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. Research - IT Priorities for 2026: Fully 94% of IT decision makers say sustainability is increasing as an IT priority, according a 2026 IT Priorities report from Flexera and Regina Corso Consulting. Still, sustainability ranks below other priorities like AI, cost reduction and risk mitigation, the report said. Moreover, 87% believe their organizations need to do a better job at IT sustainability, the report said. The survey, conducted in mid- 2025, spanned 834 IT decision makers from companies with at least 100 employees. Participants were located in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Australia. Related: List of all sustainability research reports and market forecasts.
2. Research - Small Modular Reactor Market Growth Forecast: The market for small modular reactors (SMRs) will reach $6.48 billion by 2031, up slightly from $5.81 billion in 2024, according to DataM Intelligence. That's a 1.6% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). That sounds like slow-growth, but the longer-term outlook for SMRs is quite positive, the report said. SMRs represent a small portion of global nuclear capacity as of 2025, but more than 90+ SMR designs are under development, and 35+ first-of-a-kind deployments are expected before 2025, the report said. Among the market-growth drivers: SMRs may aligned with government decarbonization goals, and they may also power AI data centers. Related: Nuclear energy updates for AI data centers
3. Partnership - Quantum Computing: IBM and Cisco Systems are partnering to explore networked distributed quantum computing. The companies are targeting an initial proof-of-concept demonstration by the end of 2030. The work could set the stage for a quantum computing Internet by the late 2030s, the duo said. Related: Quantum computing timeline and milestones, plus Cisco sustainability and IBM sustainability strategies.
4. Partnership - Financial Services: Atruvia AG and IBM are partnering to develop "sustainable and state-of-the-art IT platforms for the banking of tomorrow." Atruvia AG, the digitalization partner of the Cooperative Financial Group, already leverages IBM Turbonomic -- which has eliminated the need for roughly 1,000 physical servers -- thereby reducing energy consumption and the associated carbon footprint, the companies said.
5. Partnership - AI Infrastructure: AMD, Cisco and HUMAIN have formed a joint venture to deliver AI infrastructure. Much of the work initially involves Saudi Arabia-based data centers, but the overall strategy is global. The companies expect to develop up to 1 GW of AI infrastructure by 2030. HUMAIN is backed by PIF -- the public investment fund of Saudi Arabia.
6. Partnership - Network Infrastructure: AT&T's network, leveraging Ericsson infrastructure, has reduced carbon emissions by 22,963 metric tons through modernized planning and logistics, the companies said.
7. Power Grids and Data Center Management: PJM Interconnection, the biggest grid operator in North America, plans to move forward with a plan to manage data centers, Reuter reported.
8. Data Center Contracts - Schneider Electric: The IT infrastructure company has signed new deals worth almost $2.3 billion with two U.S. data center operators -- Switch and Digital Realty -- as surging adoption of AI boosts infrastructure demand, Reuters reported.
9. IT Services: NTT Data released its 2025 Sustainability report in Japanese. An English version is scheduled for release in late December 2025, the IT service provider said. Related: NTT Data sustainability strategy.
10. Layoffs: ABN AMRO cut 67 jobs in its sustainability team of 400 experts, NL Times reported. The cuts affect 58 permanent staff and nine temporary workers, the report said. Related: List of sustainability industry layoffs
11. Data Centers - Green Building Honor: The Cologix Montréal MTL8 facility has earned LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold Certification, making it one of Canada’s first colocation facilities to reach this level of global green building recognition, the company said.
12. Smart Buildings - Carbon Reduction: Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital, part of Mackenzie Health in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has deployed Johnson Controls equipment, systems and controls to reduce natural gas consumption by 44%, greenhouse gas emissions by 28% and overall energy use by 19%, the organizations said.
13. Executive Leadership - Financial Services: JP Morgan has named Robert Keepers as head of climate tech, according to a LinkedIn update. Keepers previously was managing director of renewable energy at the financial services firm.
14. CSO - Fresh Food: Global fresh fruit provider Unifrutti Group has hired former Oatly CSO Ashley Allen as group chief sustainability officer.
15. CSO - Financial Services: ABN AMRO, the third-largest Dutch bank, has named Sandra Phlippen as CSO as of January 2026. Nick Kounis, currently interim chief economist, will succeed Phlippen as chief economist of ABN AMRO, the company said. Related: List of sustainability executive moves in November 2025.
B. Sustainable IT Investments, Funding, Earnings and Business Launches
Nothing to share here today. Check this area tomorrow for potential updates.
C. Regional and Global Sustainability Policies, Regulations and News
1. COP30 - Weak Agreement?: Brazilian officials are readying a preliminary agreement that ignores demands from about 80 nations to further develop plans to transition away from fossil fuels. (Source: Bloomberg)
2. COP30 - Fire: A fire forced an evacuation of COP30 on November 20. The fire is under control but it's unclear whether delegates would return immediately to continue negotiations. (Source: Reuters). Related: COP30 news recap.
3. United States - Clean Energy Department Shift: The Trump administration is eliminating Energy Department offices focused on clean energy and renewables and, instead, creating units dedicated to hydrocarbons and fusion energy, Bloomberg reported.
4. United States - Nuclear Financing: The U.S. Department of Energy has approved a $1 billion loan to restart Three Mile Island -- a nuclear facility that suffered a partial nuclear meltdown in 1979. The effort involves the Crane Clean Energy Center -- a Constellation Energy effort to revive Three Mile Island Unit 1, and ultimately supply nuclear energy to Microsoft data centers.
5. Japan - Nuclear Power: Seeking to boost power supply and reduce carbon emissions, Japan officials cleared two reactors to restart at the world's largest nuclear power plant -- Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s (Tepco) Kashiwazaki Kariwa (KK) Nuclear Power Plant, Bloomberg reported. Tepco operated the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, on the opposite side of Japan’s largest island, when a 2011 meltdown became the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, the report noted.
6. European Union - ESG Investing Rules: The European Commission unveiled a significant rewrite of its ESG rulebook for the investment industry, marking the latest step in a fundamental overhaul designed to help improve competitiveness in the bloc, Bloomberg reported. The proposed changes seek to simplify the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) -- but critics say the updates will leave investors without helpful data, the report said.
D. Sustainability Conferences, Summits and Events
- COP30 (November 10-21, Belem, Brazil)
- Global Sustainability Expo KSA 2025 (November 25-26, Saudi Arabia)
- EMEA Automotive Carbon Neutral Summit 2025 (November 26-27, Stuttgart, Germany)
- AWS re:Invent 2025 (December 1-5, Las Vegas)
- Complete Sustainability Conference Calendar
E. Previous Updates & Future News
- Future Updates: If you have news to share then please email me the details.
- Previous News: All of our daily news updates are here.
