Sustainability News for Technology Partners: 01 June 2023

Here is today’s sustainability news, research and analysis for technology partners, management consultants, CIOs, chief sustainability officers (CSOs) and c-suite members.

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A. Sustainable Technology, Talent, Partnerships and Alliances

1. New Corporate Sustainability Reports: Our database tracking corporate sustainability reports and associated net-zero goals now spans 161 companies and organizations. Today's additions include PotlatchDeltic, PPG, Tecnoglass and W.P. Carey.

2. Amazon and AWS Sustainability Strategy: We've published this timeline tracking Amazon and AWS sustainability milestones, net-zero challenges and updates. It's similar in form and approach to our Microsoft sustainability timeline.

3. Partner Integrations - Microsoft Sustainability Manager: Microsoft is working with partners to provide specialized Microsoft Sustainability Manager connectors. Those connectors, in turn, provide streamlined ingestion, collection and aggregation of Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 data, according to Shefy Manayil Kareem, general manager of Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability. In an a detailed blog explaining the integrations, Kareem described relationships with Arcadia for energy data, Seeq analytics software for process manufacturers, Johnson Controls OpenBlue Enterprise Management for physical buildings, Cognite Data Fusion for asset-heavy industries, and Mesa Impact for corporate sustainability management.

4. Partnership - Sustainable Data Centers: Alces Flight and Deep Green inked a commercial partnership involving micro data centers that power HPCA and Edge workloads. Deep Green’s “data furnace” technology will transform server heat into hot water for district heating systems and other industries.

5. Key ESG Questions CFOs Need to Answer: EY offers guidance here.

6. Software and Sustainability: Global IT consulting firm DCX Technology is predicting five ways software will accelerate sustainability over the next five years.

7. Talent - Financial Services: Alternative credit manager Pemberton has hired Goldman Sachs veteran Niamh Whooley as head of sustainable investing.

8. Talent - Climate Tech Hiring: Global hiring and networking site Climatebase has posted more than 46,000 jobs from over 1,500 organizations over the past two years, Bloomberg reported. Many of the jobs involve non-technical careers in areas such as sales, HR and marketing.

9. Talent Challenges: Companies that mine copper, lithium and other metals—viewed as a critical part of the supply chain to produce green energy—say they are struggling to find enough young workers to support the transition, The Wall Street Journal reported.

B. Sustainability M&A, Investments and Funding

1. M&A - Sustainability Consulting: SWCA Environmental Consultants of Phoenix, Arizona, has acquired ALO Advisors LLC, an international management consulting firm focused on sustainability advisory services. Financial terms were not disclosed.

2. M&A - Private Equity and HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning): Blackstone has completed the previously announced acquisition of a majority stake in Emerson’s Climate Technologies business. The deal was valued at $14.0 billion. The acquired business, to be rebranded as Copeland, had $2022 net sales of $5 billion. Blackstone is positioning Copeland as a company that will "advance the next generation of climate technologies in the HVAC market.

3. M&A - Solar Power: Shell has acquired 12 solar projects in Spain with a total capacity of 1.1 gigawatt from renewables developer Isemaren, according to Reuters.

4. Sustainability Entrepreneurs: Stanford University has launched an Ecopreneur program that's funded by Salesforce founder Marc Benioff.

5. Funding - ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Real Estate Software: Measurabl, which develops an ESG technology platform for real estate, has raised $93 million Series D funding. The funding will be used for R&D, international expansion and global partnerships. Energy Impact Partners and Sway Ventures led the round. Additional investors include Moderne Ventures, WVV, Suffolk Construction, Broadscale, Camber Creek, Salesforce Ventures, Building Ventures, Constellation Technology Ventures, Concrete Ventures, RET Ventures, Colliers, and Lincoln Property Company. Related: Measurabl partner program details are in our global partner programs database.

C. Regional and Global Sustainability Policies and News

1. Green Energy Growth: Global additions of renewable power capacity are expected to rise by a third in 2023, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said, as stronger government policies and energy security concerns drive more clean energy deployment, Reuters reported.

2. Worldwide Call for Disclosures: CDP is calling on more than 1,600 companies that make big environmental impacts to disclose environmental data, Reuters reported.

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