As climate goals accelerate and regulations tighten, companies are rethinking not just how they build connected devices, but how they manage them throughout their lifecycle. Sustainability in IoT goes beyond energy-efficient hardware or low-power design. It extends to how devices are updated, secured, and maintained in the field.
Whether it's a fleet of methane-detecting cameras deployed in remote oil fields or smart home energy systems optimizing solar usage, secure and efficient software updates are often overlooked, even though they are critical to operational sustainability.
In honor of Sustainability Awareness Month, Kuva Systems and Beegy highlight how over-the-air (OTA) updates streamline device management, reduce carbon emissions, cut costs, and build a smarter infrastructure for a more sustainable future
Traditionally, OEMs relied on manual updating edge devices, now commonly accepted as not only inefficient but also incurring significant environmental and financial costs. Across a heterogeneous fleet, managing traditional updates is slow and resource-intensive, with varying hardware, connectivity, and configurations requiring technicians to access individual devices physically. Each manual update adds delays, transportation costs, and operational overhead, while also increasing the risk of critical updates being missed or delayed. An unpatched vulnerability can expose devices to breaches or data loss, and a failed or postponed update may result in service disruptions,, bricked devices, or a compromised fleet
Today, many organizations rely on homegrown OTA solutions, often the next step in optimizing device updates. By nature, homegrown OTA solutions demand a careful balance between customization and scalability. Developing a robust OTA platform typically becomes a massive undertaking, consuming time, engineering resources, and attention that could otherwise be focused on core product development. For resource-constrained teams, the effort to manage and maintain a proprietary OTA update infrastructure derails product development, creates mounting technical debt, and results in sunk costs for infrastructure that still requires ongoing investment to comply with evolving standards and regulations. For example, the newly enacted EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) includes OTA software solutions under Class I regulated products, therefore, requiring compliance. In the end, many technical teams find that building and maintaining a secure, reliable OTA system is far more demanding than anticipated.
Faced with these challenges, Kuva Systems and Beegy embraced a secure and scalable professional OTA update solution to avoid unnecessary onsite visits, reduce emissions, extend device lifespans, and free engineering teams to focus on innovation. Their experiences show how relying on a professional OTA update solution plays a pivotal role in making connected devices more sustainable, resilient, and efficient at scale.
Methane is responsible for roughly 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions and is over 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat.1 For oil and gas companies committed to reducing their climate impact, detecting and repairing methane leaks is critical. Yet, achieving continuous, real-time leak monitoring across dispersed sites presents significant challenges for operators.
Kuva Systems offers an innovative solution with its infrared gas imaging cameras, which continuously monitor methane emissions at upstream and midstream oil and gas facilities. Using advanced edge analytics and spectroscopic absorption, Kuva Systems cameras visualize gas plumes in real time, helping operators pinpoint leaks, reduce false alarms, and prioritize remediation efforts.
Despite the advanced capabilities of its system, Kuva initially faced a logistical bottleneck: updating software on cameras deployed in remote locations required technicians to detach devices and perform manual USB updates physically. The update process was time-consuming, costly, and unsustainable, especially for an organization dedicated to reducing methane emissions and advancing climate accountability in oil and gas. For Kuva Systems, managing updates remotely wasn’t only a convenience, it was essential for aligning operations with its environmental mission.
To solve this, Kuva adopted a professional OTA update solution. With secure OTA update capabilities, Kuva transitioned to fully remote software updates and streamlined edge operations across its camera fleet.
The results were immediate and impactful:
“100% over-the-air updates are really a game changer for us…”
— Sean Weiss, VP of Software Engineering, Kuva Systems
By implementing secure, scalable OTA updates, Kuva transformed its approach to managing remote devices, enabling faster software delivery, reducing on-site interventions, and supporting long-term sustainability goals.
With rising energy costs and a growing demand for sustainable power, homeowners are increasingly turning to smart technologies to manage how they generate, store, and use electricity. Beegy, a German energy tech company, is meeting this demand with smart home energy management systems that reduce grid dependence and optimize renewable energy consumption.
One of its key innovations is HERMINE, an intelligent edge platform that schedules EV charging and other energy loads to maximize the use of home-generated solar power. Designed for homeowners with photovoltaic systems, HERMINE reduces reliance on the grid and lowers annual electricity costs by up to €420 per year, based on average energy driving patterns.
HERMINE relies on frequent edge updates and enhancements, so Beegy needed an OTA update solution that could keep pace with its development speed, security requirements, and long-term growth plans. Facing tight deadlines and limited development capacity, Beegy also needed a stable, low-maintenance solution that wouldn't require significant infrastructure investment or compromise product quality. Beegy chose a professional OTA update solution with a managed backend offering, seamless integration with Yocto and Bitbake, and proven support for embedded devices across diverse environments.
With a professional OTA updates solution, Beegy achieved:
“...there is no effort involved with maintaining the infrastructure for the update functionality. The support from the Mender team is also very good.”
— Lukas Exel, Energy Services & IoT Manager, Beegy
By adopting a purpose-built OTA platform, Beegy enabled secure feature delivery and long-term maintainability across its energy products, supporting both customer cost savings and greater operational sustainability.
While OTA updates are widely recognized for improving product velocity and device security, they also play a critical role in supporting sustainable operations. By enabling updates to be delivered remotely, professional OTA update solutions eliminate the need for carbon-intensive onsite visits, reducing fuel consumption and lowering emissions. Efficient update methods such as delta updates also conserve bandwidth and power, especially in energy-constrained or distributed environments. A reliable OTA update strategy also extends device lifespans by keeping them secure and functional, reducing e-waste and delaying the need for hardware replacement.
Organizations benefit from fewer service disruptions and faster recovery from issues, improving operational resilience and reducing unplanned maintenance. Processing updates at the edge further reduces dependence on energy-intensive cloud resources, contributing to a more efficient, scalable, and sustainable operational model.
Sustainability in IoT goes beyond hardware design; it requires building and managing products and supporting systems that can evolve, adapt, and operate efficiently over time. As Kuva Systems and Beegy demonstrate, over-the-air (OTA) updates are a strategic enabler for efficiently managing products, extending device lifespans, and lowering operational costs at scale — ultimately, reducing emissions and resource usage.
In a world moving toward carbon reduction, circular systems, and secure infrastructure, OTA update infrastructure is a critical component for building a smarter, more sustainable future.
Learn more about the power of OTA updates for connected products.
Resources
https://www.epa.gov/gmi/importance-methane