The Sustainability Imperative

As Cutter Expert Curt Hall explores in this Advisor, AI is revolutionizing satellite data analysis for environmental applications by enabling faster, more precise, and accessible insights. GenAI streamlines data interpretation and broadens access through natural language queries, while in-space AI processing accelerates real-time analysis by eliminating the need to transmit data to Earth. Together, these advancements empower more responsive environmental monitoring, climate action, and sustainable resource management.

Arthur D. Little’s three-step framework can help guide healthcare organizations toward environmental sustainability. Beginning with foundational green practices like energy efficiency and waste management, the approach then integrates broader operational initiatives such as telemedicine and clinical redesign. Finally, it addresses systemic enablers — including eco-conscious procurement, R&D innovation, and physician education — to embed sustainability across the healthcare value chain and reduce emissions at all levels.

Lusatia is undergoing a major transformation as part of Germany’s Energiewende, which aims for climate neutrality by 2045. Central to this transition is the Energy Innovation Center (EIZ) at Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg. Funded by the German government, EIZ drives regional structural change through interdisciplinary research, technology development, and open innovation. EIZ is developing sustainable, intelligent energy systems to replace coal. Its innovation hub, EIZ SPARK, accelerates commercialization, positioning Lusatia as a model for a just and future-ready energy transition.

This Advisor explores the shifting landscape of corporate responsibility, tracing its evolution from traditional corporate social responsibility (CSR) to broader frameworks like environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and beyond. Amid increasing pressure from stakeholders — particularly younger generations — companies are being called to integrate ethical, environmental, and societal considerations into their core operations, governance, and long-term value creation.

This Advisor explores how sustainable farming practices can enhance climate resilience and food security in northwest India. It highlights the shift away from harmful methods like crop residue burning toward conservation agriculture techniques such as zero tillage. It also emphasizes the urgent need for policy support, public investment, and farmer-led adaptation strategies to ensure a sustainable and equitable agricultural future in the face of escalating climate change.

This issue of Amplify, the second in a two-part series, moves outside the company into nature and explores unifying efforts to address climate, community, and biodiversity. It also examines how a nature-centered approach can direct action that has meaning and impact.

Dan Salas and Caroline Hernandez illustrate how existing nature positive programs can be the best choice for companies at certain maturity levels in their nature engagements. Across the world, there are countless such programs, and the authors focus on a particularly successful approach: the Rights-of-Way as Habitat Working Group (ROWHWG) at the University of Illinois Chicago. This group of practitioners, academics, and corporations has developed and deployed the largest multi-stakeholder conservation agreement in the US.

Catherine Drumheller, Matthew Ling, and Laura Lawlor describe an approach for valuing the benefits of nature to ensure investments are made in the most economical and impactful ways. The authors identify six categories of benefits that can be realized from nature-based solutions, and those benefits are associated with indicators and criteria that provide a screening tool for project designers. This tool can be used to develop scores using standard ecosystem accounting principles and other methods to measure impacts on human and nature communities.