Sustainable AI research
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Bath Spa University secures £1M grant for sustainable AI research
Friday, 14 March, 2025BSU’s Research Centre for Environmental Humanities has been awarded a prestigious Arts and Humanities Research Council Bridging Responsible AI Divides grant worth over £1M.
Headed up by BSU’s Professor Samantha Walton, the project, Sustainable AI Futures, involves collaborating with institutions including Sussex, Goldsmiths, and Digital Catapult. It aims to pioneer innovative approaches to governing AI's environmental impacts responsibly.
The environmental impacts of AI have been making the news recently. Data centre expansion, driven by the AI boom, brings significant energy and water requirements.
Jo Lindsay-Walton, from the Sussex Digital Humanities Lab, explains:
“Tech companies argue that backsliding on their own climate goals is more than balanced out by the sustainability benefits AI will unlock. But these sustainability benefits deserve independent, interdisciplinary investigation, including arts and humanities perspectives. Right now there are no widely accepted frameworks for weighing up the potential harms and benefits.”
Sustainable AI Futures seeks to place the environmental humanities at the heart of AI research and governance. The project will bring the critical perspectives and methodologies of the humanities to bear on AI and its relationship to the planet. It will also generate a stream of lively interdisciplinary activities, using arts, storytelling and play to spark dialogue and inspire new thinking. Project partners AfroFutures_UK and the British Science Fiction Association will be contributing to this arts-led stream.
The UK Government’s AI Opportunities Plan, launched in January, shows ambitions to position the UK as a global leader in AI, and recognises the need for new regulatory frameworks. Tools for AI governance—such as regulations, guidelines, standards, dashboards, certifications, and more—are emerging rapidly, including some addressing environmental impacts. However, these tools are still in the experimental phase, with much prototyping and guesswork involved. Meanwhile, progress on ESG and sustainability transparency is also being impacted by the current geopolitical climate.
Professor Samantha Walton explains:
“Sustainable AI Futures will investigate the "social life" of these emerging AI governance tools: how they are developed, whose voices they include or exclude, and how they are applied—or misapplied—in messy, complicated, everyday contexts.”
By exploring how governance tools evolve in practice, the project aims to contribute meaningfully to shaping national and international policy.
The project‘s thematic focuses will be:
- In 2025 it will be corporate carbon accounting and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting.
- In 2026 it will move on to focusing on green coding and generative AI.
- In 2027 it will shift to energy management across both grid management and building efficiency.
Collaboration will be key to the project’s success. In addition to the partners already mentioned, the project benefits from expertise from the Critical Infrastructure Lab (University of Amsterdam), University College Dublin, Green Coding Solutions, Greenpixie, and Atamate.
The project team are keen to widen their network of collaborators, and welcome enquiries from individuals and organisations interested in AI and environmental sustainability.
Join the Sustainable AI Futures mailing list to get news of future activities and opportunities to collaborate.