Building Sustainable Futures: Tutorial on Carbon Footprint Analysis and Mitigation Strategies Using Counter Factual Queries

Abstract

As the sense of urgency regarding climate change continues to mount with growing regulatory pressure across the globe, it has become increasingly crucial for enterprises and governments to align their goals with sustainability values. They face a crucial imperative to act on climate change mitigation by disclosing their GHG emissions and committing to reduction and optimization of emissions from their industrial activities including operations, infrastructure, logistics, and supply chains. The world's largest enterprises have set long-term net-zero targets but lacks an integrated view of how their key business operations and processes contribute to their sustainability journey, which makes it difficult for them to embark on a well-planned journey to achieve their sustainability goals. With the recent advancement, AI intervention becomes imperative to measure, track, and improve ESG performance to achieve sustainability goals. This tutorial aims to provide a comprehensive guide on leveraging advanced AI techniques for analysing and mitigating carbon footprints in various sectors. The tutorial covers the utilization of a generalized framework that integrates sector-specific and cross-sector enterprise data, including assets and operations, to derive actionable insights. The framework also uses additional data such as weather parameters and contextual information to facilitate a holistic approach to carbon footprint analysis and its mitigation strategies. The tutorial will delve into the working of a framework which comprises of an LLM driven carbon accounting engine, predictive models for carbon emissions, anomaly detection models, and counterfactual models. It identifies the emission hotspots, thereafter provides actionable recommendations to mitigate the carbon emission. The proposed tutorial aims to empower participants with the knowledge and skills to make informed decisions towards building a more sustainable future