Collaboration: The combination of Accenture’s expertise and Cognite technology creates value through customers using data, which is the gold they sit on, say Laxmi Akkaraju and Sven Erik Skjæveland.
Data is the gold that a company sits on, and companies that are able to make better use of it will have a competitive advantage in their efforts to achieve zero emissions. Therefore, Accenture and Cognite have entered into a collaboration for a data-driven future.
Produced by Schibsted Partnerstudio
There is an urgent need to invest in technology and solutions that can reduce emissions. The struggle to achieve sustainability goals is growing. There are significant differences in how the industry itself is positioned.
42 percent of all fossil emissions come from five sectors; Automotive industry, construction, industry, petrochemical and transportation sector. Effective measures in these sectors specifically will be of great importance, and Norway can play a leading role in this work, says Sven-Erik Skgevelland, head of energy business at Accenture Norden.
Speed needs to be increased: The ability to use data is essential to speeding up work on reducing emissions, says Sven-Erik Skjeffland.
Norway has the opportunity to be a technology and knowledge hub in the ongoing energy transition. Therefore, the pace needs to be increased to take advantage of the opportunity space we have. Among other things, it is necessary to invest in technology and solutions that enable visibility and reduce emissions, he says he is.
Skjæveland points out that being able to use, connect to, and benefit from the data you’re sitting on is absolutely essential at all levels.
Three critical factors
Through a survey of Europe’s largest listed companies, Accenture identified three critical factors that must be in place to achieve targets by 2050*
1) Objectives: Companies that want to succeed have committed themselves to well-founded scientific goals. Those with a clear zero-emissions ambition cut emissions by an average of 10 percent. At the same time, it turns out that companies that have not set such goals, more emissions in the same period.
2) Reporting and Budgeting: Accurate knowledge about emissions should be just as important as financial reporting and budgeting. As with any budget, good key figures and reporting procedures must be developed. The data must be made available, understood, and contextualized so that changes in production can be implemented quickly and impact demonstrated.
3) Cross-Sectoral Cooperation: Using their influence, large corporations can affect emissions to a much greater extent than just their own carbon footprint. They can accelerate innovation and technological development by ordering suppliers, demanding changes in manufacturing methods and developing business models in a circular economy.
Read the Zero Net Commitment 2050 survey for European companies here
The ability to handle and operate large amounts of data is critical to getting these factors in place. There is not a single business that does not require good data management. Sven Erik Skjæveland says those who take this seriously have a very different competitive advantage.
speed increases
Partnering with Norwegian software company Cognite is central to the business of helping our customers accelerate towards their zero emissions goal. Through this collaboration, Accenture’s industrial solutions are being developed and integrated with Cognite Data Fusion, says Skjæveland.
Data Connectivity: Cognites programs put data in context, including via artificial intelligence, says Laxmi Akkaraju. Here with an Aker Tech model in Fornebu, where Cognite will relocate.
The Cognite platform, which is currently in use in the electricity, oil and gas industries, is transferable to many different industries around the world, says Laxmi Akaraju, Senior Vice President of Strategic Customer Services at Cognite.
Silo free
She points out that much of the information in a company resides in silos, and decisions are often made on the basis of retrospective knowledge.
Cognite releases data from various silos and puts it into context, including using artificial intelligence. Through machine learning, the end user can test models and check the results. This provides the opportunity to use real-time knowledge to make better, faster, and at the right level decisions – also when it comes to subcontractors.
Companies often say they view data as their gold, says Acarago.
– But if we go further than this analogy, it does not seem so.
Lots of people collect their data and hide it in a locked room in the basement and treat it as radioactive.
See the effect of the measures
To become a relevant company in the future, the industry must operate faster, smarter, and more efficiently than ever before, she says.
Using the appropriate software, you can immediately see the impact of measures, such as increased production or expansion, and what they mean, among other things, for costs and prices in the market and the environment. This is how we help today’s industries, such as oil and gas, produce with the lowest possible climate footprint. At the same time, renewable industries, such as offshore wind and carbon sequestration, improve the opportunity for rapid growth and greater profits.
An example showing how difficult it is to calculate CO2 emissions in real time:
Traditionally, much of this work has been done manually. But with the Cognite platform, work can be automated, visualized and made available in a completely different way, increasing the possibility of setting and evaluating realistic goals, Akkaraju says.
To date, more than 300 Accenture technicians have been trained in the use of Cognite software.
– Sven Erik Skjæveland concludes that the combination of our expertise and Cognite technology creates value through customers using data, which is the gold they better sit on.
* The survey, conducted by Accenture, outlined companies’ actions over the past decade, and the consulting firm identified three critical factors in achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement.
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