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. AI Chips and Sustainability: Nvidia GTC 2024, an AI conference and expo for Nvidia customers and partners, will feature numerous sustainability sessions.
2. Government Projects - Climate Funding Tool: WSP has developed Climate Navigator Fund, a tool that helps states and cities to find federal funding for climate investments.
3. SaaS Applications: Oracle has launched Cloud EPM for Sustainability to assist customers with their ESG reporting and planning efforts.
4. IT Services: IBM Consulting continues to expand its sustainability services portfolio...
5. IT Services: Capgemini's IT organization is deeply involved in the company's journey to net zero, according to an update from Capgemini Group CIO Sudhir Reddy.
6. Printers & Office Equipment: Ricoh plans to achieve zero greenhouse gas emissions for Scope 1 and 2 by 2040 -- a new goal that advances its original 2050 targets by 10 years, the PC and office equipment maker said.
7. Juniper Partner Program: Juniper Networks has updated its Juniper Partner Advantage (JPA) Program to include various sustainability-focused components -- though specific details were not disclosed.
8. Partnership: Fujitsu and AWS on April 1, 2024 will launch a Modernization Acceleration Joint Initiative to "enable customers across industries to drive digital transformation with fast and secure legacy modernization." The effort will involve Fujitsu Uvance -- a consulting group and technology portfolio that assists customers with sustainability initiatives.
9. Partnership - Telecom Services: Cisco Systems and Telenor have expanded their joint relationship to help underserved communities with connectivity and sustainability initiatives, the two companies said. Telenor is a telecommunications company that serves more than 200 million subscribers across the Nordics and Asia.
10. Partnership - Saudi Arabia Data Centers: Schneider Electric and DataVolt are partnering to "drive sustainability and innovation in Saudi Arabia's hyperscale data center market," the two companies said.
11. IoT - Remote Monitoring: MIT has developed self-powered sensors to allow remote monitoring and remote diagnostics without any complex wiring or power requirements.
12. University Research: University of Wisconsin-Madison has launched a Sustainability Research Hub.
13. Solar Energy Layoffs: China’s Longi Green Technology Energy Co., the world’s largest solar manufacturer, is cutting almost one-third of its staff to slash costs in an industry struggling with overcapacity and fierce competition, Bloomberg reported.
14. Electric Vehicles: Fisker will pause EV production for six weeks and raise up to $150 million in funding by selling convertible notes as the startup tries to navigate a cash crunch and weak demand for its cars, Reuters reported.
B. Sustainability M&A, Investments, Funding and Green IT Business Launches
1. M&A - AI and Cloud Services: Nvidia is in advanced negotiations to acquire AI infrastructure orchestration and management platform Run:ai, Calcalist reported.
2. M&A - Data Centers: Ardian has acquired green data center platform Verne from Digital 9 Infrastructure. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Verne currently operates with 100% renewable energy in Iceland and 100% decarbonized energy in Finland and the UK. Ardian plans to pump roughly $1.2 billion into Verne to fuel additional growth and expansion, the buyer said.
3. M&A - Renewable Energy: KKR plans to acquire German energy company Envavis for $3.06 billion or so, the private equity firm disclosed.
4. 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
1. United States - Coal Power Policy: U.S. coal-fired power plants could be forced to shut down two years sooner than envisioned under a Biden administration plan to stifle pollution from the electricity sector, Bloomberg reported.
2. United States - SEC Policy Fuels Climate Accountant Growth: As a result of the new SEC climate disclosure rules, businesses will spend roughly $907 million per year on carbon accounting service providers, an 18% increase over current levels, Reuters reported.
3. United States - California Financing: GoGreen Financing, which provides residential and business loans for energy efficiency upgrades, reached a $100 million milestone in California's residential market in Q1 2024.
4. United States - Massachusetts Energy Transition: The state of Massachusetts has formed an Office of the Energy Transformation. The office will strive to execute a "community-by-community decarbonization strategy."
5. Germany - Climate Goals: Germany is likely to reach its overall climate goals by 2030, Bloomberg reported, even as it struggles to comply in the transport and building sectors, according to the Federal Environment Agency.
6. Australia - Climate Goals: Australia’s carbon emissions aren’t dropping fast enough to reach its 2030 climate target, Oxford Economics said, as the rollout of renewable energy takes longer than initially anticipated, Bloomberg reported.
7. China - Energy Storage Project: China’s largest utility has started construction on a 28 billion yuan ($3.9 billion) project to transmit electricity across three provinces and store it in mountain reservoirs as the country integrates growing amounts of intermittent renewable energy.
D. Sustainability and Green Technology Conference Calendar
- Future of Sustainability Conference 2024Â (March 19-20, Johannesburg, South Africa)
- European Automotive Decarbonization and Sustainability Summit 2024 (March 19-20, Frankfurt, Germany)
- WindEurope 2024 (March 20-22, Bizkaia, Spain)
- One Earth Summit 2024 (March 25, Hong Kong)
- ChangeNow 2024 (March 25-27, Paris, France)
- 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.
