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) and c-suite members.
A. Sustainable Technology, Talent, Partnerships and Green IT Alliances
1. The 100 Most Sustainable U.S. Companies: Calvert Research and Management, part of Morgan Stanley Investment Management, has published the 100 Most Sustainable U.S. Companies list in Barron’s. The annual list evaluates companies on over 230 environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics and ranks them according to their progress against sustainability categories that align to financial materiality, Calvert said.
2. Partnership - Networking and Net Zero: Orange Business and Cisco have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a "joint action plan to help reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions," the two companies said. The effort involves creating an "emissions baseline regarding the GHG emissions of Orange Business solutions that integrate Cisco products, allowing both organisations to measure GHG emissions across their shared portfolio," the two companies said. Four key focus areas include:
- GHG Emissions Trajectory
- Carbon Impact of Products and Services
- Emphasis on Circular Economy Programs and Principles
- Eco-designed Products and Solutions of the Future
3. Partnership - Software and Financial Services: SIX Group will leverage Greenomy to drive sustainability efforts.
4. Partnership - Telecom Services: Telkomsel plans to leverage new 5G technologies from Ericsson as part of a telecom services expansion in Indonesia. The effort includes sustainability initiatives.
5. Partnership - Carbon Footprint Software: Yokogawa Electric Corporation has released OpreX Carbon Footprint Tracer, an emissions management service for process manufacturing industries. The tool works with SAP's Sustainability Footprint Management service.
6. Partnership - Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS): Smarter Grid Solutions (SGS) and Generac Grid Services (GGS) are partnering to promote a DERMS solution. GGS’s Concerto platform will be offered as an integrated module of SGS’s Strata Grid Utility DERMS platform to coordinate responses from DER Aggregators, the two companies said.
7. Executive Leadership - Solar Technology: Sunrock Distributed Generation has hired Sunlight Financial Co-Founder Wilson Chang as CEO.
8. Executive Leadership - Financial Services: TimeToAct Capital, an investment group specializing in global climate and impact strategies, has appointed two partners -- Alexis Figeac and Emilie Finiels -- to strengthen its Venture ClimateTech team, the company said.
9. Executive Leadership: Data center and colocation provider Penta Infra, backed by lead investor Photon Capital, has hired Bob Sprengers to succeed Alex Bakker as CEO. The transition will occur in March 2024. Bakker will focus full time on his role as managing partner of Photon Capital. He remains chairman of Penta Infra's board. Pentra Infra owns and operates 12 data centers across the Netherlands, Germany, France and Denmark.
10. Research - Utilities and AI: Roughly 74% of Energy and Utility companies have implemented or are exploring using AI in their operations, according to IBM.
11. Electric Grid: Rhode Island Energy will deploy Landis+Gyr smart meter technology to more than 530,000 electric customers in the state. The deployment, part of Rhode Island's sustainability strategy, will start in 2025.
B. Sustainability M&A, Investments, Funding and Green IT Business Launches
1. Funding: Xcelerate, which offers compliance and ESG solutions, has raised roughly $25 million in funding, The Times of India reported.
2. M&A - ITAD and IT Services: Australian sustainable technology lifecycle management firm Greenbox Group has acquired sustainable technology firm Remark IT, CRN reported.
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 and Scope 3 Reporting: The SEC has dropped a requirement for U.S.-listed companies to disclose so-called Scope 3 emissions, which was included in its original draft of the rules published in March 2022, Reuters reported.
2. European Union - ESG Policy: Member states will make a new push to win agreement on the bloc’s strictest ESG law this week in a last-minute deal aimed at bypassing German objections, Bloomberg reported.
D. Sustainability and Green Technology Conference Calendar
- Distributech International 2024 Conference (February 26-29, Orlando, Florida)
- Sage Transform 2024 Conference (February 26-29, Las Vegas)
- Columbia University: SUMASA Annual Sustainability Symposium 2024 (March 1, New York)
- UCONN Global Business Leadership in Sustainability Summit 2024 (March 1, Connecticut)
- Economist Impact Energy Transition Summit 2024 (March 4, London, United Kingdom)
- 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.
