Here is today’s sustainability news, research and analysis for technology partners; renewable energy and green IT service providers; management consultants; CIOs; chief sustainability officers (CSOs), c-suite members and climate accounting professionals.
A. Sustainable Technology, Talent, Partnerships and Green IT Alliances
1. Partnership - SMB Carbon Accounting Software: Green Project Technologies, a carbon accounting platform for small businesses, is now available via Microsoft AppSource. Green Project, founded in 2021, helps more than 500 SMB customers to track, report and manage their carbon emissions.
2. Partnership - Managed ESG Services: EY and IBM are partnering to offer various managed ESG and sustainability services.
3. Help Wanted - AI and Google Data Centers: Google is seeking an executive to develop a long-term roadmap and budget "needed to address the growth of AI/ML and its energy and carbon footprint."
4. Advisor: Former Visa Chief Sustainability Officer Douglas Sabo has joined Persefoni's Sustainability Advisory Board. Persefoni develops software and tools that help organizations to develop and oversee their decarbonization strategies.
5. Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging - Headquarters: Blink Charging has established its global corporate headquarters in Bowie, Maryland.
6. Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Infrastructure: Mer will establish over 1,000 new charging points at IKEA stores and locations in Germany over the next three years, the companies said. Mer and IKEA have a similar relationship in the United Kingdom.
7. AI Lawsuit: OpenAI called Elon Musk’s lawsuit against the company frivolous, and said Musk himself supported a for-profit structure for OpenAI, CNBC reported.
B. Sustainability M&A, Investments, Funding and Green IT Business Launches
1. Cisco Funding: It has been roughly three years since Cisco Systems pledged $100 million over 10 years to combat climate change. How is that effort going? Chief Sustainability Officer Mary de Wysocki offers updates here.
2. Funding - Venture Capital: NextEnergy Capital has raised $580 million for its NextPower V ESG Fund -- which focuses on solar PV and energy storage. The fund's target raise is $1.5 billion.
3. Funding - Carbon Capture Startup: CarbonCapture, a U.S.-based startup aims to build machines that suck carbon dioxide out of the air to fight climate change, has raised $80 million from investors that include Saudi oil giant Saudi Aramco, Reuters reported.
4. M&A - Engineering Services: Verdantas, backed by private equity firm RTC Partners, has acquired Lewandowski Engineers. This acquisition expands Verdantas into the Great Lakes Area. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
5. Complete M&A List: Here's our database of all M&A deals involving sustainability, green IT and renewable energy buyers, sellers and investors.
C. Regional and Global Sustainability Policies and News
1. United States - Solar Industry Pressures: Many planned U.S. solar factories probably won’t be built as cheap imports from Chinese companies push global cell and panel prices so low that even federal subsidies can’t sustain domestic solar factories, BloombergNEF warned.
2. United Kingdom - Gas Policy: The UK will allow new gas-fired power plants to be built into the 2030s, watering down a previous commitment to have a net zero grid by 2035, Bloomberg reported.
3. Australia Climate Warning: Australia’s worsening climate change may see insurance companies and banks withdraw their services from communities vulnerable to extreme events, potentially triggering “cascading effects” across the economy, Bloomberg reported.
D. Sustainability and Green Technology Conference Calendar
- Aspen Ideas: Climate 2024 (March 11-13, Miami, Florida)
- SAVe 2024: Global Conference Sustainability in AV (March 14-15, Los Angeles, California)
- Roth Conference 2024 (March 17-19, Dana Point, California)
- Environmental Justice and Sustainability Conference 2024 (March 18-19, Stanford University)
- Biobased & Recycled Textiles Conference 2024 (March 18-19, Rotterdam, Netherlands)
- Complete Calendar of Sustainability Conferences
E. Previous Updates & Future News
- Did You Miss Yesterday's Daily Update?: Here is our previous sustainability, green IT and renewable energy news for technology partners.
- Future Updates: If you have news to share then please email me the details.
