The Four Pillars of Microsoft’s Sustainability Mission

In an era when environmental concerns are at the forefront of global discussions, companies are increasingly recognizing the need to take responsibility for their actions against the planet. Microsoft, a technology giant, has emerged as a leader in this regard with its ambitious substantiality plan. Across all the work that Microsoft does, the team strives to make the greatest impact in carbon, land footprint, water, and e-waste.

Key initiatives taken across sustainability fronts

1. Carbon reduction

Investment in renewables for its operations

Microsoft has possibly the most ambitious environmental aim among tech corporations. Microsoft intends to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030, which means it will absorb more carbon from the environment than it releases. Beyond this, Microsoft wants to eliminate every carbon gramme the corporation has ever released since its establishment in 1975 by the year 2050. 

Microsoft is making significant investments in carbon removal and renewable energy technology in order to achieve these goals. It has already committed to buying more than 1.5 GW of solar and wind energy, and it is switching all of its data centers—which account for most of its energy use—to renewable energy.

Investment in Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technologies

In accordance with Microsoft’s pledge of reaching carbon negativity by 2030 and along with several promising avenues such as Energy 2.0 and agricultural carbon sequestration, the company is actively contributing research towards enabling CCS as a viable and cost-efficient technique for decarbonization. As a technology partner, Microsoft has joined the Northern Lights partnership(opens in new tab), one of the flagship CCS projects and a collaboration between the Norwegian government and energy companies Equinor, Shell and Total.

One of the main challenges of CCS is being able to scale this technology to a level that is required to reach current climate goals. However, current ongoing and planned projects (including Northern Lights) are projected to sequester a combined amount of approximately 40 mega tonnes of CO2 per year. 

Internal carbon fee

Microsoft has implemented this key tool for carbon reduction – an internal carbon fee—a way to accelerate decarbonization internally and generate funding for carbon reduction and removal efforts.  This fee funds sustainability projects and incentivizes emission reductions across the organization. In parallel, Microsoft is working with its suppliers to help them understand their carbon contributions and how to reduce them.

2. Water management

Reducing water footprint across direct operations

Microsoft takes a holistic approach to water reduction across its business, from design to efficiency. It looks for immediate opportunities through operational usage and, in the longer term, through design innovation to reduce, recycle, and repurpose water. 

Infact the team has found success in using direct air instead of water to cool datacenters, harvesting rainwater and procuring reclaimed water from utilities to reduce the dependence on freshwater. Whereas, in the  Silicon Valley campus itself, Microsoft is pursuing net-zero water certification through the International Living Futures Institute (ILFI) and is on track to become one of the first technology campuses to secure this accreditation.

Access to water and sanitation services

Since 2020, Microsoft has partnered with Water.org to provide microloans for a range of water solutions, such as installation of toilets and taps and improved water storage, to people in India, Indonesia, Mexico and Brazil. To date, the support has provided more than 1 million people with safe water and sanitation, and the team is well on its way to achieving the goal to reach 1.5 million people.

Replenishing more water 

Since 2019, Microsoft has invested more than $7 million in replenishment projects worldwide, ranging from watershed protection to agricultural water efficiency evaluation.

As part of its continued effort to scale investment in water access and replenishment, Microsoft is excited to announce that they have reached a preliminary agreement with WaterEquity to be the first investor in the Water and Climate Resilience Fund, subject to the execution of final documents. Through this fund, WaterEquity will provide financing for eligible projects and companies intended to improve water sourcing, treatment, distribution, and reuse. This investment represents Microsoft’s major water-related project that’s advanced through Microsoft’s $1B Climate Innovation Fund.

Microsoft is also announcing a first-of-its-kind leak detection technology replenishment project in London with FIDO Tech that will reduce water lost to leakage in London’s ageing distribution network, leveraging FIDO’s AI-enabled acoustic leak analysis. This project is expected to save millions of cubic meters of water annually.

Scaling water solutions through innovation and digitization

Innovation and digitization of water data is a critical component of the world’s water journey, in order to identify and understand where water stress is emerging. On this note, Microsoft is announcing a joint solution with Ecolab that combines their ECOLAB3D™ digital platform with Microsoft Sustainability Manager to monitor and manage water data, helping organizations to achieve water sustainability goals and accelerate overall sustainability progress.

3. Zero waste initiatives

Compostable, reusable, and recyclable items

To address this, Microsoft has switched to compostable, reusable, and recyclable items, repurposed assets, and chosen vendors who use 100 percent recyclable packaging. The company aims to make its data centres fully recyclable by 2030. It also uses modular designs for easy upgrades and repairs.

Improve waste data collection

Microsoft is investing to digitize waste data across the company to identify opportunities to improve waste data collection. This digital solution for its operations will include technology to track and report on dashboard waste, Power BI platforms for e-waste chain-of-custody, and improving Microsoft Power Apps which helps in capturing real-time waste data. As the team gains clarity and confidence in its broader waste footprint it will include more precise waste data in its public reporting.

Closed Loop Partners’ funds

The team is investing $30 million in Closed Loop Partners’ funds to help accelerate the infrastructure, innovation and business models for supply chain digitization, e-waste collection, food waste reduction, and recycling industry products to build a more circular economy at scale. Closed Loop Partners is a pioneering investor in circular economy innovation with a track record of working with corporate partners to pilot new solutions. In addition, Microsoft plans to use learnings from its partnership to make informed decisions.

Educating employees

To show employees the impact of their actions and how much waste they generate, the team is developing an internal Power BI waste data dashboard. This will be available starting with employees based at the Puget Sound campus and will expand to campuses around the world. The dashboard will display the average waste generated per employee and can be used to test the effectiveness of waste reduction campaigns, implementation of waste prevention initiatives, and more. The company further aims to create more opportunities for its employees to let them get actively involved in company-wide activities, like its annual weeklong hackathon that will include a call for proposals on waste reduction.

4. Ecosystem management

Microsoft is committed to protecting more land than it uses by 2025, while preserving and restoring ecosystems in the areas where they live and work. As of FY23, 15,849 acres of land have been legally designated as permanently protected. The team has exceeded the land protection target of 11,000 by more than 40%.

Microsoft is also incorporating green business practices that support the surrounding ecosystems near its campuses and data centres. This includes regenerative design solutions around its data centres to enhance local biodiversity, improve stormwater management, and contribute to climate resilience.

The team is also piloting AI-driven Microsoft technology to provide insights into the ecosystem’s overall health and to make future actions. One such example is Project Guacamaya, which combines the power of AI with satellite imagery, wildlife imagery, and acoustic data to monitor deforestation and protect biodiversity in the Amazon. Nearly five million acres of the Amazon were deforested in 2022, a 21% increase from the previous year. Thanks to Project Guacamaya, a joint effort of the CinfonIA Research Center at Universidad de los Andes, Instituto SINCHI, Instituto Humboldt, Planet Labs PBC and Microsoft AI for Good Lab, AI is helping protect this tremendous natural resource.   

Sustainability – a business imperative

Sustainability is no longer just a choice; it’s essential. It is not just about environmental conservation. It’s a holistic approach encompassing social, economic, and ecological well-being. The goal is to create a balance where the present needs are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This balance is critical in a world where resources are limited and the population is growing.

Organizations like Microsoft are a leading example that showcases how profitability and sustainability can go hand in hand. The tech giant not only advocates for sustainable practices but also integrates them into its core business strategies. They prove that sustainability is not just good for the planet; it’s good for business, too.

In brief

Microsoft is often ranked as a leading business on climate action. Its policies – from making it easier for people to repair their devices to launching software to help companies measure and manage carbon emissions – have been praised for going beyond the company’s own operations to the footprint of its suppliers and customers.