Here is today’s sustainable IT services news, research and analysis -- written for technology partners, green IT service providers, CIOs, chief sustainability officers (CSOs) and climate accounting professionals.
A. Sustainable Technology, Talent, Partnerships and Green IT Alliances
1. Talent - Technology and Net Zero Waste: Microsoft has promoted Trista Brown to director of zero waste. She previously was global sustainability senior program manager. In a LinkedIn update, Brown stated: "I continue leading our Cloud Operations + Innovation team as we deliver on Microsoft's ambitious commitment to achieving zero waste by 2030."
2. Executive Leadership - Consulting: KPMG has named Maura Hodge to lead its U.S. sustainability practice. She succeeds Rob Fisher, who shifts to KPMG U.S. consulting sector leader for financial services and insurance.
3. Executive Leadership - Data Centers: atNorth has hired Meta and Amazon Web Services (AWS) veteran Jeff Kjeldsen as operations director for Denmark. atNorth's data centers run on renewable energy resources and support circular economy principles, the company says.
4. Executive Leadership - Investments: Power Sustainable, a sustainability-focused alternative asset manager, has hired former Goldman Sachs Partner Bruce Heyman as CEO. Power Sustainable, founded around 2019, has roughly CAD 3.9 billion (US$2.88 billion) in assets under management (as of June 30, 2024).
5. Nvidia - Blackwell Chip Production: Next-generation Blackwell chips are in production, and customer demand is "insane" for the AI-optimized processors, CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC.
6. Partnership - Energy Efficient Chips: Fujitsu and Supermicro are partnering to develop and market a platform with Fujitsu's future Arm-based "FUJITSU-MONAKA" processor. The processor, targeting a 2027 release date, is "designed for high-performance and energy efficiency. The companies also plan to develop liquid-cooled systems for HPC, Gen AI, and next-generation green data centers.
7. Partnership - AI Chips and IT Consulting: Accenture and Nvidia have expanded their partnership, and Accenture formed an NVIDIA Business Group. The IT consulting firm plans to train roughly 30,000 employees on Nvidia's technology. The strategy involves Accenture AI Refinery, which "uses the full NVIDIA AI stack—including NVIDIA AI Foundry, NVIDIA AI Enterprise and NVIDIA Omniverse—to advance areas such as process reinvention, AI-powered simulation and sovereign AI," the IT consulting firm said. Accenture AI Refinery will be available on all public and private cloud platforms and will integrate with other Accenture Business Groups to accelerate AI across the SaaS and Cloud AI ecosystem.
8. Partnership - Data Center and AI Chips: An NTT data center in Ibaraki City, Osaka Prefecture, Japan, will become a "Green Nexcenter” that leverages liquid-cooling systems and renewable energy, The Fast Mode reported. The center has also been certified under the NVIDIA DGX-Ready Data Center program, the report said.
9. Lawsuit: Novelist Christopher Farnsworth has filed a proposed class-action copyright lawsuit against Meta, Reuters reported. The lawsuit accuses Facebook's parent of misusing his books to train its Llama artificial-intelligence large language model, the report said.
B. Sustainability M&A, Climate Tech Investments, Funding and Green IT Business Launches
1. Startup Accelerator - Call for Applications: PI Labs is accepting applications for its 2025 accelerator program. The 12-week program provides participating founders with "access to everything from investment, strategic support, customers, investors and more, culminating in our annual Demo Day, in front of an audience of VCs, angels, and potential clients," the organization said.
2. Funding - Solar and Energy Storage: BlackRock has completed a $500 million investment in Recurrent Energy, a subsidiary of Canadian Solar. The funding was first announced in January 2024.
3. M&A - Deal Cancelled: Asia-Pacific Strategic Investments has scrapped plans to acquire Mobii Genius for $201 million. APS did not say why it abandoned the acquisition, which was first announced in April 2024. APS is a real estate developer. Mobii Genius co. is a Taiwanese firm specializing in sustainable IT and data center solutions.
4. M&A - Sustainable Infrastructure: General Atlantic has acquired sustainable infrastructure investment firm Actis. The combined business has roughly $97 billion in assets under management. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
5. M&A - SaaS and Recycling: Better Earth, a provider of sustainable foodservice packaging solutions, has acquired Betterbin, a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform that "optimizes recycling and composting education for consumers, retailers and businesses," the companies said. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Better Earth is based near Atlanta, Georgia. The company has acquisition experience. Better Earth previously acquired Meristem Packaging Company's Sustainable Packaging Division in 2022.
6. M&A - Digital Twins and Energy Grid: SP Energy Networks has acquired Derryherk, a digital twin specialist. SPEN’s network provides electricity to more than 3.5 million homes and businesses. The acquisition "will take us another step forward in building the smart grid of the future that will power cleaner and greener lives," an SP Energy Networks COO Guy Jefferson said in a prepared statement.
7. 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. COP28 and COP29 Concerns: Many of the lofty announcements made at last year’s COP28 climate conference in Dubai have yet translate into action weeks ahead of COP29 in Baku, Carbon Market Watch asserted.
2. Singapore - Carbon Reporting Regulations: Singapore is moving forward with ISSB standards, despite scope 3 delay, Green Central Banking reported. From the 2025 financial year onwards, Singapore-listed companies must report their scope 1 and scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions, the report noted.
D. Sustainability and Green Technology Conference Calendar
- Sustainable Industry Live 2024 (October 6, Manchester, United Kingdom)
- Hamburg Sustainability Conference 2024 (October 7-8, Hamburg, Germany)
- Sustainable Investment USA 2024 (October 7-8, New York, New York)
- Clean Energy Transition Asia (CETA) Exhibition and Summit 2024 (October 9-11, Malaysia)
- IGEM 2024: International Greentech & Eco Products Exhibition and Conference Malaysia (October 9-11, Malaysia)
- Complete Calendar of Sustainability Conferences
E. Previous Updates & Future News
