Sustainable IT News for Channel Partners and MSPs: 14 August 2025

Here is today's sustainable IT services news, research and analysis -- written for channel partners, MSPs, green IT service providers, climate accounting professionals, and the chief sustainability officers (CSOs) they serve.

A. Sustainable IT Partnerships, Strategic Alliances and Strategies

1. AI and Power Management: Cisco Systems CEO Chuck Robbins mentioned AI market opportunities multiple times during the company's quarterly earnings call with Wall Street analysts on August 13. However, Robbins failed to say how Cisco's network hardware and software can assist partners, customers and data center providers with power management amid AI's massive energy consumption requirements. Related: See Cisco's overall sustainability strategy here.

2. Smartphones: Fairphone 6, a modular smartphone designed to be repairable and sustainable, won rave reviews from Wired.

3. Big Tech - Carbon Credit Strategies: Microsoft has been on a carbon credit buying spree in 2025, while Amazon believes a more measured approach is better for fighting climate change, The Wall Street Journal reported.

4. Data Center Challenges: Data center operators reported limited sustainability advances—and even some setbacks -- amid rising power demand and political headwinds in certain regions, Network World reported based on the Uptime Institute’s 15^th Annual Global Data Center Survey 2025.

5. Partnership - Virtual Power Plants (VPPs): The Connecticut Green Bank and GoodLeap are partnering to develop and operate Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) across Connecticut. The duo will deploy residential solar systems and battery energy storage to help lower energy costs, improve grid resilience, and advance Connecticut's clean energy goals, the orgnanizations said.

6. Layoffs: Clean energy project specialist LevelTen Energy is laying off 60 workers, effective August 15, a filing indicated. Related: See detailed list of sustainability layoffs here.

B. Sustainable IT Investments, Funding, Earnings and Business Launches

1. Funding - Data Centers: Zero Two has invested in Evolution Data Centres, a sustainable data center platform provider in Southeast Asia. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Warburg Pincus also owns a stake in Evolution.

C. Regional and Global Sustainability Policies, Regulations and News

1. COP30 Lodging Headaches: An August 14 meeting to address lodging issues was postponed, and no new date announced, Bloomberg reported. Related: See all COP30 news updates here.

2. United States - Renewable Energy Policies: A Treasury Department decision due the week of August 18 threatens to undermine the financial viability of hundreds of planned clean energy projects, adding to an escalating Trump administration campaign against wind and solar power, Bloomberg reported.

3. United States - Maritime Emissions: The U.S. rejected the "Net-Zero Framework" proposal by the International Maritime Organization, which is aimed at reducing global greenhouse gas emissions from the international shipping sector, and threatened measures against countries that support it, Reuters reported.

4. United States - Climate Lawsuit: Two major environmental groups (the Environmental Defense Fund and the Union of Concerned Scientists) sued the Trump administration for secretly convening a group of climate skeptics, which prepared a report that served as the basis for a reversal of U.S. rules on greenhouse gas emissions without public notice, Reuters reported.

D. Sustainability Conferences, Summits and Events

1. International Conference on Sustainable Tourism Management (ICSTM) 2025 (August 24-26, Paris)
2. Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Global Summit 2025 (September 2-3, London, United Kingdom)
3. Workiva Amplify 2025 (September 8-10, Washington, D.C.)
4. RE+ 2025 Renewable Energy Conference (September 8-11, Las Vegas, Nevada)
5. Sustainability Live 2025 (September 9-10, London, United Kingdom)

E. Previous Updates & Future News

1. Previous News: All of our daily news updates are here.
2. Future Updates: If you have news to share then please email me the details.