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. Microsoft and Nuclear Power: Microsoft has hired Archana “Archie” Manoharan as its director of nuclear technologies...
2. Aligning AI and Sustainability: SAP says AI and climate action must go hand in hand...
3. Talent - Electric Vehicles: Rivian has hired Apple Car project veteran DJ Novotney as senior VP of vehicle programs, reporting directly to Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe, Bloomberg reported.
4. Partnership - Distributed Energy Resource Management (DERM): Danfoss and Enersponse are partnering to "enhance energy flexibility in HVAC and refrigeration systems by unlocking benefits for the food retail sector with Enersponse’s Automated Demand Response (Auto-DR) solutions," the two companies said.
5. Partnership - Real Estate: Cushman & Wakefield will leverage Measurabl's software and data solutions for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) use cases.
6. Partnership - Residential Housing: Elemental Excelerator and Finance New Orleans have launched the NOLA Affordable and Resilient Homes Challenge -- a fund and competition that seeks to use "community-centered financing to deploy climate technologies in new and retrofitted single-family homes," the two organizations said.
7. Partnership - Energy: BASF and Envision Energy are collaborating to "develop the conversion of green hydrogen and CO2 into e-methanol through an advanced, dynamic process design," the two companies said. The overall goal is to boost sustainable energy solutions.
8. Partnership - Clean Electricity Management: Flexidao and Google are collaborating to scale clean electricity portfolio management and 24/7 carbon-free energy matching processes, the companies said.
9. Research - Carbon Capture Market Growth Forecast: Spending on carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies will reach $18.1 billion by 2033 -- up from $5.5 billion in 2023, according to Market.US. That's a 13% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), the market research firm said.
10. Momentum - Renewable Energy: Adani Green Energy's third-quarter net income more than doubled following an expansion of its generation capacity. The renewable energy company is striving to raise $2 billion of debt in 2024 to fund growth.
11. Hitachi: Keep an eye on how Hitachi manages its Energy Business Division and Carbon Neutral Development Division. Some jargon-filled details are here.
B. Sustainability M&A, Investments, Funding and Green IT Business Launches
1. Funding - ESG Software: MioTech, a sustainability data and software provider based in Hong Kong, has raised a new round of funding. MioTech's ESG data and analytics assist financial institutions with green finance, sustainability-linked lending and investments. Financial figures for the round were not disclosed. ZhenFund, Horizons Ventures, TOM Group, Moody's, HSBC, Guotai Junan International, GIC and J.P. Morgan participated in the round.
2. Potential IPO - AI Chips: Cerebras Systems is considering an initial public offering as early as the second half of 2024, Bloomberg reported. Cerebras raised $250 million in a series F funding round in 2021, SeekingAlpha noted.
3. Investment - Carbon Capture: Fidelis New Energy and Core Sustainability Capital, backed by the Danish pension fund Velliv, have invested in Norne Carbon Storage Hub. Norne is developing a carbon storage hub to help decarbonize Denmark. Financial terms of the investment were not disclosed.
4. M&A - Maritime Software: ABB is acquiring the shipping business of DTN Europe and DTN Philippines. The deal expands ABB's maritime software for weather routing. ABB's business will now scale to support more than 5,000 connected maritime vessels. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
5. M&A - Building Decarbonization: Lemay of Montreal has acquired Quebec-based Fusion Énergie, which specializes in energy management and optimization solutions for buildings. Lemay is backed by National Bank, the CDPQ and FTQ. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
6. 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 - Hawaii Energy Transition: In Hawaii, one in three people has rooftop solar, 15% of new cars are electric and giant batteries increasingly store power for use when the sun goes down, USA Today reported.
2. United States - Energy Policy Concerns: Vulnerable Democrats in swing states are increasingly sounding the alarm about Biden environmental policies that risk turning off cost-conscious moderate voters they need to win at the ballot box, Bloomberg reported.
3. Italy - AI and ChatGPT Privacy Concerns: Italy's data protection authority, known as Garante, alleges that OpenAI's ChatGPT breaches data protection rules, Reuters reported.
D. Sustainability and Green Technology Conference Calendar
- Green Investment and Sustainability Summit 2024 (January 30-31, Chennai, India)
- ARC Industry Leadership Forum 2024 (February 4-8, Orlando, Florida)
- Music Sustainability Summit 2024 (February 5, Los Angeles, California)
- ConnectWise Automation Nation 2024 (February 6-10, Tampa, Florida)
- GTDC Summit North America 2024 (February 7-9, Oceanside, California)
- 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.
