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 Code of Conduct for Energy Efficiency in Data Centres Program - Participant and Stakeholder
- United Nations Environment Programme
- U.S. EPA's ENERGY STAR® (charter member)
- U.S. EPA's Green Power Partnership - Site level (Costa Mesa and Foster City, Californa, and two IBM Cloud data centers in Texas)
- 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 2007
- 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)
- charity: water
- Environmental Law Institute (ELI)
- Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance
- Sustainable Business Roundtable of the European School of Management and Technology Berlin (SBRT/ESMT)
- The Nature Conservancy
- Wildlife Habitat Council - Five IBM sites currently have their wildlife habitat management or conservation education programs certified
- World Environment Center's International Environment Forum
- World Resources Institute Special Clean Power Council for Customers and Utilities (CPC)
Business and industry partnerships and initiatives
- American Chamber of Commerce to the EU
- Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA), Environmental Special Interest Group
- Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO)
- Climate Leadership Council (founding member)
- DIGITAL EUROPE - Digital Sustainability Policy Group
- Electronics Product Stewardship Canada (which helped established Alberta Electronic Recycling system) - charter member
- Information Technology Industry Council's Environmental Leadership Council and Energy and Environment Committee
- International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (iNEMI) Technology Working Groups
- 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
- Responsible Business Alliance (formerly Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition - EICC) - charter member
- The Green GridSM (founding member)
- United States Information Technology Office (USITO) – Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Group
Universities
- The Pennsylvania State University
- University of Pittsburgh
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"
- European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) Environmental Engineering Standards: EN 303 470 "Energy Efficiency measurement methodology and metrics for servers"
- 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 Storage Working Group