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. Annual ESG Reports: Our global database of annual sustainability and ESG reports now spans 266 companies. The latest addition is American Electric Power (AEP).
2. AI and Sustainability: IBM has developed a prototype "brain-like" chip that could make artificial intelligence (AI) more energy efficient, BBC reported.
3. Amazon Sustainability Accelerator: Here's how Amazon selected 16 startups for the Amazon Sustainability Cohort, according to Forbes. Among the key names to know: Isobel Wilson, program lead for the Amazon Sustainability Accelerator.
4. IT Distribution, Networking and Circular Economy: TD Synnex has achieved the Cisco Environmental Sustainability Specialization for its business in Europe. Among the benefits: TD Synnex partners can plug into the Cisco Takeback incentive, which enables the free return of used hardware to be remanufactured, recycled or safely disposed of, and up to 7% discount for new products on qualifying deals. In addition, obtaining this specialization helps partners advance toward Cisco Select Partner status, the companies noted.
5. Talent - Engineering and Consulting: Beca has named Amelia Linzey as group CEO, effective October 1, 2023. Linzey is currently Beca’s group director – advisory, chief planner, chair of the business’ Sustainability Steering Group and a director of both the Beca Group and Beca NZ boards. The engineering firm, based in Auckland, New Zealand, has more than 4,000 employees across 25 offices worldwide.
6. Talent - Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging:  ChargePoint has hired Circle, Novi, and Google veteran Sherice Torres as chief marketing officer.
7. Talent - Sustainability Consulting: Longevity Partners, a sustainability consultancy in Europe, has name Ed Wealend as chief innovation officer.
8. Talent - 3M Board of Directors: Former Morgan Stanley Chief Sustainability Officer Audrey Choi has joined 3M's board of directors. Choi retired from Morgan Stanley in 2022.
9. Supply Chain Dispute: SunPower and Maxeon Solar Technologies are trying to resolve a "dispute over alleged breaches of master supply agreements," SunPower said.
10. Quarterly Earnings: JinkoSolar's revenues were $4.23 billion in Q2 of 2023, up 62.9% compared to Q2 of 2022. The results generally beat Wall Street's expectations. We'll be listening to JinkoSolar's earnings call for potential updates on JinkoSolar office raids and an associated U.S. Department of Homeland Security investigation.
11. ESG Guide for General Contractors: How can general contractors embrace ESG strategies? This ebook may help...
B. Sustainability M&A, Investments and Funding
1. ESG Due Diligence Influences M&A: More than half (53%) of investors have canceled M&A deals because of material findings in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) due diligence, KPMG’s 2023 ESG Due Diligence study found, according to Consulting.us.
2. Debt Financing: Workiva plans to offer, subject to market and other conditions, $525 million principal amount of its Convertible Senior Notes due 2028 through a private offering. Workiva intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to repurchase for cash a portion of its 1.125% Convertible Senior Notes due 2026. The remaining net proceeds will be used for working capital, R&D and potential acquisitions. Details about the offering surfaced roughly one week after Workiva CEO Julie Iskow described a generational opportunity for the ESG software company.
3. Funding - Climate Accounting Software: Persefoni raised $50 million in a Series C-1 funding round led by TPG Rise. Moreover, Clearvision Ventures, ENEOS Innovation Partners, NGP Energy Technology Partners, Prelude Ventures, Parkway Ventures, Rice Investment Group, Bain and Co., EDF, and Alumni Ventures participated in the round. At the same time, the company launched PersefoniGPT. The AI software enables, among other things, anomaly detection, natural language data matching, and automated data error resolution, the company said.
4. Funding - Solar Energy: Caelux has raised $12 million in Series A3 funding led Temasek. Moreover, Reliance New Energy Limited, Khosla Ventures, Mitsui Fudosan, and Fine Structure Ventures participated in the round. Total Series A funding was $24 million.
5. Offering: Sunnova Energy International has launched an underwritten public offering of $75.0 million of Sunnova’s common stock. Shares in the company fell about 8% on the news.
C. Regional and Global Sustainability Policies and News
1. United States - Clean Energy Supply Chains: The United States is working to build resilient, diversified clean energy supply chains to protect its economic security, while guarding against the risks posed by over-concentration in a handful of countries, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in remarks prepared for an event in Las Vegas, Reuters reported.
2. Germany: Chancellor Olaf Scholz sees upcoming green tech investments in Germany helping revive growth in Europe’s largest economy, Bloomberg reported.
3. Australia: Australian home insurance premiums jumped the most in two decades in the past year, driven by weather catastrophes and higher building costs, Bloomberg reported.
D. Sustainability and Green Technology Conference Calendar
- MEMA Sustainability Summit (August 15, Troy, Michigan)
- World ESG Summit 2023 (August 21-22, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
- VMware Explore 2023 (August 21-24, Las Vegas, Nevada)
- Google Cloud Next 2023 Partner and Customer Conference (August 29-21, San Francisco)
- Sustainability Live 2023 (Sept. 6-7, London, United Kingdom)
- Complete Calendar of Sustainability Conferences
E. Previous Updates & Future News
1. Did You Miss Our Previous 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.
