A new organization, known as the Coalition for Sustainable AI, has launched to make artificial intelligence "beneficial to our environmental goals." France initiated the coalition, in collaboration with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), and others.
Working together, coalition members will strive to "harness AI for the benefit of the local and global environment, including its role in decarbonizing economies, reducing pollution, preserving biodiversity, protecting the oceans, and ensuring humanity operates within planetary boundaries."
The coalition launches at a key time. Amid strong demand for generative AI applications, companies worldwide are striving to build more AI data centers. However, the AI applications and underlying data center hardware have immense energy demands.
Coalition for Sustainable AI: Initial IT Members, Who's Missing?
In a bid to address AI's energy consumption and environmental challenges, some big technology companies and IT service providers are backing the coalition. But some major generative AI companies and cloud service providers (CSPs) are missing from the launch announcement.
On the upside, Nvidia, the leading provider of GPUs for running AI applications, is listed among the coalition's corporate members. Numerous technology companies and IT service providers -- including Capgemini, Equinix, IBM, Lenovo, Orange, OVHcloud, Salesforce, SAP and Schneider Electric, among others -- also are supporters.
However, leading generative AI companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic are not listed among the coalition members, supporters or co-initiators as of February 12, 2025. Moreover, CSPs such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure also are missing from the coalition website as of that same date. As is the United States.
Can Sustainability Boost Financial Performance?
No doubt, thousands of companies worldwide are reconsidering their sustainability strategies amid recent political headwinds in the United States, and growing ESG compliance debates in the European Union.
Despite those headwinds, 97% of executives say sustainability reporting will be a business advantage within two years, and 96% of investors agree it strengthens financial performance, a Workiva survey found. The findings surface even as the Trump Administration ends climate policies from the Biden Administration, and the European Union reevaluates some regulatory deadlines for ESG reporting.
