October 2022

Welcome to the Network for the Digital Economy and the Environment’s October 2022 newsletter. Here are the highlights from the past month:

Interview about the environmental impacts of the sharing economy, White House crypto-assets report, “Earth’s Electronic Skin,” “Digital Reset” report, the launch of the Bakar Institute of Digital Materials for the Planet, the launch of the Centre for Sociodigital Futures, the U.S. EPA's new environmental justice program.

News

The Environmental Law Institute interviews researcher about their work on the environmental impacts of the digital sharing economy

On September 28, 2022, the Environmental Law Institute released a podcast interview with Tamar Makov, Senior Lecturer at Ben-Gurion University. Makov spoke about her current research on the environmental impacts of digital sharing platforms. She pushed back on the notion that the sharing economy is inherently environmentally friendly given its assumed advantages regarding the efficient allocation and utilization of resources. She finds that the truth is a bit more nuanced and complex. This research is supported by the Network for the Digital Economy and the Environment through a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Listen to the episode!
 

The White House releases first ever report on the energy implications of crypto-assets

​​On September 16, 2022, the White House released a report entitled, “Climate and Energy Implications of Crypto-Assets in the United States.” This report follows on the heels of Executive Order 14067, which was signed by President Biden on March 9, 2022. The Executive Order called for an assessment of the environmental, energy, and climate change impacts — positive and negative — that crypto-assets could have. The most recent report provides this assessment. We’re proud to see the report draw on the research of Lei, Masanet, and Koomey — work that was supported by the Network for the Digital Economy and the Environment through a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Read the White House report.
 

The Environmental Forum releases “Earth’s Electronic Skin” (a treat from the time capsule!)

The Environmental Forum, a publication of the Environmental Law Institute, featured an article entitled, “Earth’s Electronic Skin,” in their March/April 2022 edition. In “Earth’s Electronic Skin,” authors Moodley and Li explore the environmental opportunities and challenges of what’s become known as The Internet of Things. The Internet of Things describes a diffuse, ubiquitous, and remote network of electronic, computing devices. These devices are able to sense their surrounding environments and communicate with other devices and infrastructures via internet connections to provide novel services to end users. Read our summary of the article and link to the original publication.
 

Digitalization for Sustainability releases new report, “Digital Reset”

On September 30, the group Digitalization for Sustainability — Science in Dialogue hosted an event to share and discuss the main findings of the group’s recently released report, “Digital Reset: Redirecting Technologies for the Deep Sustainability Transformation.” In the report, the authors begin by providing some context as to why there needs to be a digital reset. They explain the sustainability and digitalization challenges that motivate their thinking. Then they provide a set of principles that should ideally govern a “digital reset.” The report goes on to outline different sectors of the economy that could benefit environmentally from digitalization. The authors conclude their report with ten recommendations for decision-makers and citizens as to how they can bring about a deep sustainability transformation through digitalization. Read the full report.

New institute launched at the University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley recently announced the launch of the Bakar Institute of Digital Materials for the Planet (BIDMaP). The Institute will develop a new field of machine learning for experimental science — creating algorithms and designing platforms to optimize and accelerate the discovery, development, and the deployment of novel technologies. For example, the Institute aims to develop new chemistry and materials that would address the impacts of climate change.

Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) — Centre for Sociodigital Futures (CenSoF)

The ESRC is making a £10m flagship investment to launch the Centre for Sociodigital Futures. The international center will run for an initial five year period, 2022 to 2027. The goal is to bring together researchers in the social sciences, engineering, and the arts to identify and shape socio-digital futures. 

Researchers will investigate (1) the kinds of socio-digital futures that are in the making, (2) who or what is shaping socio-digital futures, (3) how are socio-digital futures emerging in everyday practice, and (4) what will this mean for currently widening social and economic inequalities and for the climate change crisis. Learn more.

Opportunities
 

U.S. EPA to launch a new block grant program for climate and environmental justice. On September 24, 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced the creation of a new office — the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights. This office will oversee the implementation and delivery of a $3 billion block grant program for climate and environmental justice. Read the press release.

Researcher Highlight

Christina Bremer

Christina Bremer is a doctoral student within the Socio-Digital Sustainability Group and Computing and Communications Department at Lancaster University in the UK. She has a background in cognitive science and human-computer interaction (HCI) and a keen interest in sustainability. Her research addresses the environmental and social impacts of technology, with a particular focus on how behavioral changes and energy efficiency technologies in buildings may or may not reduce energy consumption. She examines factors that have the potential to impact anticipated energy savings, such as rebound effects and building baseload, i.e. the minimum amount of power a building consumes, even when unoccupied. Read more.

Upcoming Events

Unleashing autonomous drones for disaster risk reduction, hosted by AI for Good (October 13, 2022)
 

How AI can enable real-time energy tracking for sustainable development, hosted by AI for Good (October 18, 2022)

FIRA USA 2022: The California Ag robotics forum, hosted by World FIRA (October 18, 2022)
 

Saving the energy equivalent of 1500 nuclear plants with green tech, hosted by AI for Good (October 20, 2022)
 

AI wildfire detection: Customer stories, hosted by CITRIS and the Banatao Institute (October 26, 2022)
 

Accelerating the solar transition with autonomous robots, hosted by AI for Good (October 27, 2022)
 

Creating sustainable business growth with a smaller footprint, hosted by AI for Good (October 25, 2022)
 

How can AI help protect and sustain global forest ecosystems, hosted by AI for Good (November 3, 2022)
 

Meet the Robotics for Good start-ups advancing sustainable development, hosted by AI for Good (November 10, 2022)
 

For all events, see https://www.networkdee.org/upcoming-events

New Jobs!

PhD Student, Technical University, Berlin (Deadline: September 29, 2022 — possibility of extension)

Program Officer, Internet Society Foundation (Deadline: Unknown)

Senior Research Associate (5 available positions), Economic and Social Research Council — Centre for Sociodigital Futures (Deadline: October 23, 2022)

Studentships for “AI for the study of Environmental Risks,” University of Cambridge (Deadline: Unknown) 

Scientist in the area of unstructured data analysis applied to climate extremes research, ScaDS.AI (Deadline: October 15, 2022)

4 faculty positions in “Artificial Intelligence and Society,” Johns Hopkins University (Deadline: Unknown)

Assistant Professor in the area of “Health of the Planet,” Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Deadline: November 1, 2022)

Postdoctoral Research Associate for “AI/Machine Learning for Forest Operations,” University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (Deadline: October 17, 2022)

Research Scientist to develop machine learning approaches for climate/sustainability problems, DeepMind (Deadline: October 14, 2022)

Postdoc position for machine learning in fisheries/ocean acoustics for ecological applications, Echospace Group at the University of Washington (Deadline: Open until filled) 

Recent Media We've Been Following

“The US doesn’t know where its critical minerals are. AI could help find them,” Protocol, September 11, 2022
 

“‘Green’ crypto Ethereum wins applause in Brussels, Washington,” Politico, September 15, 2022
 

“EU deploys first quantum technology in six sites across Europe,” European Commission, October 4, 2022
 

“Digital twin cities can shrink the impact of planet’s largest polluters,” Discovery, September 27, 2022

“The AI Bill of Rights makes uneven progress on algorithmic protections,” Lawfare, October 7, 2022

Publications We've Been Reading

Visser, O., Sippel, S.R., & Thiemann, L. (2021). Imprecision farming? Examining the (in)accuracy and risks of digital agriculture. Journal of Rural Studies, 86: 623-632. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0743016721002217
 

Thomson, J. (2020). Tragedy of the energy commons: How government regulation can help mitigate the environmental and public health consequences of cryptocurrency mining. Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental & Innovation Law, 11(1). Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/sjteil/vol11/iss1/4

Kloppenburg, S., Gupta, A., Kruk, S., Makris, S., Bergsvik, R., Korenhof, P., Solman, H., & Toonen, H. (2022). Scrutinizing environmental governance in a digital age: New ways of seeing, participating, and intervening. One Earth, 5. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2022.02.004

Kruk, S., Kloppenburg, S., Toonen, H., & Bush, S. (2021). Digitalizing environmental governance for smallholder participation in food systems. Earth System Governance, 10. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esg.2021.100125

Tzachor, A., Richards, C., & Jeen, S. (2022). Transforming agrifood production systems and supply chains with digital twins. Npj Science of Food, 6(47). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41538-022-00162-2

We’re on Twitter and LinkedIn!

The nDEE recently launched a Twitter and LinkedIn. Follow us to get our updates!

The nDEE Bibliography

The nDEE has been curating a bibliography of references relating to the digital economy and the environment. If you have references you feel should be included in our bibliography, please reach out and let us know! 

Before you go!

The mission of the nDEE is to catalyze research around the environmental and energy impacts of the digital economy. If you have any news, events, or opportunities that you’d like us to share out through the newsletter please contact us at info@networkdee.org. We also welcome feedback on our newsletter, website, or anything else. We hope to hear from you!