As of October 2021, IBM has committed to providing 2 years of support to 5 nonprofit and governmental organizations globally each year who serve communities especially vulnerable to environmental threats.
The IBM Sustainability Accelerator is a global pro bono social impact program that applies IBM technologies, such as hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence, and an ecosystem of experts to enhance and scale nonprofit and government organization operations, focused on populations vulnerable to environmental threats including climate change, extreme weather, and pollution.
The IBM Sustainability Accelerator has active five engagements, each with a different organization, as part of its sustainable agriculture cohort. The Accelerator’s next cohort, focused on clean energy, will kick off in October 2022 with five additional projects, each with a new partner.
IBM will select about five organizations each year – forming a cohort – to focus efforts on addressing a specific sustainability issue area. The selection process includes RFPs that will be public and open to proposals from any nonprofit or government organizations (which are then reviewed through standard IBM Trust and Compliance processes).
The organizations in the first IBM Sustainability Accelerator cohort were selected based on proposals solicited through an invitation-only pilot RFP that was shared with organizations already in IBM’s network and/or that of its partners.
The projects will be executed in two phases: 1) Ideation and 2) Development and Implementation. In Phase 1, engagements will kick off with the
IBM Garage, IBM’s proven methodology to apply design thinking and agile techniques to fast-track meaningful innovation and drive lasting culture change. In the second phase, based on the analysis and roadmaps established on Phase 1, IBM experts will configure IBM technology and other resources to help participants meet their community and environmental impact goals.
IBM will announce final selections for the Accelerator’s clean energy cohort by November 2022. The Accelerator will support each selected organization for up to two years.