Sustainable IT Services News 06 November 2025: Iron Mountain Buys ITAD Expert, Workiva Earnings, Data Center Cooling Acquisition, More

Here is today's sustainable IT services news, research and analysis for channel partners, MSPs, climate accounting professionals, consultants and the chief sustainability officers (CSOs) they serve.

A. Sustainable IT Partnerships, Strategic Alliances and Strategies

1. New Chief Sustainability Officer: Electricity infrastructure specialist SSE has hired National Grid veteran Rhian Kelly as CSO. Kelly succeeds Rachel McEwen.

2. New CSO Without the Title: Unilever has hired Michael Stewart as chief corporate affairs and communications officer. Stewart will also oversee Unilever's sustainability strategy and lead its global sustainability team, but his title does not include chief sustainability officer, ESG Today reported. Former Unilever Chief Sustainability and Corporate Affairs Officer Rebecca Marmot recently exited the company for a new opportunity.

3. Board Room - Quantum Computing and Sustainability: Aparna Prabhakar, chief strategy & sustainability officer of Schneider Electric’s $32 billion Energy Management business, has join QuantWare's board as a non-executive member. The move signals QuantWare's combined focus on quantum computing and sustainability. Prabhakar previously was VP of quantum ecosystem at IBM. Related: Quantum computing milestones.

4. Google Carbon Credits: Google has struck its biggest carbon removal deal, agreeing to finance restoration of the Amazon rainforest with Brazilian startup Mombak. (Source: Reuters)

5. Google Data Centers in Space?: Google announced Project Suncatcher, which equips solar-powered satellites with TPUs and optical links to one day scale machine learning compute in space. Related: Google's sustainability strategy and channel partner implications.

6. Amazon Water Recycling: AWS now leverages recycled water across 120 U.S. data center locations, up from a previous 24 locations, the company said. The move will preserve over 530 million gallons of fresh drinking water annually, the company added. Related: Amazon sustainability strategy and channel partner implications.

7. Research - Data Center IT Asset Disposition Market Growth Forecast: The global data center ITAD market will reach $19.1 billion by 2030, up from $13.7 billion in 2024, according to Research and Markets. That's a 5.6% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), the researcher said.

8. Research - Climate Consulting Market Growth Forecast: The climate change consulting market will reach $12.04 billion by 2035, up from $8.6 billion in 2025, according to Market Research Future. That's a 3.42% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). Related: List of sustainability market research reports.

9. Circular Economy App: LiquiDonate has relaunched its Shopify app as ReturnsDirect to help small businesses simplify holiday returns. The app now featuring exchanges, automations, and 3PL integration capabilities previously unavailable to small and mid-sized merchants, LiquiDonate said.

B. Sustainable IT Investments, Funding, Earnings and Business Launches

1. Financial Results - Software: Workiva -- which develops finance, risk and sustainability software -- announced strong financial results and channel partner wins for Q3 of 2025, despite some geopolitical headwinds in the carbon accounting and ESG software markets. The company, which is striving to avoid an activist investor showdown, also hired a new executive leader for its sales operations.

2. Financial Results - Smart Buildings: Johnson Controls sales were $6.4 billion in Q4 of 2025, up 3% from Q4 of 2024. CEO Joakim Weidemanis emphasized the company's focus on smart, sustainable buildings -- particularly data center cooling and decarbonization solutions.

3. Potential M&A - Data Centers: KKR and Singapore Telecommunications are in advanced talks to buy more than 80% of ST Telemedia Global Data Centres for over S$5 billion (US$3.9 billion), Reuters reported. The move, if completed, would give the buyers full ownership of the data center business.

4. M&A - ITAD: Iron Mountain has acquired ACT Logistics, an IT asset disposition (ITAD) and technology lifecycle services specialist in Australia. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Iron Mountain completed the deal in September 2025, and ACT Logistics contributed less than $2 million to revenue in the third quarter. For modeling purposes, Iron Mountain expects ACT will contribute revenue of approximately $7 million to its full year results, the company said during an earnings call on November 5, 2025. Related: List of ITAD M&A buyers, sellers and private equity investors.

5. M&A - Energy and Critical Infrastructure: CBRE Group has acquired Pearce Services from private equity firm New Mountain Capital for $1.2 billion in cash plus a potential earn-out of up to $115 million. Pearce Services, founded in 1998, specializes in Critical Power & Cooling Systems (34% of expected 2025 revenue), Renewable Energy Generation & Storage (30%), Wireless & Fiber Networks (29%), and Electric Vehicle Charging Networks (7%), the buyer said. Pearce has more than 4,000 employees in North America and India.

6. M&A - Data Center Energy Management Services: Jabil is acquiring Hanley Energy Group for $725 million plus a potential earn-out of $58 million. Jabil expects to close the deal in Q1 of 2026. Hanley Energy Group develops low and medium voltage switch gear, PDUs and UPS systems. Jabil expects the acquired business to generate $350 million to $400 million, mid-to-high-teens EBITDA margins and sustained double-digit revenue growth during the first year of Jabil's ownership.

C. Regional and Global Sustainability Policies, Regulations and News

1. European Union - Regulation Flexibility: Europe signaled it’s willing to accommodate international concerns about its ESG rules, as the bloc fields threats from the US and Qatar over various CSRD and CSDDD regulations. (Source: Bloomberg)

2. China vs USA - Artificial Intelligence Race: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang predicted that China will surpass the United States in the AI race because China offers a more favorable regulatory environment and lower energy costs, the Financial Times reported. Shortly thereafter, Nvidia released a statement that softened Huang's position, CNBC noted.

3. United States - AI Data Centers: The U.S. Department of Energy is seeking proposals from companies to build and power AI data centers on DOE’s Paducah site in Kentucky.

D. Sustainability Conferences, Summits and Events

1. COP30 (November 10-21, Belem, Brazil)
2. Sustainable Packaging Summit 2025 (November 10-12, Utrecht, the Netherlands)
3. International Conference on Entrepreneurship for Sustainability and Impact 2025 (November 11, Doha, Qatar)
4. Florida Climate Forecast Conference 2025 (November 13, Sarasota, Florida)
5. Complete Sustainability Conference Calendar

E. Previous Updates & Future News

1. Previous News: All of our daily news updates are here.
2. Future Updates: If you have news to share then please email me the details.