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. Higher Education - Student Research: A student thesis is helping to improve carbon footprint reporting at the University of Twente in Enschede, Overijssel, the Netherlands.
2. Financial Services: HSBC is launching a new business unit, HSBC Infrastructure Finance (HIF), to focus on infrastructure financing and project finance advisory opportunities tied to the transition to a low-carbon economy, CarbonCredits reported. The bank has appointed former UK Member of Parliament Danny Alexander as CEO of the new unit, the report said.
3. Lawsuit vs OpenAI and Microsoft: OpenAI escaped a copyright lawsuit from a group of open-source programmers after they voluntarily dismissed their case against the AI company in federal court, Bloomberg reported. However, the programmers' case against GitHub and parent company Microsoft continues forward. Related: Generative AI lawsuit timeline updates.
B. Sustainability M&A, Investments, Funding and Green IT Business Launches
1. Funding Grant - University of Amherst: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded a $6.367 million grant to the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The university plans to create a free a EPD (environmental product declaration) generator tool for the steel industry. The EPD tool will help users to "describe the whole lifecycle of the product, including energy requirements, greenhouse gas emissions and the ultimate carbon footprint," the university said.
2. Funding - Digital Infrastructure: Cloverleaf Infrastructure has raised $300 million from private equity investors NGP Energy and Sandbrook Capital, alongside contributions from its management team. Cloverleaf plans to develop "large-scale digital infrastructure sites powered by low-carbon electricity."Â
3. M&A - Environmental and Engineering Consulting: Pinchin has acquired two firms -- CodeGreen Solutions and Environmental Building Solutions (EBS). Financial terms of the acquisitions were not disclosed.
4. M&A - UK Consulting Firms:Â Hillside Environmental Services and Infinitas Design have merged to form HI Group, which specializes in carbon auditing and strategy development; funding knowledge and applications; and hands-on implementation and ongoing performance monitoring.
C. Regional and Global Sustainability Policies and News
1. COP29 - Climate Fund: Azerbaijan will launch a new climate fund that will aim to mobilize $1 billion to support developing countries' new national climate targets, Reuters said.
2. United States - New York: New York Governor Hochul announced a $100 million funding for decarbonization of the Empire State Plaza in Albany.
D. Sustainability and Green Technology Conference Calendar
- ITAD 2024Â (July 23-24, Miami Beach, Florida)
- XeroCon Nashville 2024Â (August 14-15, Nashville, Tennessee)
- World ESG Summit Dubai (August 20-21, Dubai, UAE)
- Tennessee Sustainability Conference 2024Â (Gatlinburg, Tennessee, August 20-23)
- VMware Explore 2024Â (August 26-29, Las Vegas, Nevada)
- 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.
