The demand for carbon removal continues to rise as corporate efforts to get to net zero and mitigate climate change intensify.The voluntary carbon market(VCM)grew fourfold in value from 2020 to 2021,reaching$2 billion,and it is expected to grow to between$10 billion and$40 billion by 2030.As the market develops,it is also evolving to focus more on the quality of carbon sequestration—such as through permanence and transparent evaluation of carbon credits—rather than just its volume.Increasingly,sophisticated buyers will pay for these improvements.This article explores how new approaches to soil carbon sequestration can deliver asignificantly higher quantity of carbon removal with higher permanence.Recent research indicates that the potential for storing carbon in soil is greater than previously believed,with the potential to sequester 5gigatons of CO2 annually until 2050.This means that soil could play an outsize role in carbon markets.Alongside emerging solutions,registries and project developers are focusing on using new measurement,reporting,and verification(MRV)methodologies that cater to these new carbon dioxide removal(CDR)techniques.This will help speed their deployment. 查看详细>>

How best to start agenerative AI transformation when the future is simultaneously so promising,unknown,and potentially risky?Schneider Electric and BCG partnered to make the most of this exciting opportunity.While many organizations see generative AI mainly as atechnical and data challenge,Schneider Electric’s leadership recognized that the technology requires transformation of business processes and people development along with enhanced risk management.And that is how Schneider Electric is treating this moment as it decides which generative AI opportunities to pursue.A Brief History of Schneider Electric Founded in 1836 as asteel and heavy equipment manufacturer,Schneider Electric has ahistory of keeping up with the times.The€34 billion company is now aglobal leader in the digital transformation of energy management and industrial automation.Back in 2009,before the Internet of Things was ahousehold phrase,Schneider Electric launched EcoStruxure,an open,interoperable platform that delivers digital solutions in energy management,building automation,and data centers.In November 2021,the company created aglobal AI organization staffed with 300 professionals to pursue high-value use cases alongside internal functions and business units.It also named achief AI officer.The recently completed review of the value chain to identify promising uses of GenAI is the most recent chapter in Schneider Electric’s rich history of reinvention.In line with earlier AI efforts,the review examined potential productivity gains,revenue opportunities,talent upskilling,and people development.This effort has yielded some early lessons.Generative AI will likely enhance how work gets done,create demand for new skills,and eliminate the need for other skills.It will accelerate the clock speed of organizations,creating the need for agile leadership,diverse perspectives,and better soft skills in addition to ongoing change management capabilities.And it will likely change how organizations are configured.Many routine tasks performed by humans will be executed by AI,and creative and experience-based skills will take on greater value.In recognition of the human-centric nature of aGenAI transformation,Schneider Electric decided to involve stakeholders from across the company from the start.The company held 56 workshops attended by more than 200 internal stakeholders from 15 functions over four weeks.The workshops brought AI and technology experts together with business executives to build awareness of generative AI capabilities,co-create high-value opportunities,and identify ways to excite employees.This upfront inclusion and mobilization of people signaled to the organization that leaders view the adoption of generative AI as acompany-wide effort rather than atop-down or bottom-up initiative.In the workshops,employees were encouraged to flag potential barriers to various approaches and recommend ways to overcome implementation challenges.The workshops also identified training as acritical success factor,an area that emerged in arecent BCG survey of 13,000 employees,in which 86%said they felt the need for upskilling to stay relevant in an AI world. 查看详细>>