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. Accelerator: ACCEL, an accelerator from Greentown Labs and Browning the Green Space (BGS), has named its 2024 cohort.
2. Decarbonization Software: Keep an eye on Unravel Carbon, a decarbonization platform that helps customers to measure, reduce and report their carbon emissions.
3. Google Spin-Out - Data Centers: Keep an eye on Verrus, a startup focused on sustainable data centers. It sounds like Verrus is backed by SIP -- and such investors as Google parent Alphabet, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP) and StepStone Group.
4. Enterprise IT: IBM introduced multiple sustainability solutions for enterprise IT customers.
5. Partnership - Supply Chain Sustainability: Trinity Consultants will assist customers with Makersite deployments. Makersite's software allows customers to create digital twins of products and supply chains. From their, customers can more fully understand their environmental sustainability metrics, the two companies said.
6. Partnership - Climate Change Investing: AVID Climate and Yale Sustainable Consulting Collective are collaborating to focus on climate change investing -- particularly as it pertains to the retail consumer investor market.
7. SEC and Scope 3 - More Analysis: Although the SEC will not require Scope 3 reporting, global companies will likely have to detail supply-chain emissions because of Scope 3 requirements in California and Europe, The Wall Street Journal noted.
8. Cities: Bloomberg has launched Bloomberg American Sustainable Cities, a three-year initiative to "turbocharge 25 U.S. cities’ efforts to leverage historic levels of federal funding to proactively build low-carbon, resilient, and economically thriving communities," the organization said.
9. Guidance - Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD): If you need a framework for carbon reporting and sustainability, KPMG is telling clientele to check out the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS)Â -- which are a central component of CSRD.
10. Methane Emissions - Research: Methane emissions from the energy sector remained near a record high in 2023, Reuters reported, despite a raft of commitments from the oil and gas industry to plug leaking infrastructure, a report by the International Energy Agency said.
11. Fossil Fuels: Shell Plc has been considering slowing the pace of its carbon-emissions cuts as it updates its energy-transition strategy, Bloomberg reported.
12. AI and Ethics: Ikigai Labs, a generative AI company focused on enterprise data, has formed an AI Ethics Council. The council will "tackle pressing ethical and security issues impacting AI development and usage, addressing next steps and recommendations for technology organizations and the workforce." Ikigai Labs emerged from MIT-based research.
B. Sustainability M&A, Investments, Funding and Green IT Business Launches
1. Partnership - Energy Storage Financing: USQRisk and Ascend Analytics are partnering to provide "more efficient financing for utility-scale energy storage projects," the companies said.
2. M&A - Solar and Energy Storage: BlackRock has acquired 38 solar energy and solar plus storage projects from Excelsior Energy Capital. 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. Germany - Electric Vehicle (EV) Transition: Germany needs a sharp turnaround in electric-vehicle sales momentum to stand a chance of meeting its emissions goals, Bloomberg reported.
D. Sustainability and Green Technology Conference Calendar
- 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 2024Â (March 18-19, Rotterdam, Netherlands)
- CERAWeek 2024 Conference Dates (March 18-22)
- 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.
