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. Top Supply Chain Technology Trends: Sustainability ranks among the top eight supply chain technology trends for 2024, according to Gartner.
2. Research: Sustainability ranks among the top drivers for IT modernization projects, Nutanix research found.
3. Data Centers: The Sustainable and Scalable Infrastructure Alliance (SSIA)Â has unveiled the Sustainable Data Center Infrastructure Ecosystem Landscape. The landscape, a dynamic database, includes public and private companies across data center construction, cooling, operations, fluids & chemicals, silicon, building management, cloud computing, data transfer and more.
4. Green Buildings: Johnson Controls announced a Zero Carbon Retrofit project with the City of Brampton, Canada’s ninth most populated city. The project involves the Susan Fennell Sportsplex. Digital energy efficiency monitoring by Johnson Controls OpenBlue technology will help the complex meet the Canada Green Building Counsel’s Zero Carbon Building (ZCB) Performance Standard, the organizations said.
5. Amazon - Offshore Wind Power: Amazon has expanded a long-term power purchase agreement from Iberdrola, a clean energy company. The latest agreement involves an offshore wind farm in the UK.
6. E-Waste Challenges: The world is losing the battle against electronic waste, a U.N. expert said, after a report found 62 million metric tons of mobile phones and devices were dumped on the planet in just one year - and this is expected to increase by a third by 2030, Reuters reported. Among the latest problem areas: Discarded solar panels, which generated 600,000 metric tons of e-waste in 2022, the report said.
7. Retail: Starbucks now has roughly 6,000 "Greener Stores" worldwide...
B. Sustainability M&A, Investments, Funding and Green IT Business Launches
1. Funding - Building Energy Management: Monaire, a startup that makes HVAC systems more efficient in small commercial buildings, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding. Venture firm Construct Capital led the round with participation from Workshop Ventures. Additional investors include Toast Co-Founder Steve Fredette and A-Street co-founder Tom Kuo.
2. Investment Strategy: Morgan Stanley’s asset-management arm plans to raise at least $1 billion for a new fund dedicated to energy-transition investments, Bloomberg reported. The vehicle will seek to deliver private equity-like returns, the report added.
3. M&A - Solar Projects: SolarBank is acquiring Solar Flow-Through Funds (SFF) for $41.8 million. Solar Flow-Through owns 70 operating solar sites located in Ontario. SFF also owns and is constructing three battery energy storage system projects in Ontario.
4. M&A - Private Equity and Solar Power: KKR has acquired Avantus, a U.S.-based developer of solar and energy storage projects. EIG Partners will also have a stake in Avantus. KKR and EIG are committed to pumping roughly $1 billion into Avantus to fuel the renewable energy company's growth. Financial terms and valuation information for the acquisition were not disclosed.
5. 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. United States - Electric Vehicle (EV) Transition: The Biden administration slashed its target for U.S. electric vehicle adoption from 67% by 2032 to as little as 35% after industry and autoworker backlash in the political battleground state of Michigan, Reuters reported.
2. Europe - Nuclear Power Limitations?: Leaders from pro-nuclear European countries and energy experts are set to call for a nuclear energy revival on March 21, 2024 at a summit in Brussels, seeking to rebuild the European industry after years of gradual decline, Reuters reported. However, Europe's nuclear power revival plans are too little, too late, according to a Bloomberg report. Despite growing interest in nuclear power for data centers, the energy source will represent less than 1% of Europe's power mix by 2050, the report predicted.
D. Sustainability and Green Technology Conference Calendar
- One Earth Summit 2024 (March 25, Hong Kong)
- N-able Empower 2024: MSP Software Conference (March 25-27, Frisco, Texas)
- ChangeNow 2024 (March 25-27, Paris, France)
- Sourcing Journal Sustainability Summit 2024 (March 26, New York)
- Responsible Business USA 2024 (March 26-27, New York, New York)
- 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.
