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 249 companies. The latest additions include IPG (Intertape Polymer Group), specialty polymer company Kraton, and QTS Data Centers.
2. IBM Carbon Calculator: IBM has launched a Cloud Carbon Calculator dashboard to "help enterprises track greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across cloud services and advance their sustainability performance throughout their hybrid, multicloud journeys," the company said. Related: Here is IBM's overall sustainability and green IT strategy for partners and customers.
3. Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability: The SaaS-based platform is helping customers like Costco, Land O'Lakes and REI take action to meet their environmental goals, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said during the company's earnings call on July 25, 2023. Related: Here is Microsoft's overall sustainability and green IT strategy for partners and customers.
4. Green Data Centers: Tachyum is positioning its Prodigy Universal Processors to help reduce data center power consumption.
5. Cloud Services - Partnership: Schneider Electric and Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) have deployed a distributed energy resource management system (DERMS) on Microsoft Azure to "more effectively maintain grid reliability, and accelerate customer adoption of distributed energy resources (DER) such as electric vehicles, energy storage and rooftop solar," the companies said.
6. GE - Renewable Energy Momentum: GE Vernova, which makes power generators and other equipment, saw renewable energy revenue rise 24% to $3.85 billion in Q of 2023, SeekingAlpha reported. GE Vernova is expected to spin off from the parent company in 2024.
7. Small Business E-waste: Nearly one-third of SMBs (small and midsize businesses) toss IT hardware into landfills, according to Capterra's 2023 IT management survey.
8. CFO Priorities: The top three priorities for transforming finance departments over the next three years include technology transformation, advanced data analytics and sustainability, according to an EY CFO survey.
9. Sustainability Trends: AccountAbility outlines seven sustainability trends for 2023 in this report.
10. SEC - DWS ESG Investigation: DWS, the German fund manager controlled by Deutsche Bank, is engaged in advanced resolution discussions with the US SEC to resolve their ESG and greenwashing investigation, which has been hanging over the company for two years, Reuters reported.
11. Solar Power - Slowing Growth?: Demand in Q2 of 29o23 has "weakened more than expected in the Southeast and Southwest" United States, where "macroeconomic uncertainty and higher interest rates have slowed our top-of-funnel lead generation and sales bookings," SunPower CEO Peter Farify said in an earnings warning.
12. Top Solar Contractors: Here is a list of the top solar contractors, according to Solar Power World Online.
B. Sustainability M&A, Investments and Funding
1. All M&A Activity: Our M&A database has now tracked 109 mergers and acquisitions involving sustainability so far in 2023. See all M&A deals involving sustainability listed here.
C. Regional and Global Sustainability Policies and News
1. US-China: The US and China need to come together to give global climate negotiations a “big push,” according to Singapore’s Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu, Bloomberg reported.
2. Canada: When the greenhouse gases released from Canada’s 2023 wildfires are eventually tallied, they will be at least double the emissions from all other sectors of the nation’s economy combined, according to a top government scientist who has spent three decades measuring the carbon footprint of forests, Bloomberg reported.
3. United Kingdom: The energy industry is warning that efficiency targets are likely to be on the chopping block as Conservative ministers look for ways to delay or weaken green policies that lead to direct costs on consumers, Bloomberg reported.
4. India - Carbon Tracker Startup: MyPlan8, a greentech startup that raised pre-seed funding in June 2023, has launched a free carbon emissions tracker for consumers in India.
D. 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
E. 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.
