IBM Forms Technology Partnership With Nature Conservancy

IBM announced yesterday a partnership with the Nature Conservancy, an environmental group in Arlington, Va., to provide technology and expertise for the organization’s Great Rivers Partnership, reports BusinessWeek magazine.

Under the project, called Big Green Innovation, IBM plans to work with the charity to create software that will help government officials, land owners, and industry leaders make informed decisions about matters that affect the world’s rivers.

Through a grant from its office of Corporate Community Relations, the technology company will donate software, time, and equipment. IBM won’t make any money from the endeavor, the article says, but the company believes the expertise and technology it assembles for this project will be useful for its paying customers in the future.

The Nature Conservancy started the Great Rivers Partnership in 2005 to help preserve the world’s fresh-water supply.

The IBM project will focus first on the Paraguay-Parana river system, in Brazil, and will later be applied to the Yangtze River, in China, and the Mississippi River, in the United States.