Here is today’s sustainability news, research and analysis for technology partners, renewable energy consultants and green IT service providers. Today's sustainability news also involves management consultants, CIOs, chief sustainability officers (CSOs), c-suite members and climate accounting professionals.
A. Sustainable Technology, Talent, Partnerships and Green IT Alliances
1. Survey: Only 24% of companies say they are ready for upcoming sustainability reporting requirements, Bain & Company reported.
2. Green IT Playbook: Smart Columbus and Rackspace Technology -- the major multi-cloud MSP -- have unveiled a Green IT Playbook to assist organizations in the Columbus, Ohio, region. Still, IT organizations in any region can potentially benefit from the playbook -- which includes 11 green IT practices to help technology departments align with organization-wide ESG approaches. By the way, Smart Columbus is a "broad coalition of organizations committed to a shared vision of sustainability in their technology are IT operations."
3. Managed IT Services: Keep an eye on OryxAlign, an MSP in London, United Kingdom. Among the MSP's key focus areas: Assisting customers with the transition to green buildings.
4. Green Software Development: The Software Carbon Intensity (SCI) Specification v1.0 is now an ISO standard. Software developers and IT managers can leverage the standard to develop and run software in a more sustainable way.
5. Software - CSRD Reporting: IBM has updated the Envizi ESG Suite to help customers with their CSRD reporting requirements.
6. Software - Supply Chain Management: nShift, a provider of parcel delivery and transport management software, is pitching this guidance to help customers build sustainability supply chains.
7. Microsoft - Power Purchase Agreement: Microsoft has signed a global power purchase agreement (PPA) with Brookfield Asset Management. The initial engagement involves renewable energy supplies in the United States and Europe. The relationship can potentially expand to involve additional capability across the U.S. and Europe, and potential expansion into Asia-Pacific, India and Latin America. Microsoft is striving to achieve "100% of our electricity consumption, 100% of the time, matched by zero carbon energy purchases by 2030," the company reiterated.
8. Cisco Systems: When the Cisco Live 2024 conference arrives in June, it's a safe bet the networking company will connect the dots between AI infrastructure and sustainability. Jeremy Foster offers some preview clues in this blog.
9. Lenovo - Solar Energy: Lenovo’s newest Global Innovation Centre, located in Hungary, allows customers to test HPC (high performance computing) workloads on 100% solar energy, the company said.
10. Lenovo - Device and Infrastructure as a Service: Lenovo continues to emphasize TruScale Infrastructure as a Service as a path toward sustainable IT. Multiple MSPs and channel partners have emphasized similar messaging in recent weeks. Examples include NTT Data and HP promoting Sustainable Device as a Service. Moreover, Circular Computing and Total IT Global have partnered to promote Device as a Service aligned with carbon-neutral hardware.
11. Partnership - Cloud Services and IT Consulting: In a blog, AWS and Accenture described how they are working together on various circular economy initiatives.
12. Partnership - IT Consulting and Financial Services Software: Ernst & Young (EY) and SAP Fioneer are partnering to assist financial services customers with software solutions. The alliance "focuses on banking and insurance solutions and offerings for the CFO in areas such as financial products subledger, financial control, insurance collections and disbursements and sustainability solutions," the two firms said. SAP Fioneer, launched in 2021, is a joint venture between SAP and entrepreneurial investor Dediq.
13. Smart Buildings - Financial Results: Johnson Controls sales for Q2 of 2024 were $6.7 billion -- essentially flat compared to Q2 of 2023. The results were a bit below Wall Street's expectations. The company continues to focus on "smart, healthy and sustainable buildings."
14. Compliance Mandates and Regulations: Which ESG regulations will your business potentially need to navigate? A blog from environmental consulting firm Antea Group offers some guidance on ESG regulations:
- US Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)
- US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Climate-Related Disclosure Ruling
- California SB253 - Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act (CCDAA)
- California Senate Bill 261 is the Climate Related Financial Risk Act (CRFRA)
- EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD)
- EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)
- EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)
15. AI and Sustainability - Vision Statement: Supermicro President and CEO Charles Liang will keynote the COMPUTEX 2024 conference, which is scheduled for June 3-7 in Taipei, Taiwan. The event focuses on six major themes: AI computing, Advanced Connectivity, Future Mobility, Immersive Reality, Sustainability, and Innovations.
16. Tesla - EV Charging Network Pivot?: After hundreds of Tesla Supercharger Network layoffs, CEO Elon Musk offered this context via X: "Tesla still plans to grow the Supercharger network, just at a slower pace for new locations and more focus on 100% uptime and expansion of existing locations."
17. Executive Leadership - Renewable Energy: Craig Cornelius will succeed Chris Sotos as CEO of Clearway Energy Group, a provider of wind, solar and energy storage solutions. Clearway will announce Q1 2024 results on May 9.
B. Sustainability M&A, Investments, Funding and Green IT Business Launches
1. Funding - AI and Satellites: AiDash, a provider of enterprise SaaS software that assists infrastructure customers with climate resilience and sustainability strategies, has raised $58.5 million in Series C funding. Lightrock led the round. Additional investors include Duke Energy, National Grid, Edison International, Sabanci Ventures and Marubeni Corporation, SE Ventures, G2 Venture Partners, Benhamou Global Ventures, and Shell Ventures.
2. M&A - IT Consulting and Public Safety: Deloitte has acquired Gryphon Scientific, which specializes in biosafety, biosecurity, and all-hazards preparedness and response. The deal reinforces Deloitte's ability to help customers "prevent, detect and respond to infectious disease threats across the globe," the buyer said.
3. M&A - Engineering: Stantec has acquired Hydrock, a 950-person integrated engineering design firm headquartered in Bristol, England. Hydrock, founded in 1995, specializes fire safety, energy and sustainability, civil and structural, MEP, transport, environmental, and geotechnical services. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
4. Complete M&A List: Here's our database of all M&A deals involving green IT and renewable energy buyers, sellers and investors.
C. Regional and Global Sustainability Policies and News
1. Global Renewable Energy Targets: G7 leaders tasked the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) to track and monitor the group’s collective contribution toward the global renewable tripling target by 2030. The target was established by the UAE Consensus in November 2023 at COP28.
2. United States - Energy Policy: The White House on April 30 reformed the U.S. environmental review process for major projects which officials said would speed up approval of everything from transmission of power from wind and solar farms to semiconductor manufacturing, Reuters reported.
3. United States - Wind Power Production: US wind power production declined in 2023 for the first time in a quarter-century due to weaker-than-normal Midwest breezes, underscoring the challenge of integrating volatile renewable energy sources into the grid, Bloomberg reported.
D. Sustainability and Green Technology Conference Calendar
- Midwest Regional Sustainability Summit 2024 (May 2, Cincinnati, Ohio)
- The Open Sustainability Policy Summit 2024 (May 2-3, Washington, D.C.)
- Gartner Supply Chain Symposium Xpo 2024 (May 6-8, Orlando, Florida)
- WasteExpo 2024 (May 6-9, Las Vegas)
- Responsible Care and Sustainability Conference 2024 (May 6-9, Miami Beach, Florida)
- 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.
