Can AI make local environmental action more effective?

Friends of the Earth understands that AI has the potential to transform every part of our mission, both in positive but also negative ways.  We’re already aware that AI can be used to skew debates and derail progress on climate action through targeted disinformation, for example. But we believe it also has enormous potential for good. So we’re keen to test whether AI technologies could unlock creativity and extend capabilities at the grassroots.

In January we kicked off a 5-month Lab exploring how communities might use AI to work better to improve their local environment. Read on to find out what we’re hoping to learn.

The learning journey  

The Experiments team combines practical experimentation with ethical exploration and we are delighted to be working with 4 curious people, who wanted to explore using AI to solve specific environmental problems in their neighbourhoods. In supporting them in their learning journey, we are hoping to bring to life the opportunities and dilemmas they face in applying AI to local challenges.

You can read more about the background to our thinking here. 

Who we are working with and what they want to learn 

• Fenella Corrin  

  Fenella wants to use AI to understand the overall impact of local environmental projects. As a coordinator for her local Friends of the Earth group in Merton, Southwest London, Fenella aims to use AI to help volunteers see and share the impact of their environmental actions.   

• Ruth Hennell  

  Ruth is exploring how AI can help us experience spaces from the viewpoints of different beings, intrigued by the boundaries of different human experience, playful accessibility and the notion of wisdom. Ruth is a disabled interdisciplinary designer and part-time OU student, building her own degree around design, computing and social sciences. She was part of the Garden Lab Whispers Grow project in Knowle West, Bristol, where disabled creatives experience nature from different perspectives in accessible ways. 

• Sadaf Rasheed   

  Sadaf is exploring how to use AI to understand the potential impact of litter on biodiversity. She is curious about how gamification can incentivise litter picking. As an applied anthropologist and trustee for Groundwork in London, Sadaf is focused on the interaction between humans, technology, and the environment.   

• Afreen Saulat   

  Afreen wants to use AI to help her community in Newington Green, North London imagine interconnected food futures, as the area faces gentrification and rising food costs that hit underprivileged locals hardest. Afreen is a design researcher and works for herself at 100kicks.  

The journey we're on 

We’ve been working to create the right conditions for great ideas to germinate and thrive. You can read more about the values we bring to the process in our manifesto – here.  The structure comes from the Design Council’s Beyond Net Zero systemic design framework . 

Explore 

During our explore phase, we started off with a kick-off event at Hawkwood Centre for Future Thinking where everyone shared their stories, talked about what we wanted to achieve, began to form connections as a group and build the trust we need to work together on new ideas. 

Reframe 

We then started shaping our 'best guess' ideas and brainstormed potential solutions, looking to unearth things that might surprise us. This phase wrapped up with a ‘Swarm’ workshop where we shared our ideas online with a group of critical friends. They helped us to 'dream big' and figure out how to 'start somewhere' with our plans. 

Create & Catalyse  

Now we’re starting to turn our best ideas into something real by working in our communities to build and test solutions. Our expert mentor, Ahnjili Zhu Parris, is helping us work out how to deploy our ideas in an environmentally responsible way. 

An invitation

Want to know more about these ideas and help bring them to life?  We are running an online Showcase where our 4 participants will share their ideas and maybe some of the challenges they need to overcome. They are looking for advice or support for taking their ideas further. 

Join our online Showcase, Wednesday, May 1^st, 3-4pm. Please RSVP on Eventbrite if you’d like to be there.