Here, the collars fitted with motion sensors, cameras, and GSM mules work in a hush aurora, providing location data that alerts the patrols on the availability of these animals without causing any disturbance. Precision identification of individual tigers is done with camera traps.
Real-Time Examples of IoT Use Cases
From reducing carbon footprint to optimizing resource efficiency, global giants are doing exemplary work in IoT and sustainability domain:
Google’s Nest
A perfect example is Google’s Nest, which has come in handy in both residential and commercial institutions to optimize HVAC systems. Nest thermostats use WiFi to self-program heating and cooling schedules based on user preferences. Cloud connectivity enables remote access and energy savings monitoring via mobile apps.
Itron
Itron smart meters equipped with cellular connectivity in water pipes and streets track leaks, detect breaks and monitor pressure and flow, helping minimize water loss by up to 20%. Remote meter reading eliminates fuel consumption from bill collection drives.
John Deere
John Deere smart sensors in tractors analyse soil moisture, nutrients and temperature. Farmers receive precise irrigation and fertilizing recommendations tailored to local conditions, minimizing water and chemical waste.
Motive
Motive’s fleet operators reduce fuel expenses and idle times with the help of IoT applications that relay the vehicle’s location, fuel levels, speed, and service hours in real time.
Samsara
Samsara sensors monitor over 100 environmental factors, including carbon emissions, noise and radiation levels. Real-time alerts enable proactive response in case of emergencies or quarantining contaminated areas.
Getting started
At AvignaAI, we are excited about the possibilities IoT offers in building a sustainable world. Join our commitment in creating more innovations in IoT. Contact us for IoT consultation. Learn more about us on LinkedIn.
