CGI and Google Cloud launch the United Nations Industrial Development Organization Sustainability Planet Platform

Dec. 14, 2023

CGI announced its partnership with Google Cloud to deliver the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Sustainability Planet Platform, a data-driven source for countries to identify sustainability challenges such as air pollution, rising temperatures, and flooding. The platform is designed to support UNIDO's unique mandate to promote, dynamize, and accelerate inclusive and sustainable industrial development.

The Sustainability Planet Platform will enable UNIDO member states and other stakeholders to view UNIDO's projects and partnerships, as well as industrial development statistics data through a new lens. Mapped against CGI and Google Cloud's historic geospatial and sociological data sets, as well as against forecasted data generated through artificial intelligence (AI), it will be possible for users to predict possible future impacts of environmental change.

Ciyong Zou, Deputy to the Director General and the Managing Director of the Directorate of Technical Cooperation and Sustainable Industrial Development of UNIDO, said: "The launch of the Sustainability Planet Platform is a huge milestone for our member states looking to address complex climate and sustainability challenges.

"The platform will act as a single source of up-to-date and comprehensive sustainability data, showing the current efforts that UNIDO is making, where they are taking place, and what their impact is. What Google Cloud and CGI are helping us to deliver is an accessible platform that simplifies complex data, allowing users to see patterns in the data to date and predict future trends, ultimately helping to direct further sustainability."

The platform integrates data from multiple sources, including temperature data and other satellite data such as Landsat, which is used in agriculture; land use and water resources data from CGI's Sustainability Exploration and Environmental Data Science (SEEDS) program; data from Google Cloud's Earth Engine; and UNIDO's data on its global projects. Users will be able to assess progress with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), not only at the country-level, but also in relation to specific sectors such as steel and concrete.

Teddra Burgess, Director Civilian Sales, Google Cloud Public Sector, said: "We are proud of this collaboration with CGI to create the Sustainability Planet Platform, UNIDO's first fully comprehensive data set, showcasing all its sustainability efforts and interventions across every territory. We look forward to working with CGI to continue to deliver sustainability outputs using cutting-edge technology and comprehensive planet data to enable further achievements towards global sustainability development goals." 

Tara McGeehan, President, CGI in the UK and Australia, said: "At CGI, we apply the latest innovations in technology to address a range of sustainability challenges, and we are pleased to be working alongside UNIDO to help them provide concrete and practical solutions to pressing global challenges."

CGI and UNIDO will sign a joint declaration to collaboratively identify innovative initiatives through CGI's SEEDS program to develop proof-of-concept solutions benefiting member states, businesses, and individuals. The agreement also includes supporting UNIDO's digital transformation efforts to improve operations and efficiency and working towards supporting UNIDO's beneficiaries in providing innovative and digital solutions.