Building a ‘Green Data’ Future: how a human-centric approach to data and nudges can help fight climate change

Mark Fenwick, Paulius Jurčys · 2023 · 3 citationsRead the paper

Mark Fenwick is a professor of International Business Law, Graduate School of Law, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan. Paulius Jurcys is a senior research fellow at Vilnius University Law Faculty (Vilnius, Lithuania) and a co-founder of Prifina Inc. (San Francisco, USA). A defining feature of digital transformation is the sensorization of everything and the concomitant creation of vast amounts of data covering every aspect of social and economic life. It is unfortunate that the value of this vast data pool has not been fully leveraged in tackling climate change and other environmental challenges facing humanity. This article suggests that this failure is a product of the closed and siloed character of the modern data ecosystem in which some stakeholders deem the collected data as their proprietary asset and have little incentive to share it with those interested in creating new value from such data, including, for example, by developing innovative technologies relevant for tackling climate change. This article argues that a user-held data model, in which data are reconceptualized as the property of the users who generate it, might better unlock or activate the ‘green value’ of these data and, by doing so, facilitate the creation of innovative green technologies. This paper focuses on three settings where a user-centric approach to data might usefully contribute to achieving these environmental goals, namely, facilitating green lifestyles, fostering sustainability in green cities and building green innovation ecosystems. Based on the foregoing discussion, this article concludes by identifying some normative principles that might be useful to guide regulatory interventions in this context. In November 2022, the global population surpassed 8 billion people.1 The rapid growth of the human species is a testament to the progress that humanity has achieved in science, technology and healthcare. Still, the fate of humanity depends on whether and how quickly we are able to solve the challenges of climate change and its effects. An ongoing and pressing issue for the global community of regulators and other policymakers is indeed how to collectively address the climate change and the carbon problem issues we currently face. What tools should be put in place to ensure we meet our carbon reduction goals? What technologies, regulations and processes are needed to help us immediately contain the CO2 emissions and reach net zero carbon emission targets? One of the major causes of climate change is human activity and, more specifically, the use of fossil fuels that cause the emission of carbon dioxide. CO2 results from driving cars, generating electricity, building infrastructure and enjoying what we consider a better quality of life. One way of framing the task that lies ahead of us with regard to decarbonization is how to enable economic growth without creating harmful environmental impacts. Investments in green and sustainable technologies reached an all-time high in 2021.2 In reality, however, paring down CO2 emissions has become difficult because of the high number of global stakeholders and conflicting interests. CO2 emission has been especially challenging in the most polluting industries (ie steel manufacturing, construction, mobility and agriculture). Therefore, new approaches are being developed to address the carbon equation problem.3 One such promising endeavour, for example, revolves around the idea of capturing CO2 that is already in the atmosphere and safely storing it for thousands of years.4 To advance carbon capture technologies, some of the largest technology and consulting companies in Silicon Valley (namely, Stripe, Meta, Alphabet, Google and McKinsey) have launched a 1 billion US dollar fund that aims to provide advance funding for companies working on carbon capture technologies to help build the market for carbon capture.5 Many governments and public and private organizations have adopted various environment, social and governance (ESG) programmes to achieve net zero carbon emission objectives. There are three main elements of such net zero programmes: (i) to measure carbon emissions, (ii) to reduce CO2 emissions as much as possible and (iii) to do everything else that is possible under the given circumstances.6 This said, ESG initiatives on a corporate level have been rather ineffective as differences in data and metrics often make meaningful comparisons difficult.7 The above-mentioned strategies all involve various sets of data that must be harnessed and utilized in achieving the carbon equation. Ironically and disappointingly, the potential ‘green value’ of these data has been largely ignored. Although the amount of data generated by various sensors continues to grow exponentially, only a small amount of such data is used in practice to address the climate change issues. Academic research in IP has mostly focused on the analysis of how existing IP frameworks and different areas of IP contribute to the global efforts to fight climate change. For instance, academics have been exploring role intersection between patent rights and unlocking sustainable/green technologies,8 the right to repair9 or how fashion brands are adopting new recycled materials, anticompetitive implications,10 as well as risks of using misleading terms to define products as environmentally friendly (so-called ‘greenwashing’).11 In the past several years, IP academics and practitioners have increasingly discussed issues related to the relationship between data and IP rights, and most recently, the debate has focused on access to data.12 One of the major obstacles in fighting climate change and reaching ESG goals is that most of the data are locked away behind the walled gardens of device manufacturers and large technology companies.13 Data generated by consumers interacting with apps and using sensorized devices are collected, stored and processed in vast databases of device manufacturers who deem such data as their proprietary asset and have no incentive to share it with the owners of sensorized devices nor with third parties who might be interested in creating new value (applications and services) with such data.14 In this article, we proceed from the observation that a lot of ‘green data’ are captured by a wide variety of sensors and that the sensorization of everything is one of the defining features of digital transformation. Such sensors are embedded in industrial machinery, smart internet of things (IoT) devices used by consumers and businesses and personal sensors that individuals interact with in every aspect of their daily lives (eg wearable fitness devices or IoT devices at home). The trend of sensorization and the quantity and quality of data generated will continue to increase exponentially. Finding a bit way to leverage the value of such data is a defining challenge of our age. We argue that one of the key aspects of building a more sustainable future and combating climate change is to unlock the green value of these data. In Section 2, we provide some background context to our argument, namely, the sensorization of everything, the concept of unlocking the green value of data and a user-held data model, which we suggest represents a better way of leveraging such unlocked value. In Section 3, we explore the potential of the user-held data model and possible applications in the context of smart cities and agriculture, empower consumers to make ‘greener’ choices in their daily lives and facilitate the ‘green data economy’. In Section 4, we conclude by identifying some regulatory principles for unlocking green data on a global scale and activating such data to meet carbon equation objectives. The main argument is that more green data need to be unlocked and activated to reach the carbon equation expeditiously. Over the past decade, cloud computing, Big Data and data analytics technologies have been at the heart of innovations that permeate all sectors of the economy. Data have become a defining feature of the contemporary world, ie sensor-equipped devices and artificial intelligence (AI) applications built on top of such sensor-generated data open new opportunities that could also help alleviate the effects of climate change. The trend of sensorization, collection of data and development of AI solutions happens in all sectors of the economy (mobility, real estate, construction, agriculture, health, energy, etc). In this section, we argue that the key aspect of building a more sustainable future is to unlock the green value of sensor-generated data. Here, we introduce the so-called ‘user-held data’ model that is based on a human-centric approach to data and the idea that user-generated data should belong to users.15 We focus on explaining the technical architecture behind the user-held data model and the innovation breakthrough that will happen in an open data ecosystem where everyone can their data in their personal data cloud and where data are private by are every aspect of our daily This trend at the largest global of the which place in in companies their innovations in the of and In this a that personal user-generated data and built on top of such data (eg AI tools and AI are The sensorized data ecosystem can be three or sensors are being all possible daily to measure the of devices and as well as various human are in the of and the of and digital in various and For instance, a is with sensors and that measure more data (eg a is the and etc). and devices have a embedded in the device and are by an that a of data and such data are by the of the device and to the of the where the data are processed and the results are to the of the data are utilized in various by companies that are to solve For instance, in are companies that are developing digital to businesses in technical facilitating research and development or of There are also companies that build various AI tools to or tools that can be in and daily that the trend of of sensors of the amount of sensor-generated data is to it is to a for how such sensor-generated data could be utilized in an and meaningful way for the of the number of stakeholders on the the digital infrastructure is and consumers and users must have an for every product In such a data architecture that device and data The data architecture is not only for also a approach to data that much of the user-generated data are locked in walled gardens of and device The is an of data such being locked Although most data in such data are harnessed and processed by of and Data are collected and stored in siloed databases of manufacturers of sensorized devices and used in and also on the of Such a data ecosystem results in and where have the data are generating their In have to with especially it to using and of data with third parties with the has no it to and of the used in agriculture, is an in and to introduce the to of in and of sensorized products are to This to and in the in the market the is for more data the of the in the has been exploring new to access and of data that are not only to the largest Silicon Valley and large manufacturers of sensorized products users and The that the of the data economy in will be billion In of the that amounts of data are generated every the has been developing that might level the in the data In the a for data, where it its to make the the role in the global data To achieve this the is adopting and regulations for various (eg health, agriculture, and a for The focuses on the data data to various stakeholders who can build new of products and on top of data. data and have become the principles on which the aims to build its in the global data For green data one of the key is the Data which to the on the global technology market by data to The Data which will to the manufacturers of IoT products and aims to more to make data and in all sectors of the the data The Data to economic and high data the between human rights and the of the economy on the of data in with carbon emissions, it is possible to how the Data a of of the to meet its environmental objectives. specifically, the adopted in aims to make the carbon in the The of the is to environmentally friendly technologies and sustainable growth and reach carbon by at the The carbon reduction goals with other economic and social to make more and and and more new and the quality of The by the 1 this which also digital and data One of the more of the Data is to unlock the data currently collected by and harnessed by the manufacturers of IoT This smart IoT devices in and industrial applications as and IoT devices (eg smart fitness and of the Data is of it that IoT device must users access to the databases that contain data from or generated using the IoT device or a related that manufacturers of smart IoT devices do not have rights the databases data from or generated by using a product or related The Data a and away of such rights user-generated data and that consumers and businesses have the right to access data generated by the products or related or manufacturers and of IoT devices and will have to the products to make the data by manufacturers of IoT devices will have to be on what data will be and how to access The Data also will an for the data to make such data to third parties the will be to the data to access to the data to such as of We are at the where the human-centric technology ecosystem real and where individuals are in of their The user-held data model to a new data infrastructure which is built around an who can data from various personal data real and have and of such data. This human-centric approach to personal data is based on the that user-held data should be private by and not with the applications should to the and on top of user-held data. The user-held data model is the principles of of personal data, data and data The idea of individuals their data is not In the of the working at companies that data should belong to one of the at that the that this is personal this is data. the has we have to that the data the things do with those are and should be able to for example, built on the idea that individuals should be able to and their as internet and to around several in the this of data cloud architecture and technologies have to empower individuals with their There are companies that are building solutions based on the so-called user-held data’ model which defining has their personal data cloud where can data from personal wearable devices and data (eg from Google from activity using social etc). personal data cloud has an embedded that data from different data It is to that data are private by and other the has access to the personal data cloud the access to and companies can build new applications that to the and (ie top user-held of data to siloed of or other a sensorized A user-held data model new opportunities with personal can build applications without to solve data data architecture where users and their personal data from the of with data regulations because apps on top of user-held data and generate value on the of being in a Such user-centric technology built with a approach to personal data promising of of human rights and provide a better for new regulations for data and a of the user-held data architecture and is in with the and data principles in and other data that on top of user-held data are under the terms by the This user-centric approach to data a for rather from various of data collection by individuals are able to whether are to access to to applications which to their personal data The user-held data model also with the of data by user-held data with the and applications top such user-held not have to data on its The personal data infrastructure of the The collection and use of green data from various sensors and data is one of the elements in tools and solutions for tackling climate In this section, we explore three possible or where user-generated data with the user-held data model can help green data and, by doing so, or the creation of innovative climate technologies. In we focus on the of a user-held data model to help green to facilitate sustainability in green and to build green innovation that consumers value a and and are increasingly to the data generate by using various personal sensors and the data generate in the digital could such user-generated data empower individuals to make more in their daily lives to more sustainable The user-held data model with the from and could help innovation in this We are all to that various the products we are how much and of it is to every to to the the in a and is a in make choices the are how applications our Many of us not this it users are with how their data are collected and One of the major of the user-held data model is that it the building of new of applications that can data from various data of an mobility as an are where companies are exploring to consumers how their use of to the global carbon equation. 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1 idea Seedlabs derived from this research