An important aspect of IBM's long-standing commitment to environmental leadership is its collaboration and participation with governments, nongovernmental organizations and industry. Examples of IBM's membership or involvement in voluntary partnerships and initiatives include:
Government partnerships and programs
- European Union Data Center Code of Conduct for Energy Efficiency Participant and Stakeholder
- U.S. EPA's ENERGY STAR® (charter member)
- U.S. EPA's Green Power Partnership - Site level (Costa Mesa, CA, Foster City, CA, and three SoftLayer, an IBM Company, cloud data centers in TX)
- U.S. EPA SmartWaySM Transport Partnership
Public and private voluntary disclosure initiatives
- Reporting on IBM's corporate environmental programs and performance annually since 1990
- Voluntary reporting under the CDP since its inception
- Voluntary reporting under the CDP Water Disclosure program since inception in 2010
- Voluntary reporting under the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) since 2006
- Voluntary Reporting under EcoVadis Sustainability Rating Platform as premium subscriber since 2014
Nongovernmental partnerships and initiatives
- Best Workplaces for Commuters
- Fleets for Change (Supporter)
- Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) - Business Environmental Leadership Council (first IT company invited to join)
- Environmental Law Institute (ELI)
- Sustainable Business Roundtable of the European School of Management and Technology Berlin (SBRT/ESMT)
- The Nature Conservancy/Rivers for Tomorrow
- Wildlife Habitat Council - Five IBM sites have their land management and wildlife habitat programs certified
- World Environment Center's International Environment Forum
Business and industry partnerships and initiatives
- American Chamber of Commerce EU
- Australia Information Industry Association (AIIA), Environmental Special Interest Group
- Australia and New Zealand Recycling Platform (ANZRP) - founding member
- Business Roundtable Climate Resolve
- Charter member of Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC)
- Charter member of Product Stewardship -- Canada (which helped established Alberta Electronic Recycling system)
- DIGITAL EUROPE - Environmental Policy Group
- EU Information and Communication Technologies for Energy Efficiency (ICT4EE) Forum
- Information Technology Industry Council's Environmental Leadership Council and Energy and Environment Committee
- ISO 50001 International Standard on Energy management systems
- Led coalition of manufacturers in support of California's successful product recycling legislation for video display products
- Led establishment of SWICO Electronic Recycling System in Switzerland in 1994 - First comprehensive national recycling system for electronic products in the world
- Led formation of industry electronics recycling systems in Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland before the EU's WEEE legislation
- Lisbon Council: Eco-innovators Network
- National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (NEMI) Technology Working Groups
- The Green GridSM (founding member)
- United State Information Technology Office (USITO) - Environment and Energy Efficiency Group
Environmental standards initiatives
- ECMA 328 Standard, "Determination of Chemical Emission Rates from Electronic Equipment"
- ECMA 341 Standard, "Environmental design considerations for electronic products"
- ECMA 370 Standard, "The Eco Declaration"
- ETSI Environmental Engineering Standards
- European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC): Technical committee 111X "Environmental aspects for electrical and electronic products and systems"
- Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 1680.4 Working Group developing Environmental Standard for Servers
- International Electrotechnical Commission: Technical committee 111 "Environmental aspects for electrical and electronic products and systems"
- International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC 62321) RoHS Test Standards
- ISO Technical Committee 207 (TC 207) for Environmental Management System Standards
- The Green Grid: Chair of the SERT and Emerald Analysis Working Groups