in All Things Localization

As the world faces the ever-pressing climate crisis, human ingenuity and technology is racing to propose and implement solutions that could reduce ecological damage and save lives. With increasing carbon emissions, the unprecedented frequency of severe hurricanes, floods and wildfires of immense scale, every day is of great importance to safeguard what we can from the forces of nature. Answering this crisis are several cutting-edge climate tech companies, including LanzaJet, Pano AI and AquaFence, which are creating innovative and groundbreaking solutions that aim to mitigate various aspects of climate change. With the global implementation of new, advanced technologies comes the challenge of communicating complex and sometimes nuanced technical information across language and cultural barriers. It is this need for rapid and technically accurate translations in which CSOFT International’s localization solutions can facilitate the proliferation of important climate tech across the globe. Because the fight against climate change requires extensive international cooperation and collective action, localization must play a role in ensuring that language and cultural barriers do not prevent lifesaving climate tech from reaching where it is most needed.

Unlocking Global Possibilities for LanzaJet: Localization to Fuel Greener Aviation

The LanzaJet team

Although the aviation industry enables worldwide travel and trade, it is estimated to account for 3% of all carbon emissions in recent years. Traditionally, petroleum-based jet fuels feed the massive freight and passenger jetliners that traverse the globe, at the cost of immense carbon emissions for even the shortest flights. Due to the importance of planes to the world economy, and the potential hazards of flight, the aviation industry is heavily regulated by both national and international governances for both safety and environmental impact. Because of these limiting factors, greener jet fuel alternatives have struggled to find widespread use until recent technological developments. Solving this important environmental conundrum is LanzaJet, founded in 2020, which represents the panicle of fossil fuel alternatives for aviation. LanzaJet’s patented Alcohol-to-Jet (ATJ) technology can produce viable jet fuel that is sourced from a variety of sustainable materials including corn and sugarcane. Despite estimates that Lanzajet’s ethanol-based fuel “could cut emissions by between 54% and 66%, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency,” there are many linguistic and regulatory obstacles throughout the world that stand in the way of its global production and use (MIT 1).

To learn more about LanzaJet’s technology, check out MIT’s article “LanzaJet and its next-generation jet fuel.”

As a localization provider with significant experience translating for dozens of highly technical industries, CSOFT is well equipped to help companies like LanzaJet break into global markets. Our 250+ in-country teams of subject matter experts and linguists are skilled in navigating complex and rigorous regulatory laws in various technical fields, ranging from industrial manufacturing to pharmaceuticals. For the aviation industry, LanzaJet must be compliant with numerous international standards for jet fuel and emissions, including those set by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), ASTM International and The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). To operate across the world, LanzaJet must also understand and comply with local aviation regulations, a process made much simpler by CSOFT’s in-country experts who can advise based on the laws in addition to the culture from which they originate. Without accurate translation of manufacturing and handling processes and materials into key languages, LanzaJet growth may be hindered due to noncompliance with international and or local laws. While LanzaJet is poised to fuel a greener aviation industry, without a quality localization partner, it may struggle to overcome the barriers involved with regulation and implementation across languages on nations.

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Check out CSOFT’s Aviation Transportation Solutions

Pano AI and Localization Potential to Prevent Wildfires Around the World

Image of Pano AI Rapid Detect Station

With rising temperatures causing more frequent and extreme heat waves, many regions across the world are facing the threat of devastating wildfires that resulted in the burning of 12 million hectares of forest in 2023 according to WRI findings. In what is called “the fire climate feedback loop,” increasing carbon emissions create warmer temperatures that cause hotter and drier conditions in forests which allows wildfires to burn bigger, releasing ever more carbon into the atmosphere. While it is hard to miss these potentially devastating infernos once they are in full blaze, spotting and extinguishing the smaller burns that cause wildfires can prevent potential disasters. Pano AI, founded in 2020, describes their Rapid Detect system as “a connected, intelligent platform for fire professionals that helps them to detect threats, confirm fires, and disseminate information to responders, faster than ever before.” Pano Rapid Detect Stations are set up on high vantage points and utilize “360-degree, ultra-high-definition cameras and artificial intelligence to spot, evaluate, and signal wildfire activity within a 10-mile radius”(Pano AI). Despite Pano AI already operating in the USA, Canda and Australia, the technology is not likely to see fast, worldwide implementation without high quality and fast localization services.

Click here to learn more about Pano AI’s technology

The first barrier facing Pano AI is linguistic, in which all setup and operating manuals, digital UI/UX materials and alert communications must be translated with technical precision for every language and region in which it is implemented. Without highly accurate translations of these documents and communications, the technology may not work as intended, potentially causing false alarms or, in a worst-case scenario, missing the outbreak of a deadly fire. To ensure that this language-based element works in every region, Pano AI must use localization providers with in-country translators, linguists and subject matter experts who can verify that all translated language is accurate and understandable to local populations. Another challenge facing Pano AI is cultural, in which more isolated and less technologically advanced populations may be hesitant to embrace AI solutions. Likely, the same marketing and messaging used in North America will not resonate the same with people living in the global south. To reach these hesitant populations, Pano AI must localize and translate all communications to best reach the target population, and to address concerns about AI. While Pano AI could potentially prevent the large-scale wildfires that have recently caused devastation throughout the world, it will struggle to find widespread global use without localization of its product and materials.

Check out CSOFT’s IT and Software Translation Services

AquaFence and the Rapid Global Implementation of a Deployable Flood Wall

Aqua Fence at Tampa General Hospital

October 2024 saw Hurricane Milton, a category 5 storm, hit Florida’s west coast. Although the region, including Tampa Bay, is historically outside the worst landfall zones for tropical storms, the changing climate is causing more frequent and severe hurricanes in the area. In preparing for the storm, one major concern that arose was the Tampa General Hospital, which not only sits on an island, but is also below sea level. Because of this, experts feared a potential human catastrophe since the hospital was at capacity and, in a worst-case scenario, it could be washed away by the rising sea without any chance of evacuation. Unfortunately, situations like this are becoming all too common around the world, in which historically safe regions are now in the pathway of infrastructure shattering storms due to the changing climate. Although the forces of nature posed a huge threat to Tampa General Hospital, it was saved by human ingenuity and the implementation of cutting-edge technology from a company called Aqua Fence.

Related:  From Launch to Landing: How localization can make or break a company in the new space race. 

Aqua Fence, founded in 1999, is the Norwegian-based inventor and producer of FloodWall, a fast and deployable flood mitigation system that can stop storm surges up to 15 feet according to their website. Despite short notice before the storm, a FloodWall system was successfully deployed around the Tampa General Hospital, saving the building and its patients from the rising tides of the storm. While this instance showcases what rapid and global implementation of climate tech could look like, it poses a question of the degree in which FloodWall has been localized. Despite its rapid deployment in some countries, it is unlikely that the FloodWall technology has been properly translated and localized for global use. There is reason to believe that FloodWall is not available for many nations and regions in the global south, with Aqua Fence’s world presence notably missing offices in Africa and South America, as is seen on their website. Like other climate tech, all of FloodWall’s marketing, operation and setup guides, among other technical documents and materials, must be translated with the upmost accuracy and understandability because its proper use could mean the difference between life and death. Without high quality localization services from a trusted provider, such as CSOFT International, Aqua Fence may be limited in its reach, unable to help those in the far reaches of the world from the rising tides of climate change.

Localization as the Key to Enable Global Implementation of Climate Tech

With the harmful effects of climate change increasing each year, rapid and global implementation of potentially lifesaving climate tech is humanity’s last resort to limit the destructive forces of mother nature. The primary challenge of this rapid globalization for climate tech is the linguistic and cultural barriers that exist around the world, which must be overcome with accurate translation and localization. This is where CSOFT International can make a huge impact: utilizing our 250+ teams of in-country translators, linguists and subject matter experts to ensure that all aspects of our client’s product are effectively conveyed for global use. Whether facing translation issues related international regulation, the use of operation manuals in a different language or marketing to hesitant demographics, CSOFT International’s suite of localization solutions can help facilitate the fast and effective implementation any climate tech solution around the globe. To effectively fight climate change and help save humanity and our planet from further destruction, international cooperation and collective action is required. For this, localization is, and will always be, the means to connect people, ideas and technologies across geographic borders and languages.

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