In recent years as the effects of climate change have come more into focus and the need for action becoming more generally accepted, large companies and organizations have been forced to look inward to what they can do to lessen future effects to whatever extent possible. It’s important to face these challenges head on, and one of the main takeaways from this moment should be that no one organization is going to be able to do everything on their own. To maximize positive effects on the planet, collaborations with other firms possessing specific expertise in certain areas is going to be paramount, utilizing any and all available data to make smart decisions with the effects on the planet top of mind.
Considering all of that, a new partnership was recently announced with the idea of providing some of these insights to the largest corporations around the world. Specifically, IT services firm Accenture, through its Accenture Ventures Project Spotlight initiative, announced a new collaboration agreement with Planet Labs PBC to, in their words, “help power decision-making at organizations across myriad industries.” The partnership aims to combine the high frequency satellite imagery data collected by Planet with Accenture’s sustainability services and expertise across industries and technologies.
This partnership hinges on leveraging Planet’s roughly 200 satellites currently imaging the planet on a daily basis, the world’s largest fleet of commercial satellites. With that large number of data sources along with the high frequency of capture, the company is able to offer highly valuable data to a wide array of industries. In their announcement, Accenture calls out measurement, traceable supply chain strategy, and data-based climate risk assessments as initiatives the two companies will be able to assist with in larger organizations. The Accenture Ventures Project Spotlight works specifically to “connect emerging technology startups with the Global 2000 to fill strategic innovation gaps.”
The key for Planet’s ability to drive value to their client base is not just held within the sheer number of satellites in its fleet, but also within the frequency of their capture. The daily data capture guarantees up-to-date imagery from which partners and companies can make decisions. On their website, Planet notes a number of industries with which they work, including but not limited to agriculture, energy and utilities, defense, and civil government. They also specifically note the work they do in addressing sustainability goals, with the ability to measure climate risks and global growth in real-time with their satellites, as well as the ability to monitor biodiversity hotspots and global supply chains. This data will then be parsed by AI and machine learning solutions from Accenture to ensure the quick and valuable insights are derived from the massive amounts of complex data.
In the partnership announcement, a specific example of how this works was presented around the process of creating a proof-of-concept for the Inter-American Development Bank. For this example, two teams from Accenture, the Global H&PS AI/ESG teams and Federal Services Applied Intelligence Discovery Lab, partnered with Planet using AIP+, a “managed service, multi-cloud environment for advanced AI and machine learning tools and applications. By combining AI and machine learning models along with data from Planet’s satellite fleet, Accenture created a geospatial solution that “models the impact of climate change on energy capacity in Central America and the Caribbean.”
On this new partnership, Accenture Ventures managing director Tom Lounibos said, “With its vast network of satellites, Planet offers one of the richest sources of daily, timely data about what is happening to our Earth — rich data that can yield incredibly valuable insights to help drive sustainability advancements and benefit industry and society as a whole.” He’d add, “With our organizations’ shared visions and values around sustainability as a key underpinning, we believe our collaboration with Planet will yield countless opportunities to combine our strengths and innovate on behalf of new and existing shared clients.”
Kevin Weil, president of Product and Business at Planet, said, “In addition to opportunities to collaborate with many shared clients, we believe our participation in Accenture Ventures’ Project Spotlight program will help illustrate the benefits our data can deliver to organizations across different industry sectors.”
