IBM announced it has acquired Envizi, a leading data and analytics software provider for environmental performance management.
This acquisition builds on IBM’s growing investments in AI-powered software, including IBM Maximo asset management solutions, IBM Sterling supply chain solutions and IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite, to help organisations create more resilient and sustainable operations and supply chains.
Companies are under mounting pressure from regulators, investors, and consumers to progress toward more sustainable and socially responsible business operations – and to demonstrate these measures in a robust and verifiable way.
In fact, corporate social responsibility and environmental sustainability risks are tied as the third highest concerns for organisations, as ranked by large corporations in a 2021 Forrester report. However, the various types of data companies need to understand and report on sustainability initiatives remains highly fragmented and difficult for all relevant parties to access.
Envizi’s software automates the collection and consolidation of more than 500 data types and supports major sustainability reporting frameworks. Its user-friendly and easily customized dashboards enable companies to analyse, manage and report on environmental goals, identify efficiency opportunities and assess sustainability risk.
Envizi’s solutions help streamline the management of these tasks as part of broader Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting initiatives, while also providing users with valuable sustainability insights to inform business strategy.
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By using Envizi with IBM’s broader AI-powered software, companies will now be able to automate the feedback generated between their corporate environmental initiatives and the operational endpoints being used in daily business operations – a crucial step in making sustainability efforts more scalable. For instance, Envizi will integrate with:
- IBM Maximo asset management solutions, which help companies extend the life of their critical assets, reduce environmental impact by providing intelligent asset management, monitoring, predictive maintenance and reliability in a single platform.
- IBM Sterling supply chain solutions, which help companies gain supply chain visibility, cut waste by right-sizing inventory, reduce the carbon footprint of shipment and logistics, and ensure responsible sourcing with blockchain-based technology for traceability.
- IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite (EIS), which helps companies increase resiliency by assessing and planning for the impact of environmental conditions on their operations, assets, and supply chains. EIS uses advanced AI and weather technology from IBM, the most accurate forecasting provider globally.
- IBM Turbonomic and Red Hat OpenShift capabilities, which help companies automate decision making when considering where to run enterprise workloads based on optimization of performance, cost and GHG emissions.
- Envizi will also help expand IBM Consulting’s growing sustainability practice, which is designed to help clients accelerate progress toward their sustainability commitments.
“To drive real progress toward sustainability, companies need the ability to transform data into predictive insights that help them make more intelligent, actionable decisions every day,” said Kareem Yusuf, PhD, General Manager, IBM AI Applications. “Envizi’s software provides companies with a single source of truth for analysing 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.”
Available as a SaaS solution and running in multi-cloud environments, Envizi serves leading brands such as Microsoft, Qantas, CBRE, Uber, abrdn and Celestica, and its software can be applied to activities across a variety of industries.