Good morning. Here is the latest news, research and market analysis that sustainable technology partners need to know for Thursday, February 23, 2023.
1. Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) Announcements: Developments include...
2. ESG Report - Data Protection and Cybersecurity Software: Acronis released its 2022 Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Report. Related: Search our database of Corporate Sustainability Reports.
3. SMB Funding: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)awarded a combined $68 million to 53 small businesses that are solving scientific problems. Projects include developing tools for climate research and advanced materials and technologies for clean energy conversion, the DOE said.
4. E-Waste - New Hampshire: Businesses of New Hampshire can leverage various services from East Coast Electronics Recycling (ECER Inc.) to address e-waste challenges, the company said.
5. E-Waste Research - Europe: Here's the latest IT & telecoms e-waste research from Uswitch.
6. Funding: Oka, a startup that positions itself as the Carbon Insurance Compan, has raised more than $7 million in seed funding. Aquiline Technology Growth led the round. Oka provides insurance that "will replace credits if destroyed or invalid, providing security and confidence to the VCM (voluntary carbon market) sector.
7. Partnership - Smart Buildings: Will Solutions and BrainBox AI are partnering in Quebec and Ontario, Canada to promote artificial intelligence (AI) for HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) across sustainable communities.
8. Partnership - Google and Mercedes-Benz: The two companies inked a long-term strategic partnership to further "accelerate auto innovation and create the industry's next-generation digital luxury car experience." The effort aligns with Mercedes-Benz's sustainability strategy, though the car maker didn't provide specific details about that alignment.
9. Partnership - France Carbon Neutrality: French power giant EDF signed two new electricity contracts with L'Oreal to help the France-based cosmetics maker achieve carbon neutrality for all its sites by 2025, Reuters reported.
10. Research - Building Automation Market Forecast: The global building automation and control system market will reach $168.8 billion by 2031, up from $87.3 billion in 2022, Transparency Market Research forecast. That's a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.9%.
11. M&A - Oil & Gas and Clean Energy: Clean energy reached a record 15% of the total deal value by Gas Firms firms in 2022, and one-third (31%) of joint ventures are now in the clean energy space, Deloitte reported.
12. U.S. Lobbying - Carbon Removal Technology: More than 20 companies in the burgeoning carbon removal industry launched a coalition that will lobby the U.S. government for new policies to help commercialize the nascent technology, which has received a flood of private investment in recent years, Reuters reported.
13. U.S. Policy - ESG Debate: A coalition of Republican-led states has asked a federal judge to block a Biden administration rule allowing retirement plans to consider environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) factors in selecting investments pending the outcome of their legal challenge, Reuters reported. The 25 states said the rule, which took effect January 30, 2023, could lead to millions of Americans losing retirement investments and harm states' finances, the report said.
14. U.S. Policy - Offshore Wind: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced new investments to "secure U.S. leadership in floating offshore wind development by advancing offshore wind transmission planning, research and technology, and partnerships," the department said. The effort supports the Biden Administration's Floating Offshore Wind Shot -- which seeks to reduce the cost of floating offshore wind energy by more than 70% by 2035 and deploy 15 gigawatts of floating offshore wind by 2035. the DOE said.
Got news to share? Email the details to Sustainable Technology Partner Editorial Director Joe Panettieri.
