IBM Expands Environmental Sustainability Software Portfolio With Envizi Acquisition

IBM will integrate Envizi’s applications, used by businesses to achieve their sustainability goals by analyzing and monitoring energy usage and emissions, with its own asset and supply chain management and environmental impact applications.

IBM has acquired Envizi, a developer of data management and analytics software for evaluating environmental performance.

The acquisition will allow IBM to expand its portfolio of software tools that business and organizations use to monitor and manage the environmental sustainability of their operations and their supply chains.

IBM closed the acquisition today and did not disclose financial details of the transaction.

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Companies today are under mounting pressure from regulators, investors and consumers “to progress toward more sustainable and socially responsible business operations” and demonstrate that progress in a measurable, verifiable way, IBM said in a statement announcing the Envizi acquisition.

“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, general manager of IBM AI Applications, in a statement. “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 develops a suite of applications that businesses and organizations use to analyze and monitor their energy usage and emissions, how they impact their environmental goals, and identify efficiency opportunities. The software automates the collection, consolidation, analysis and reporting of more than 500 data types and supports the leading sustainability reporting frameworks.

The company’s applications, which run in multi-cloud environments, cover emissions management, ESG (environmental, social and governance) reporting and performance, energy management and building operations optimization.

One ESG reporting application, for example, analyzes building environmental ratings and benchmarks while an ESG performance application provides value chain reporting capabilities for analyzing the environmental impact of a company’s upstream and downstream supply chains.

The Envizi energy management line of applications includes utility bill analytics and renewable asset management software, while the building optimization line of software provide HVAC fault detection and energy efficiency program tracking applications, among others.

IBM already markets several AI-based software-as-a-service applications for managing assets and supply chains, including the IBM Maximo asset management application and IBM Sterling supply chain software, for environmental impact and sustainability. And the IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite helps businesses assess and plan for the impact of environmental conditions on their operations.

IBM said it will integrate the Envizi software with those applications. IBM added that it will also use the Envizi applications internally to improve its own operationally efficiencies toward its goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

“IBM’s global reach, depth of resources and breadth of expertise will help us to scale at an unprecedented pace. As part of IBM, we feel more confident than ever that we can achieve our goal of providing clients and partners with the world class tools they need to reduce their operational impacts and optimize for the low carbon future,” said David Solsky, Envizi CEO and co-founder, in a statement.

Envizi, found in 2004, is based in Eveleigh, Australia near Sydney, with offices in Oakland, Calif., Toronto and London. The company works with a range of go-to-market partners including systems integrator Accenture, energy management and sustainability service providers including EcoAct and Verco, IoT system providers MelRok and Nube iO, and real estate service companies CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield.