Data for good: Wonderful ways data is making the world better
Big data and corporate social responsibility go hand in hand. Here are some ways organizations are using data and analytics tech for people and causes that need it the most.
Corporate citizenship has long been a community-stabilizing power. For decades, businesses have steadied struggling neighborhoods and schools, stocked shelves in food banks, funded shelters, rectified social inequalities, protected the environment and animals, and sought cures for what ails mankind. Today, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is aiming to provide more social good on a much larger scale—and big data and related technologies are the technical means they are using to reach that goal.
“Digital-age technologies like blockchain, IoT, AI, and big data analytics are aiding corporate social responsibility practitioners to develop a sustainable and resilient world,” says Kevin S. Parikh, author of “Digital Singularity: A Case for Humanity” and CEO of Avasant, a global management consulting firm.
“Large-scale data collection combined with machine learning offers a new set of tools that opens up new avenues of research and greatly enhances the efficiency and efficacy of CSR work,” Parikh adds.
While these new CSR efforts can help with shared problems around the world, they can also be focused in local communities, so help at home is not forsaken. “As applying sustainability science based on computational data analysis methods (e.g., big data) increases, the idea of thinking globally and acting locally becomes even more relevant and important,” says Parikh.
Need inspiration? Take a look at some of the surprising but wonderful ways big data is making a difference in CSR efforts.
One example of big data and IoT working for good and at scale is a World Resources Institute project called Aqueduct. It is a global water risk-mapping tool, which sounds a bit like a digital dousing rod used to find drinking water. Most water resource mapping is done with IoT data these days, but there’s still a place for dousing magic.
“Ten out of the U.K.’s 12 regional water and sewer utilities confirmed that they at least occasionally use dowsing rods, also known as divining rods or witching sticks, to locate underground water sources,” according to an NPR article published in late 2017. However, most dousing was done by individuals and not as a matter of company policy. The utility companies, you may have guessed, prefer the certitude of data over the charm of a stick.
Aqueduct is a web-based interactive platform that measures river flood impacts by urban damage, affected GDP, and affected population at the country, state, and river basin scale—all of which rely on large datasets. Everything from leaks in major water lines in large cities to drinking water quality is monitored around the globe. Big data and sophisticated data analytics are behind this level of granular magic on a global scale.
The Aqueduct project also makes data available for download so that others, including corporate citizens, can execute other good works and be socially responsible in long-term planning. One example of that is the freely downloadable Aqueduct Water Stress Projections Data, which “includes indicators of change in water supply, water demand, water stress, and seasonal variability, projected for the coming decades under scenarios of climate and economic growth.”
Visualize No Malaria is a campaign to eradicate malaria in Zambia by 2021. Malaria kills 600,000 people every year. More than 90 percent of its victims are in sub-Saharan Africa and a majority of those are under 5 years old. UNICEF estimates that more than 40 percent of the world’s population live in malaria-risk areas.
The effort is led by a group of volunteer data experts who employ data to aid health professionals in identifying malaria hot spots early and acting before the disease spreads. Included in their work was the design of operational dashboards to cue health and government workers where malaria is brewing.
