Using a data-centric and collaborative approach to problem-solving is helping to enable an ecosystem of organisations to advance infrastructure for a sustainable future.
As a software company, Bentley Systems’ carbon footprint is relatively low but the organisation’s handprint – how it can empower others to achieve more sustainable development goals – is very significant.
Empowering others to make a difference in this area is a strategic priority for Bentley over the next ten years and Rodrigo Fernandes, the infrastructure engineering software company’s director for empowering sustainable development goals, is the person charged with doing just that.
I asked him, just how does digital and technology drive sustainable development? “Basically, we think that sustainable transition and digital transformation work hand-in-hand. Together they make for a double transition. Digital transformation is the most powerful, the most potent and the most pervasive single tool that you can have to accelerate and enable sustainability in infrastructure,” says Fernandes.
“Also, when you consider that infrastructure is responsible for more than 70% of the carbon footprint today, the fact is that it you want to futureproof or even climate-proof infrastructure for the future, it’s not possible that you can change all the existing infrastructure – you absolutely need to work with what we have available already,” he says.
There are quick wins where digital technology can be used to empower sustainable transformation and these include machine learning, AI, circularity principles, efficiency and digital twins. By optimising these, companies can make a significant difference. Longer-term disruptive technologies, like green hydrogen and carbon capture, with tech support, can also have a positive effect.
I ask Fernandes how receptive the industry is for this approach and to seeing digital as a key driver of sustainability? He answers by turning the question around. “In many cases, it’s not how receptive the industry is, but how are we responding to their needs,” he says. “Clients are coming to us, saying ‘how can you help us? We have to be more efficient in the way we are addressing decarbonisation and resilience – does your technology help us on that?’
“In many cases, they come to us with big challenges, but starting at the earliest stage of the project lifecycle, changes can be made in a timely fashion that will make a difference to the project. Our open approach also brings everyone together and it has a big potential to make sustainable change,” he says.
“Infrastructure professionals face a daunting task of sustainably adapting the fabric of our world. By relying on the intelligence of digital twins to help carry that weight and by embracing a data-centric and collaborative approach to problem-solving, we are working with the industry to enable an ecosystem of organisations that can advance infrastructure for a sustainable future,” says Fernandes.
