Technology is a pretty incredible thing. It’s taken humans to the moon, lets us communicate across countries and has saved lives. Unfortunately, certain technological advances have also contributed to climate change, pollution and extinction events.
If technology got us here though, it’s what can get us through and along with renewables, carbon capture and of course compost, IoT technologies will play a massive part.
Hold on though - what even is IoT? Well to de-acronym it, Internet of Things technology simply refers to the vast number of monitoring, tracking and controller devices that are connected to the internet in some way or another.
“Smart-home” devices such as connected cooling systems and lights are usually the first thing that comes to mind with IoT but the possibilities are practically endless. From pillows to luggage, IoT devices are rapidly pervading every aspect of our lives.
But it’s not just limited to futuristic gadgets that make life slightly more convenient. IoT gives us the ability to continuously capture data on the environmental and climate processes going on around us. Advanced AI and predictive models allow us to turn that data into new knowledge and understanding of how we can manage and improve these processes.
Using IoT to achieve environmental sustainability is already underway, with heaps of innovative projects already implemented.
Five words - open source lion tracking collar. R&D company GROUND Labs have developed an IoT collar that has been fitted to the last 2000 lions remaining in southern Kenya. When one gets a little too close to human settlements it sends out an alert SMS, preventing the all to common run-ins that would previously result in the lions being shot.
Agriculture, permaculture and gardening has also been revolutionised by IoT. Take GreenIQ for example, a smart garden controller. Based on climate variables, it will allow you to control irrigation of your garden from wherever you are, reducing water consumption by up to 50%.
Lastly, of course, is our IoT compost monitoring system! Our IoT device monitors a compost pile’s temperature, moisture and methane and transmits this data to our online analysis model. There it combines this with climate and user data to create a custom model of your compost, which it uses to generate management instructions. Compost will play a massive role in mitigating climate change and we're developing the technology to allow it to do so.
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