Here is today’s sustainability news, research and analysis for technology partners, renewable energy and green IT companies, management consultants, CIOs, chief sustainability officers (CSOs) and c-suite members.
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A. Sustainable Technology, Talent, Partnerships and Alliances
1. Corporate ESG Reports: Our database of corporate sustainability reports now spans 263 companies. The latest additions include transportation and energy specialist U.S. Venture, and medicine supplier Zentiva.
2. Financial Results - Sustainable Buildings: Johnson Controls, which develops technology for sustainable buildings, generated $7.1 billion in sales for Q3 of 2023, up 8% from Q3 of 2022. Also, net income from continuing operations was $1.05 billion, up from $379 million in Q3 of 2022.
3. Building Energy Management and ESG Reporting: Redaptive, an Energy-as-a-Service provider, has unveiled Redaptive ONE -- a digital platform that tracks and analyzes building energy use data to provide actionable insights for facility managers and energy and sustainability professionals, the company said.
4. Talent: Apple executive Lisa P. Jackson has joined Galvanize Climate Solutions, a climate-focused global investment firm, as strategic advisor.
5. Talent: Mach49 has promoted Senior VP Mark Simoncelli to chief revenue officer. Simoncelli will "lead an expanded team focused on leveraging client resources to build and invest in new ventures," the company said. Among his key priorities is to help "companies seize once-in-a-generation opportunities to drive growth through climate and sustainability endeavors," Mach49 said.
6. Meeting: Shanghai Electric Chairwoman Leng Weiqing visited Germany in July to hold talks with Christian Bruch, CEO and chief sustainability officer of Siemens Energy AG. Their goal: "Further deepen industrial cooperation and collaborative innovation and promote the transformation and development of low-carbon and high-quality energy," the two organizations said. Bruch had visited Shanghai Electric's headquarters in early 2023.
7. AI for Sustainability: Wintershall Dea, a natural gas and oil company that's evolving toward gas and carbon management, is working with IBM Consulting to "establish an AI Center of Competence (CoC) while progressing multiple value-generating AI use cases that support an efficient energy production," IBM said. Much of the work involves AI solutions built atop Microsoft Azure, the report added.
8. Lawsuit - former ESG Employee: Astatine Investment Partners and its managing partners were sued by the private equity firm’s former environmental, social and governance (ESG) head, who claims she was denied promotion to managing director and carried-interest compensation because she was a woman, Bloomberg reported. Patricia Burnell filed suit in federal court in Manhattan. The private equity firm did not immediately respond to Bloomberg's request for comment.
B. Sustainability Podcasts, Conversations and Interviews
1. Data Center Sustainability Strategies: Featuring Robert Burger, office of the CTO, Schneider Electric.
2. Small Business Carbon Accounting Trends: Featuring Alexis Normand, CEO, Greenly.
3. Coming Soon - Smart Buildings and Energy-Efficient Commercial Real Estate : Featuring Sam Ramadori, CEO, BrainBox AI. Coming soon.
4. Who's Next?: Do you want to potentially share your views on the Sustainable Tech Partner podcast? Email your request to Joe Panettieri, founder of Mentore Ventures and Sustainable Tech Partner (Joe@MentoreVentures.com).
C. Sustainability M&A, Investments and Funding
1. Funding - Clean Technology: TruckLabs, a clean technology company focused on trucking sustainability, has raised Series B funding led by Blue Bear Capital. Also, Calibrate Ventures participated in the round. Financial details were not disclosed.
2. M&A - Recycling Services: RSK has acquired Bateman Skips, a waste management and recycling services provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
3. M&A - Sustainable Refrigeration: CoolSys has acquired Lima Company, a blended service provider of commercial and industrial HVAC, refrigeration, plumbing and energy services throughout Eastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey. Financial terms were not disclosed.
4. M&A - Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC): Electriq Power, a provider of intelligent energy storage and management for homes and small businesses, has merged with TLG Acquisition One Corp.(TLGA), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The combined company will operate as Electriq Power Holdings, trading under the ticker symbols ELIQ and ELIQ WS.
5. M&A - Africa Renewable Energy: SolarAfrica and Starsight Energy have completed their merger. The firms claim the deal creates a "leading pan-African renewable energy solutions provider."
6. M&A - Renewable Energy Services: RES, which positions itself as the world’s largest independent renewable energy company, is acquiring Ingeteam’s Renewable Service division. RES plans to integrate Ingeteam’s proprietary digital solutions into its existing technology services. This will allow RES to "enhance its cutting-edge digital offer, and build on its AI and machine learning capabilities to help maximize the potential of customers’ renewable assets," the buyer said. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
7. All M&A Activity: Our M&A database has now tracked 114 mergers and acquisitions involving sustainability so far in 2023. See all M&A deals involving sustainability listed here.
D. Regional and Global Sustainability Policies and News
1. Climate Protests at COP28 Climate Conference: The United Arab Emirates will allow environmental activists to “assemble peacefully” at the COP28 climate conference, despite a prohibition on unauthorized protests in the Gulf state, The Times of Israel reported.
2. United States - Policy Shortfall: US President Joe Biden’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, could slash US greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050 but not come close to eliminating them, according to a new analysis from BlooombergNEF.
3. United Kingdom: Britain's business ministry said that company disclosures on climate change will be based on internationally-approved standards as it seeks to maintain London's attractiveness as a global financial center, Reuters reported.
E. Sustainability and Green Technology Conference Calendar
- ASES Solar 2023 Conference (August 8-11, Boulder, Colorado)
- MEMA Sustainability Summit (August 15, Troy, Michigan)
- World ESG Summit 2023 (August 21-22, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
- Google Cloud Next 2023 Partner and Customer Conference (August 29-21, San Francisco)
- Sustainability Live 2023 (September 6-7, London, United Kingdom)
- International Conference on Sustainable Development - ICSD 2023 (Rome, Italy)
- Complete Calendar of Sustainability Conferences
F. Previous Updates & Future News
1. Did You Miss Yesterday's Daily Update?: Here is our previous sustainability, green IT and renewable energy news for technology partners.
2. Future Updates: Send Us Your News Tips. Please email me the details.
