Sustainability is that we live our lives
in a way that doesn't
prevent future generations
from being able to live
their lives successfully.
As a father of three,
I feel it's absolutely crucial
that we protect our environment.
And sustainability's very much
at the heart of our business.
We're the UK's premiere green company.
We're currently building
more off-shore wind
than any other company in the world.
When we build off-shore wind farms,
we need to be extremely sensitive
to the ecosystem.
So we have an obligation to ensure
that the wind farm isn't
having any adverse effect.
As you see, the puffins seem to like
congregating on the rocks.
So we have another camera positioned here,
looking at the plot
from a different angle.
So it will give the AI model
a good look at the profile of the puffin.
The Species Recognition Project
started around 18 months ago,
as part of ideation sessions
that were held with Microsoft and SSE.
And one of the most
exciting things about that
has been the puffin counter,
something that we're gonna be using
for a lot of bird recognition,
and to provide a lot of data on birds
so that we can ensure that
we run wind farms safely.
First, this was really
just a proof of concept.
Once we'd validated that
the tool could be used
against this imagery and video,
we then decided to run a live trial
which we're conducting
now in the Isle of May.
Using artificial intelligence
to monitor puffins,
individual recognition of each puffin
provide that data,
so we understand overall
health of the colony.
The data, the imagery
we get from the colony,
that data goes via the cloud,
and then we put it through
a Microsoft AI technology,
and that does all the recognition.
And then a very easy to use dashboard
that counts the puffins
and looks at the activity.
Our history and data has
been quite difficult,
being able to put it in a place
that people can easily
access it, that it's safe.
That's been a real difficulty.
So a tool like Azure, where
you have that strategy,
you know where you're
going to put the data,
it's very well structured.
We have mobility with the data
because it's cloud-based.
Microsoft have been absolutely
key in this project.
It has been very successful,
and we've achieved all our key milestones.
The puffins are wonderful
and they're a great start.
Actually, it's endless,
dolphins to porpoises.
And then the bird life,
in order to really monitor
the impact that you're having,
and then of course, that allows you
to adapt what you're doing in
order to reduce the impact.
Delighted to be
collaborating with Microsoft
on our digital journey.
That's only gonna continue to
get more and more important
as the UK goes to doubling and tripling
the amount of assets and
wind farms it puts out
in the North Sea.