Digital-transformation sustainability: Waste minimization and energy savings

Nearly two thirds of all energy created globally for commercial, transportation, industrial, and residential use is lost to ine ciency and waste. For operations aiming to achieve carbon-neutral status (or just higher profitability through energy conservation) preventing the loss of energy is at once immediately possible and commendable. After all, Energy Information Administration analysis indicates that industrial operations consume a quarter of the nearly 100 quadrillion BTUs produced in the U.S. every year (not counting the energy expenditures associated with logistics and outer transportation activity) but half of that is wasted.

Though rendered impossible by current national and global politics, it’s still technically feasible for humanity to restrict coming decades’ climate change to within 1.5° C — the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change target for avoiding the absolute worst e ects of climate change — in part by minimizing energy waste. But it’s nearly certain climate change in coming decades will in fact exceed 1.5° C, so in the U.S. will vastly increase deadly heat events, droughts, wildfires, and farming catastrophes in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, and the Dakotas. It will also bring coastal flooding and devastating storms to Texas, Louisiana, Florida, South Carolina, New York, Hawaii, and California as well as the death, destruction, and extinction of both terrestrial and marine species, habitats, and ecosystems (including 70% to 90% of the world coral reefs). NASA imaging confirms that in less than 20 years, Antarctica and Greenland ice has already melted the volume of Lake Michigan … and despite a half century of advancements in agricultural approaches, global farming productivity is 21% lower than it could’ve been sans climate change.

For manufacturers and automated facilities who acknowledge that climate inaction is costlier than action, a top goal is achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. These e orts prioritize the reduction of CO2 and to a lesser extent methane, nitrous oxide, and fluorinated gases. If urgent warnings are to be heeded, manufacturers should cut their emissions by half within the next 10 years.

Of course, many industrial operations — including those involving heating and cooling processes, machining, and any physical transport of raw materials and workpieces — are inherently energy intense. That said, the application of digital-transformation (DX) systems such as energy analysis software, realtime energy tracking, and digital energy management can handily trim an industrial operation’s energy waste by 10% or more. These DX technologies measure and (in some cases) continually monitor energy flows

Shown here is a Sankey representing sources, uses, and wastes of energy in the U.S. Values are based on data from March 2022 via the Energy Information Administration.

Distributed electricity here includes retail electricity sales and none self-generated. Electricity production e ciencies here is the total delivered electricity divided by the primary energy input. End-use e ciency is about 65% for residential, 65% for commercial, 21% for transportation, and 49% for industrial (with the latter reflecting DOE analysis of manufacturing). Source: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory • Department of Energy.