Digital Twins and their power to help us to collectively tackle climate change.

I have always been fascinated with the pace of technological change and how quickly new and emerging technologies are developed which then impact so many aspects of our society. ?In my view, none are as exciting as Digital Twins; from precision medicine to transportation systems, to industrial facilities and power plants, their role in our daily lives is deepening and spreading to include aspects we would never have previously considered.

Essentially, a Digital Twin is a digital model of an intended or actual real-world physical product, system, or process.? For practical purposes they serve as an indistinguishable digital counterpart, this in turn offers the ability to conduct simulation, integration, testing, monitoring, and maintenance without adversely affecting the physical original.? The Digital Twin spans the original's lifecycle and uses real-time data sent from sensors on the real-world object simulating its behaviour and operation thereby allowing informed and accurate analysis and decision making.

The power of Digital Twins comes from connecting real-world assets with real-world data, offering better visualisation, and helping organisations to understand the past, view present conditions, and predict, and prevent future problems. ?Offering the opportunity to implement a true digital operations centre, with changes implemented in the digital model managing how the real-world version performs or operates.

Digital Twins contain complex data sets and have a significant role to play at every stage of an organisation's NetZero journey, they present opportunities far beyond simply running your data centre or helping your estate management.? By using the power of visualisation, decision-makers can also become less reliant on expert data scientists to analyse and interpret complex data systems.

Digital Twin data can be provided in real-time, bringing situational awareness to the forefront of decision-making and presenting the insights in both a logical 2D dashboard and 3D physical modelling formats to make the insights digestible for users.

The most successful and robust organisations are increasingly embracing Net Zero strategies, not only to meet increasingly stringent regulatory requirements, and not just because it is ‘the right thing to do’, but because they present opportunities to gain further efficiencies for their clients, staff and shareholders who are demanding it.?

Specifically, there is increasing potential for Digital Twins to be harnessed in a myriad of ways in the fight against climate change.? Their influence is increasingly being utilised by many of the new technology organisations that are focusing on the future - which collectively with the other new disruptive technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Quantum and Edge Computing to name a few, all contribute to pushing us towards exciting new frontiers.? Similarly, the development and deployment of these technologies must also consider sustainability.

It is this Digital Twin data, and its analysis, that is the most crucial in enabling organisations to make informed decisions on their way to achieving strategic goals, specifically when it comes to achieving their NetZero targets. ?These NetZero journeys often require large organisations to be more detailed and transparent in their sustainability reporting.? There is still so much potential to be unleashed for Digital Twins and technology innovations in our collective fight against climate change.

CGI understand this and we are already engaged at the forefront of some of the most exciting Digital Twin developments.? From analysing smart meter energy data collected for energy audits; to developing a Digital Twin precursor for the European Space Agency to advance our understanding of global food systems; to working with the Welsh Government and partners to highlight the benefits of digital transformation across Wales to support the nation’s pioneering decarbonisation plans; across these and many more initiatives, CGI remains committed to harnessing the power of Digital Twins today, and developing the next generation of Digital Twin technology for the challenges of tomorrow.

This month I am really proud to announce the launch of our new CGI DataTwin360 to help organisations better understand and reduce the carbon footprint of their hosting platforms. ?This new platform-as-a-service streams real-time data providing carbon accounting and delivers insights through a bespoke virtualised model of its hosting platforms for organisations to understand, control, and act.

?CGI DataTwin360 simplifies and aggregates complex data sets from multiple sources: Internet of Things (IoT), sensors and system log information such as the performance of the RAM, Central Processing Unit (CPU) and storage, it then transforms this complex data to generate meaningful, digestible results and analysis that then leads to insights that can be actioned with confidence.

?Emerging regulations such as the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and Corporate Sustainability Reporting EU Directive (CSRD) will require large organisations to be more detailed and regular in their sustainability reporting. ?Data from our DataTwin360 can be provided in real-time, bringing situational awareness to the forefront of decision-making and presenting the insights in both a logical 2D dashboard and 3D physical modelling formats as required.

?CGI DataTwin360 customers will be able to calculate carbon emissions from granular sources across hosting platforms to help implement an effective corporate NetZero strategy; our platform considers the information needs of different stakeholders to ensure a coordinated and cohesive approach. Informed decision-making means a Chief Executive Officer and Board of Directors will draw on their own processed data related to different greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) rather than, for example, a third-party supplier, or an infrastructure architect. ?

?I began by mentioning my fascination with the rate of change of technology and in particular the emergence of Digital Twins; I have a deep and enduring commitment to our CGI clients in helping them in their journeys towards NetZero.? I firmly believe that CGI’s DataTwin360 is a vital technological tool in these journeys and in all of our fight against climate change.