Sustainable IT Services News 13 January 2026: Paladin EnviroTech Buys ITAD Company; Johnson Controls Funds Liquid Cooling Data Center Startup; More

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

A. Sustainable IT Partnerships, Strategic Alliances and Strategies

1. Will CSO Role Disappear?: Will the CSO role survive if sustainability is absorbed into the core functions of business? An article on Trellis explores that timely debate.

2. AI Data Centers - Power Purchase Agreement (PPA): Switch, an AI data center provider focused on sustainable IT services, has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with Ormat Technologies Inc. Ormat specializes in geothermal and renewable energy services.

3. Data Center Project Minimizes Water Consumption: RadiusDC plans to develop a colocation campus in Indianapolis. The campus will leverage closed-loop chillers that "allow near-zero water consumption while preserving a local waterway and mature vegetation on site." RadiusDC. The company has similar data center development initiatives underway in Atlanta, Georgia; Nashville, Tennessee; Denver, Colorado; and Miami, Florida.

4. Executive Leadership - Energy Management Services: Smart Metering Systems (SMS) has hired Ian Smyth to succeed Tim Mortlock as CEO. Mortlock will shift to a board advisory position. Smyth previously held key posts at Electricity North West, UK Power Networks, Navigant and EY. SMS owns and manages smart meters, energy data and other carbon reduction assets to facilitate effective energy management, the company notes.

5. Executive Leadership - Electric Vehicles (EVs): Rivian has hired Kohl's and Best Buy veteran Greg Revelle to chief customer officer (CCO) of Rivian. Revelle previously founded Revatek, an energy storage and battery charging startup that folded in January 2026. He also held key roals at AutoNation and Expedia, and currently sits on the Cars.com board.

6. AI Lawsuits: Malaysia's communications regulator said it will take legal action against Elon Musk's social media platform X and AI startup xAI due to concerns over user safety, just days after it restricted access to AI service Grok over deepfake images. (Source: SeekingAlpha). Related: List of AI lawsuits, court rulings and judgments.

7. Tesla - Solar Technology Launch: Tesla has updated its online configurator with a new solar panel heavily emphasizing its U.S. manufacturing at Gigafactory New York, Electrek reported. It’s a surprising new product launch for a business that Tesla has seemingly been dismantling for the last two years, the report said. Related: Tesla AI strategy, milestones and challenges.

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

1. M&A - IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) Services: Paladin EnviroTech of Tampa, Florida, has acquired R&L Recycling B.V., a Netherlands-based recycler with more than 25 years of experience in sustainable materials recovery and ITAD services. This is Paladin's first acquisition in Europe. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Paladin, backed by investment firm SER Capital Partners (SER) and Daeheung Recycling South Korea, launched in 2025 through two acquisitions: E-waste recycling specialist TechSmart International (TSI) of Florida; and ITAD specialist Integrated Recycling Technologies (IRT) of Minnesota. Related: List of ITAD mergers and acquisitions.

2. Funding - Liquid Cooling for AI Data Centers: Accelsius has raised $65 million in Series B funding. Johnson Controls led the round. Legrand also participated in the funding. Accelsius allows customers to "deploy high-performance GPUs at density without compromising efficiency or sustainability," the startup asserts.

3. Funding and M&A - AI Data Centers and Energy Services: OpenAI and SoftBank plan to invest $1 billion in SB Energy as part of a strategic partnership that will support OpenAI’s AI infrastructure buildout, CNBC reported. The investment is part of OpenAI's larger Stargate project -- which also involves investments and/or partnerships with Oracle and others. On a related note, SB Energy recently acquired Studio 151, a data center construction management, procurement, engineering, and operations company.

C. Regional and Global Sustainability Policies, Regulations and News

1. Global Energy Transition Challenges: The clean-energy transition is “still going to happen, but it will be more elongated than we thought previously, with more volatility and with some sub-sectors going faster than others,” JPMorgan analyst James Janoskey told Bloomberg.

2. France - Carbon Challenges: France is lagging behind targeted cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, adding to signs that Europe’s largest economies will struggle to reach their 2030 climate goals, Bloomberg reported.

3. United States - Wind Power Court Ruling: A US judge ruled Orsted A/S can resume building a wind farm project off the coast of Rhode Island while it challenges the government’s latest stop-work order, a major win for the Danish energy giant in an ongoing fight with the Trump administration over renewable energy, Bloomberg reported.

4. United States - Greenhouse Gas Emissions Research: U.S. greenhouse gas emissions ticked higher in 2025 following two years of declines, according to Rhodium Group, a research firm, Bloomberg said. In fact, the emissions rose more than the country’s gross domestic product, reversing the earlier decoupling of emissions from economic growth, the report said.

5. Research - MENA Sustainable Finance Market: The Middle East and North Africa’s (MENA) sustainable finance market reached $35.1 billion in 2025. That's a sevenfold increase since 2020 -- but down 18% since a 2023 peak, Bloomberg Intelligence reported. Related: List of sustainable IT research reports and market growth forecasts.

D. Sustainability Conferences, Summits and Events

1. World Future Energy Summit 2026 (January 13-15, UAE)
2. Sustainable and Impact Investments International Conference (January 22-23, Hamburg, Germany)
3. IMPACT Sustainability Travel and Tourism Summit 2026 (January 26-28, Victoria, BC, Canada)
4. Alabama Coastal Foundation 2026 Sustainability Summit (January 30, Gulf Shores)
5. Sustainable Retail Summit 2026 (February 3-6, Paris, France)
6. Complete Sustainability Conference Calendar

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.