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. Chief Sustainability Officers: New CSOs include...
2. Talent - Solar and Heat Pumps: Octopus Energy, the UK’s second-largest household energy provider, plans as many as 4,000 new jobs by the end of 2024, expanding in areas of solar and heat pumps, Bloomberg reported.
3. Talent - Financial Services: Bayshore Global Management -- the family office of Google co-founder Sergey Brin -- has hired Rachel Teo to help find and manage green investments, Bloomberg reported. Teo is the former head of sustainability for Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund.
4. Incubator: Logitech has launched a Future Positive Challenge for technology startups. Applications to participate are open until March 31, 2024.
5. Energy Transition - Fusion Power: MIT says it continues to make more progress on enabling technologies for Fusion Power.
6. Financial Services and Net Zero Strategies: Scope 3 emissions account for 71% of emissions in the financial services sector, but are currently under-reported, Research and Markets reported. The main contributors to upstream Scope 3 are purchased goods and services and business travel.
7. Managed Solar Services: Xpansiv's Managed Solution business has surpassed 100,000 solar power systems and 1.5GW of renewable energy capacity. Xpansiv positions itself as the largest independent technology platform for managing and selling solar renewable energy and clean transportation credits in North America.
8. Lawsuit vs. Nvidia: Three authors -- Brian Keene, Abdi Nazemian and Stewart O'Nan -- have sued Nvidia because the chip giant alleged used their copyrighted books without permission to train its NeMo AI platform, Reuters reported.
B. Sustainability M&A, Investments, Funding and Green IT Business Launches
1. M&A - Potential Exit:  Private equity firm Partners Group may sell German renewable energy company VSB Group, Reuters reported. The potential asset sale could be valued at $1 billion to $2 billion, the report said. Also, Partners Group has decided against merging Exus into VSB Group, the report said.
2. M&A - Energy Storage: GridStor, backed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, has acquired a battery energy storage project in Galveston County, Texas. The project, slated to begin construction in Summer 2024, has an anticipated on-line date of Spring 2025. Financial terms were not disclosed.
3. 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 - Zero Emissions Building Standards: The White House Office is seeking to create a standardized, verifiable definition for zero emissions buildings, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
2. United States - Methane Emissions: Texas, the nation’s biggest energy producing state, filed a complaint asking a court to block a new rule by the US Environmental Protection Agency that targets reductions in methane emissions from the oil and gas industry, 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.
