Emerging Technologies for Energy Efficiency and Environmental Sustainability

Abstract

This study investigated the role of emerging technologies in the area of energy efficiency and environmental sustainability and explored the emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT) systems, smart grids, renewable-energy technologies, and energy-management systems. The research design adopted was the quantitative research design and the data collected was using a structured questionnaire from all energy sector organizations, manufacturing organizations and technology related companies that had implemented these technologies or were adopting these technologies. The respondents were selected using purposive sampling technique that involved selecting respondents who have knowledge about the relevant information on organizational energy practices and technological adoptions. The questionnaire used 5-point likert scale items for measuring the emerging technology adoption, energy efficiency, resource optimization, reduction in energy consumption, and environmental sustainability. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and multiple regression were used to analyze the data and assess the effects of emerging technologies on energy efficiency and environmental sustainability, and Cronbach's alpha and construct assessment were used to assess the reliability and validity, respectively. The outcomes revealed that, emerging technology adoption was found to be positively and significantly related to energy efficiency, resource optimization and environmental sustainability and that the adoption level along with energy use reduction and resource optimization was found to significantly predict the environmental sustainability outcomes. The study concludes that emerging technologies, when adopted, work best as an interdependent technological ecosystem rather than as standalone solutions and suggests that organisations adopt integrated approaches to enabling the adoption of these technologies with sufficient technical capacity and monitoring frameworks.