Virtual table tennis at Alibaba Cloud's booth during the Olympic Esports Week. Photo credit: Alibaba Cloud
Alibaba Cloud helped organizers of the Olympic Esports Week measure carbon emissions while boosting public engagement in emissions reduction through digital technology.
Alibaba Cloud has trialed its AI-driven sustainability platform Energy Expert to measure and analyze the carbon emissions from temporary construction built to host the first Olympic Esports Week (OEW), including the impact of energy consumption, waste management, signage and decoration.
The platform enabled event organizers to quantify the carbon footprint generated by a venue and visualize a venue’s sustainability performance via an integrated dashboard and online reports.
For example, Energy Expert estimated that the carbon footprint of temporary construction for the Olympic Esports Week is around 274 tons of CO2e, and that replacing 60% of printed signage with digital signage would lead to 14 tons of carbon dioxide emissions reductions while reusing 50% of carpets after the event would slash emissions by 10 tons.
“We’re pleased to work with Alibaba Cloud to apply cutting-edge technologies to measure carbon emissions so we can continue to make a difference,” said Vincent Pereira, Head of Virtual Sport at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in a release.
Digital Upgrade
According to trade publication Esports Insider, it estimates that in 2022 a single esports team could create as much as 100 tonnes of CO2 emissions from flights, facility maintenance, and other travel.
The initiative is the latest from the cloud computing company to assist the IOC with digital transformation. The duo has worked together to upgrade the Olympic digital infrastructure to support the digital transformation of the Olympic Games and support its sustainability efforts.
For example, Alibaba Cloud collaborated with the Olympic Broadcasting Services to move the backend of broadcasting to the cloud during the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, reducing the size of the international broadcast center in Tokyo by 25% compared to Rio 2016 and the number of on-site staff – by 27%.
It also helped the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 move the core operations of the Games to the cloud, ranging from communications to content delivery and production.
Fostering Engagement
The four-day Olympic Esports Week saw some of the best players from all over the world gather in Singapore to compete in ten virtual and simulated sports competitions. It also showcased the latest innovations in e-sports and a series of exhibition matches to foster engagement with the e-sports community.
“As the sports industry continues to evolve, we’re passionate about providing organizations with timely data, actionable insights and energy-saving recommendations that make positive and tangible impacts,” said Selina Yuan, President of International Business at Alibaba Cloud.
Alibaba Cloud is also leveraging its technology to draw public attention to the importance of reducing carbon emissions. It launched a web application for the OEW event that invites the public to take photos of items around them, such as keyboards and headsets, to see the carbon footprint of each item.
The web application also generates suggestions for consumers to slash their carbon footprint in using the items, such as increasing the lifetime of digital equipment or buying second-hand equipment.
Consumers can place a sustainability pledge in the web application to earn points that can be redeemed for a sustainability champion badge.
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