Here is today’s sustainability news, research and analysis for technology partners, renewable energy consultants and green IT service providers. Today's sustainability news also involves management consultants, CIOs, chief sustainability officers (CSOs), c-suite members and climate accounting professionals.
A. Sustainable Technology, Talent, Partnerships and Green IT Alliances
1. Research - AI and Sustainability: Roughly 76% of executives say AI will help drive progress towards sustainability and social impact goals, HP Inc. research found. Oxford Economics, on behalf of HP, surveyed 1,036 business leaders (C-suite and direct reports) across 10 major countries. The research summary did not mention AI triggering potential energy consumption challenges. Related: Here is HP's sustainability strategy and associated partner opportunities.
2. IT Consulting Services: DXC Technology, the IT consulting and services firm, plans to achieve net-zero Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. But DXC did not disclose a Scope 3 net-zero goal...
3. Consulting Executive: EY Luxembourg has hired Raphael Betti as partner. Betti will lead the "development and scaling-up of our assurance expertise in Climate Change and Sustainability Services with a strong focus on CSRD and SFDR," he wrote on LinkedIn.
4. Consulting Executive: Brunswick Group has hired David Wei as partner on the ESSG and Sustainable Business Team in New York. Wei will be a senior member of Brunswick’s global Climate Hub, which is part of the firm’s ESG & Sustainable Business team, advising clients in the United States and globally on critical issues related to the energy transition, corporate climate strategies, and building a nature positive future, the company said.
5. Sustainable Smartphones: The Fairphone 2023 Impact Report is here.
6. Solar CFO Stepping Down: Array Technologies CFO Kurt Wood plans to exit the solar technology company at the end of Q2 to pursue other business interests, Array announced. The search for a new CFO is under way. Wood will remain a consultant through the end of September 2024 to support the transition.  Â
7. AI Lawsuit Dropped?: Tesla CEO Elon Musk withdrew his lawsuit against OpenAI and co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, CNBC reported. In the suit, Musk alleged that OpenAI abandoned its social-good mission in order to focus on revenue opportunities.
B. Sustainability M&A, Investments, Funding and Green IT Business Launches
1. ESG Data and Private Equity: Liminal Data has become a supporting data platform to the ESG Data Convergence Initiative (EDCI) – an effort within the private equity industry to establish consensus on meaningful ESG data.
2. Funding - AI Startup: Microsoft has invested in Mistral AI, which raised $643 million in a recent round of funding, elevating its valuation to more than $6B, the Financial Times reported.
3. 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. Global Wind Energy Deployments: Growth for global wind power is expected to slow in 2024 as the industry faces struggles with rising costs, limited infrastructure and policy uncertainty, Bloomberg reported. Installations will increase roughly 6% in 2024, BloombergNEF predicted -- far slower than the 35% growth in 2023.
2. United States - Wall Street ESG Policy Debate: The Republican majority in a U.S. congressional committee published a report accusing Wall Street firms of colluding with advocacy groups to force companies to shrink their greenhouse gas emissions, Reuters reported.
3. United States - New York Legislation: New York legislators passed a bill that would charge fossil-fuel companies a total of $3 billion a year for 25 years to pay for costs associated with climate change, The Wall Street Journal reported.
4. European Union vs. China - EV Tariff War: The European Commission notified will apply additional duties of up to 38.1% on imported Chinese electric vehicles starting in July 24, Reuters reported, a move likely to draw possible retaliation from China.
5. Spain - Energy Transition Challenges: Spain needs to add wind energy capacity at a much faster pace, Reuters reported, or the country risks missing its ambitious 2030 target, the U.S.-based Global Energy Monitor (GEM) think-tank said.
D. Sustainability and Green Technology Conference Calendar
- HPE Discover 2024Â (June 17-19, Las Vegas)
- Pure Accelerate 2024Â (June 18-21, Las Vegas)
- World ESG and Climate Summit 2024Â (June 18-19, Amsterdam)
- GreenFin 24 Conference (June 18-20, New York)
- MOVE 2024 (June 19-20, London, United Kingdom)
- Complete Calendar of Sustainability Conferences
E. Previous Updates & Future News
- Did You Miss Yesterday's Daily Update?: Here is our previous sustainability, green IT and renewable energy news for technology partners.
- Future Updates: If you have news to share then please email me the details.
