Environmental Leader

IBM will launch a new business unit in 2007 that will focus on environmental technologies, the Associated Press reports. The unit will get $10 million in seed money to try to turn technologies developed in IBM’s labs into products with environmental benefits.

Among the ideas the unit expects to explore: a networked system for efficiently managing a municipal water supply; methods of using nanotechnology to improve water desalination and filtration; and improved solar power cells.

“We kind of think that given how big the opportunity is here, it’s almost a slam dunk for us,” said Paul Horn, who directs IBM’s nearly $6 billion-a-year research and development organization.

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