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. Hybrid Cloud - Power Management Services: The Nutanix Cloud Platform will gain a power consumption dashboard to "help organizations improve sustainability planning." The dashboard will "track power consumption based on measurements from the hardware in use, updated in near-real time," the hybrid cloud technology provider said. We're checking to see when the dashboard will reach general availability.
2. AI Copilot Software: At the Microsoft Build 2024 conference, the company introduced a copilot AI template called Sustainability Insights. The software enables "users to easily obtain insights, facts, and data around their own company’s sustainability goals and progress," Microsoft asserted. The template is available through Microsoft Copilot Studio. Separately, Siemens has unveiled AI copilot software to assist low-voltage grid management.
3. AI Chips - Energy Challenges: Samsung's high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips have not yet cleared Nvidia's evaluation for use in the U.S. company's AI processors due to heat and power consumption issues, Reuters reported. Related: Nvidia's sustainability and AI chip energy efficiency strategy.
4. Partnership - Global Sustainability Reporting: The IFRS Foundation and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) are "deepening" their efforts to provide a "seamless, global and comprehensive sustainability reporting system for companies looking to meet the information needs of both investors and a broader range of stakeholders," the two organizations said.
5. Distributed Energy Resources and EVs: The OpenADR Alliance now has 200 members. The alliance spans software/platform providers, device manufacturers, operators, and EV service equipment companies. The OpenADR Alliance, a non-profit corporation, helps utilities to "manage the growing pool of distributed energy resources, which includes renewable energy, energy storage, demand response and electric vehicle charging."
6. Partnership - Solar Power: Watershed and Canva are partnering to build a community solar projects in Illinois while reducing the emissions of various suppliers.
7. Talent and Leadership - Solar Technology: Sunrock Distributed Generation, a commercial solar and clean energy development and management platform, has hired BlueWave veteran Alan Robertson as head of development.
B. Sustainability M&A, Investments, Funding and Green IT Business Launches
1. Up for Sale - Energy Management Business: mCloud, an energy management technology provider and Google Cloud partner, is seeking a buyer. All officers of the company, excluding the CEO and chief growth officer, have resigned from the business amid ongoing financial challenges. There's no guarantee that an actual asset sale will occur, mCloud said.
2. Funding - Grid Monitoring Software: GE Vernova has launched ThinkLabs AI, an automation and AI startup focused on grid planning and monitoring. ThinkLabs AI has raised $5 million in seed funding co-led by Powerhouse Ventures and Active Impact Investments, with participation from Blackhorn Ventures, Amplify Capital, Mercuria Energy, and a national US energy company, the startup said.
3. Funding - Innovators Honored: The Tencent CarbonX Program has recognized 13 "exceptional" teams for their various new climate technologies. The winners, which emerged from a pool of 30 finalists and more than 300 initial applications, will receive a total of around RMB 100 million (US$14 million) in financial support from Tencent, the company said.
4. M&A - ESG Software: Hg plans to acquire AuditBoard for more than $3 billion. AuditBoard develops a cloud-based platform for audit, risk, ESG and InfoSec management. Nearly 50% of the Fortune 500 leverage the platform, AuditBoard said.
5. M&A - Energy Consulting: Veolia has acquired MRC Consultants and Transaction Advisers, an energy consulting firm based in Spain and the United Kingdom. The acquired business will tuck into Seureca, a division of Veolia.
6. 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. COP 29 - Climate Talk Challenges: Global talks ahead of this year’s COP29 climate summit must find a way to boost the share of clean energy investments in emerging economies, which has “remained flat” over the last 10 years, the International Energy Agency chief said, Bloomberg reported.
2. Australia - Carbon Capture and Storage Concerns: A Glencore carbon capture and storage project in eastern Australia cannot proceed because it could "irreversibly harm groundwater used by farmers," Reuters reported.
D. Sustainability and Green Technology Conference Calendar
- Apidays (May 28-29, Helsinki)
- Concordia Europe Summit (May 28-29, Porto, Portugal)
- Cisco Live 2024 (June 2-6, Las Vegas, Nevada)
- ClimaTech 2024 (June 3-6, Boston, Massachusetts)
- Computex 2024 (June 3-7, Taipei, Taiwan)
- 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.
