In September 2015, world leaders gathered at the UN headquarters in New York City to commit to a new agenda—one that “recognizes that ending poverty must go hand-in-hand with a plan that builds economic growth and addresses a range of social needs, while tackling climate change.”
The ambitious agenda was enumerated in 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which addressed “core drivers of climate change,” and included clean water and sanitation, green energy, infrastructure and industry, sustainable consumption and production, climate action, managing oceans and forests, and combating desertification and biodiversity loss.
The following January, the efforts to achieve the goals went into effect. In the ensuing years, tech companies made commitments in support of the goals, especially those pertaining to sustainability. While the goals—and any commitments adjacent to them—weren’t legally binding, many companies used them as a “compass to guide organizations” and report progress toward initiatives for the greater good, Steven Cohen, director of the Sustainability Management program at Columbia University, told Tech Brew.
“The SDGs are a broad, general set of aspirational goals for organizations and nations, and they need to be thought of that way,” Cohen said. “But they influence how companies think about what they should be trying to do.”
And as consumer expectations around sustainability have risen, Cohen said, tech companies have started to use AI to work toward the goals.
“You need people helped by these machines to help them deliver those services,” Cohen said. AI is a “tool which then frees humans to do other things that they otherwise couldn’t do.”
Via a review of Google and Microsoft’s sustainability reports, Tech Brew found that a handful of Big Tech companies have leaned on AI to further their progress toward the SDGs, which the UN condoned last year in a resolution promoting the use of “safe, secure and trustworthy” AI.
“AI will be created and deployed through the lens of humanity and dignity, safety and security, human rights and fundamental freedoms,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield, then the US UN ambassador, said of the resolution when it was passed. “Let us commit to closing the digital gap within and between nations and using this technology to advance shared priorities around sustainable development.”
Google: Two years before the UN resolution, Google committed to using AI toward SDG progress in the wake of the pandemic and the enormity of the climate crisis.
“Fewer people have the opportunity to move out of poverty, inequitable access to healthcare and education continues, gender inequality persists, and environmental threats pose immediate and long-term risks,” Google SVP of Technology and Society James Manyika said in a 2022 blog post. “We know that AI and other advanced technology can help tackle these setbacks.”
Keep up with the innovative tech transforming business
Tech Brew keeps business leaders up-to-date on the latest innovations, automation advances, policy shifts, and more, so they can make informed decisions about tech.
Google also made a $25 million commitment to “support NGOs and social enterprises working with AI to accelerate progress toward these goals.” Google’s Startups for Sustainable Development program worked with startups to incorporate machine learning and AI models into their work in 2024. Examples include “identifying and monitoring tree species to support reforestation efforts, predicting utilization rates for electric vehicle chargers, and monitoring marine life” using AI.
“We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to unlock human potential, for everyone, everywhere,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said of AI in a speech last year to the UN General Assembly. “The opportunities are too great, the challenges too urgent, and this technology too transformational to do anything less.”
Google did not respond to Tech Brew’s request for comment.
Microsoft: Earlier this year, Microsoft CSO Melanie Nakagawa announced that the tech company would also start using AI to support the SDGs.
“In 2020, Microsoft leaders referred to our sustainability goals as a ‘moonshot,’ and nearly five years later, we have had to acknowledge that the moon has gotten further away,” Nakagawa said in a blog post. “However, the force creating this distance from our goals in the short term is the same one that will help us build a bigger, faster, and more powerful rocket to reach them in the long term: artificial intelligence.”
And Microsoft’s 2024 Global Governance report struck a similar chord. In it, the company said AI “could help put us on the right course where we’ve fallen behind on the [SDGs] and otherwise accelerate our progress.” Recent updates from Microsoft state that it hopes to use AI to cut back on waste, conserve water, optimize energy efficiency, and improve “eco-friendly” transportation.
Microsoft declined to comment on how it’s using AI to meet the SDGs, but sent a January report detailing how it’s using the tech to support sustainability initiatives including the UN goals. It cited an AI tool aimed at reducing methane emissions—Microsoft Sustainability Manager—which helps “food banks that recover and redistribute surplus food demonstrate the impact of their actions to reduce methane emissions.”
“Already, we are seeing AI make a positive impact on the planet,” Nakagawa said in her announcement. “In the coming years, this technology will begin to rapidly accelerate climate solutions at a scale we’ve not yet seen.”