Environmental Impact

At the Solar Impulse Foundation, we strive to align our tools and technologies with our mission of sustainability. Efficiency and minimizing environmental impact are at the heart of our development processes. Here’s how we ensure our digital infrastructure stays efficient and low impact:

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Hosting on Sustainable Infrastructure

Our AI and platform infrastructure are hosted on Microsoft Azure, a cloud provider committed to carbon neutrality. Azure actively offsets the CO2 emissions generated by its data centers, ensuring that our operations contribute to a more sustainable future.

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Reducing AI’s Environmental Footprint

To limit the environmental impact of generative AI, we use OpenAI’s GPT-4o-mini:

• Smaller Model Size: This model is less resource-intensive than larger generative AI models, reducing energy consumption during operations.

• Faster Processing: It delivers responses efficiently, striking a balance between quality and environmental responsibility.

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Token Optimization for Lower Impact

We’ve optimized how tokens are processed in conversations to further reduce the environmental burden:

• Conversation Summarization: By summarizing interactions, we keep token usage within efficient limits, reducing computational resource requirements. While this may slightly impact the interaction depth, it substantially lowers the environmental footprint.

• Streamlined Queries: We’ve designed interactions to be as efficient as possible, avoiding unnecessary computational overhead.

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Future Commitment to Open Source LLMs

As part of our ongoing commitment to sustainability, we are exploring opportunities to adopt open-source large language models (LLMs) for future product releases. Open-source models that offer better transparency and environmental impact metrics may provide a viable alternative to proprietary models like OpenAI, ensuring we continue to lead by example in environmental responsibility.

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Balancing Quality and Sustainability

While these measures may occasionally hinder the quality or depth of interactions, they are intentional trade-offs designed to align our technology with our broader environmental goals.

By using our tools, you’re part of a collective effort to advance sustainability in both the digital and physical worlds. Together, we’re proving that technology and environmental responsibility can go hand in hand.