IBM ramps up sustainability efforts with Envizi acquisition

IBM has acquired Envizi, an Australian data and analytics software provider for environmental performance management, as it looks to help customers better measure their environmental impact.

The company said the acquisition adds to its investments in AI-powered software to help organisations create more resilient and sustainable operations and supply chains. It added that companies are under mounting pressure from regulators, investors, and consumers to progress towards more sustainable and socially responsible business operations while demonstrating these measures in a robust and verifiable way.

Financial terms of the deal were not announced. IT Pro contacted IBM for more information, but the company had not responded at the time of publication.

Envizi’s software automates the collection and consolidation of over 500 data types and supports major sustainability reporting frameworks. It helps companies analyse, manage, and report on environmental goals and identify efficiency opportunities while assessing sustainability risk.

IBM said by using Envizi with its broader AI-powered software, companies will be able to automate feedback generated between their corporate environmental initiatives and the operational endpoints being used in daily business operations. Envizi is set to be integrated with IBM Maximo, IBM Sterling, IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite, and IBM Turbonomic and Red Hat OpenShift.

"To drive real progress towards sustainability, companies need the ability to transform data into predictive insights that help them make more intelligent, actionable decisions every day," said Kareem Yusuf, general manager of IBM AI Applications.

"Envizi's software provides companies with a single source of truth for analyzing and understanding emissions data across the full landscape of their business operations and dramatically accelerates IBM's growing arsenal of AI technologies for helping businesses create more sustainable operations and supply chains."

Envizi is available as a SaaS product and runs in multi-cloud environments, serving companies like Microsoft, Qantas, and Uber.

In February last year, IBM vowed to become carbon-neutral by 2030. It planned to procure 75% of its electricity from renewable sources and cut its greenhouse gas emissions 65% from its 2010 emission levels by 2025. By 2030, it plans to reach its carbon-neutral goal by obtaining 90% of its electricity from renewable sources and implementing tech to neutralise residual emissions.

IBM isn’t the only tech company helping customers to monitor their emissions. In October, Microsoft launched a preview of Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability to help organisations more effectively record, report, and reduce their carbon emissions on a path to net-zero. The SaaS product connects to data sources and centralises and organisations data in a common format to provide a more accurate system of record that enables more comprehensive sustainability management.