Here is today’s sustainable IT services and climate tech news, research and analysis -- written for technology partners, green IT service providers, CIOs, chief sustainability officers (CSOs) and climate accounting professionals.
A. Sustainable IT, Talent, Partnerships and Green Tech Alliances
1. AI and the Energy Grid: IBM researchers are exploring how AI can prepare the electrical grid for the low-carbon era, the technology company said.
2. Research - AI and Energy Use: Two Schneider Electric research reports explore AI’s potential impact on energy consumption.
3. Research - DERMS Market Growth Forecast: The global DERMS market is expected to reach $1.44 billion by 2029, up from $610 million in 2024, according to Markets and Markets. That's an 18.8% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), the forecast said. DERMS stands for distributed energy resource management system -- a software platform used to manage a group of distributed energy resources.
4. Partnership - Apple and AWS AI Chips: Apple is using AWS AI chips for services like search and will evaluate if the latest AWS AI chip can be used to pre-train its models like Apple Intelligence, CNBC reported.
5. Executive Hire: Clean energy consulting, auditing, and advisory firm EcoEngineers has hired Dan Krekelberg as climate strategy director.
6. Consulting Business - Net Zero Strategy: CBRE released a holistic Climate Transition Strategy, which provides a "roadmap to reach net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2040 across all parts of the company's business," CBRE said.
7. Clean Energy Consortium: More than two dozen companies have launched Mercury Consortium, which seeks to "establish guidelines and best practices to accelerate the adoption and impact of clean energy technologies, such as EV chargers, heat pumps, solar panels, smart thermostats, and residential batteries."
8. Research - Website and Carbon: Nearly 85% of Internet users don't realize that websites have a carbon footprint, Hostinger research found.
9. Partnership - EV Charger Deployments:Â Power Design will leverage EV chargers from Blink Charging for various project locations, the companies said.
B. Sustainability M&A, Climate Tech Investments, Funding and Green IT Business Launches
1. Accelerator - Zero: The fourth edition of Zero, a Cleantech Accelerator backed by CDP Venture Capital, launched in December 2024. Key backers of the accelerator include ENI, Acea, Marie Tecnimont and Microsoft Italia.
2. Accelerator - Build3 Impact : Build3, a community focused on impact startups, is accepting applications for its fourth cohort. The next cohort will begin on February 17, 2024.
3. Funding - SaaS for Energy Management: enSights, a cloud-based clean energy optimization and management platform company, has raised $10 million in Series A funding. JAL Ventures and XT VC co-led the round, with participation from the Menomadin Foundation. enSights plans to expand its SaaS-based solutions for energy management and optimization, especially in the United States.
4. Funding - Battery Energy Management: Zitara has raised $17 million in Series AA funding. Salesforce Ventures led the round. Emerson Ventures, Chevron Technology Ventures, Energy Impact Partners and Climate Capital also participated in the round. Zitara develops a cloud platform that allows customers to remotely monitor batteries. Valuation details were not disclosed. Disclosure: Channel Angels, an angel investor group owned by Sustainable Tech Partner parent Mentore Ventures, is a Zitara investor.
5. Funding - Home Energy Startup: ConnectDER has raised $35 million in Series D funding. Decarbonization Partners, a partnership between BlackRock and Temasek, led the round. Valuation terms were not disclosed.
6. Complete M&A List: Here's our database of all M&A deals involving green IT and renewable energy buyers, sellers and investors.
C. Regional and Global Sustainability Policies and News
Nothing new to share today.
D. Sustainable IT and Green Technology Conference Calendar
- International Conference on Sustainable Energy and Green Technology - SEGT 2024Â (December 15-18, Thailand)
- CES 2025 (January 7-10, Las Vegas, Nevada)
- Sustainable and Impact Investments International Conference 2025Â (January 14-15, Dublin, Ireland)
- Davos 2025 --Â World Economic Forum 2025Â annual meeting (January 20-24, Switzerland)
- Sustainable Foods Summit 2025 (January 22-23, San Francisco, California)
- Complete Calendar of Sustainability Conferences
E. Previous Updates & Future News
