Monthly theme - July 2025 - Sustainability
Data & AI technologies have huge potential to drive sustainability and accelerate the journey towards a net zero future – optimising energy usage and enabling smart decisions across industries. For example, AI is being used to predict electricity supply and demand, it can forecast weather patterns, and it's being used to detect heat loss in homes. However, as with everything, there are trade-offs and balances, and these technologies also come with their own carbon footprint. Training AI models and managing and storing vast datasets is a hugely energy-intensive process (in the UK alone data centres consume 2.5% of the nation's electricity). To truly serve the planet, we need to make sure the benefit of these technologies outweighs their environmental impact.
Which is why throughout July we're excited to focus on sustainability in The Data Lab Community, a hugely important topic that is close to our hearts!
Fresh off the press 🗞️
For this month's blog we've been looking at the benefits and challenges of data & AI's role in sustainability, the climate crisis and achieving net zero.
Check out our latest blog for more on this: Data, AI and the Climate Crisis: Powering Sustainable Change Responsibly
Events 🎟️
As part of our activities throughout the month, we're hosting and supporting a number of events related to our theme. Make sure to register for the events you'd like to attend via the links below!
- Data & AI Meetup: Sustainability - 3 July 2025 15:00 - 17:00 BST [Aberdeen, UK]
The Data & AI Meetup is coming back to Aberdeen where we’ll be discussing the role of data & AI technologies in sustainability and net zero in the energy sector!
An online session introducing the UK Co-benefits Atlas (UKCBA) - a powerful tool that makes the socio-economic impacts of climate action visible, understandable, and actionable.
-
Making Room for Sustainability in Hospitality and Tourism - 31 July 2025 15:00 - 16:00 BST [Online]
Upcoming themes 📆
Here's a reminder of what we have coming up for the rest of 2025!
- July – Sustainability ♻️
- August - Housing 🏡
- September - Financial Sector 🏦
- October - Health 🏥
- November - Data Visualisation 📊
- December – Reflecting on 2025 💭
If you are interested in organising an event aligned with any of our monthly themes, let us know by completing this short form, and we'll get back to you with more info! We'll help promote events that align with our themes to our 6000+ members, offering an excellent opportunity to reach new audiences and amplify your activities. If you would like some more info on how you can get involved, whether that is by organising an event or sharing other relevant content, get in touch at [email protected], and we'd be happy to chat!