Accelerating innovation and partnership for people and the plane
Four years ago, Microsoft committed to becoming carbon negative, water positive, and zero waste by 2030, while protecting more land than it uses. Despite significant changes in the tech sector and new challenges from the infrastructure and electricity demands of emerging technologies like generative AI, Microsoft remains committed to its climate goals and fostering sustainable innovation.
At COP28 in Dubai, it was clear the world is not on track to meet critical climate goals. Reflecting this, Microsoft has faced obstacles but made notable progress in several areas. However, there are areas where further acceleration is needed.
Microsoft is on track in:
- Reducing direct operational emissions (Scope 1 and 2)
- Accelerating carbon removal
- Designing for circularity to minimize waste and reuse cloud hardware
- Improving biodiversity and protecting more land than it uses
At the same time, there are two areas where we’re not yet on track, and in each of these we are intensively engaged in work to identify and pursue additional breakthroughs. These are:
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- Reducing our Scope 3, or indirect, emissions
- Reducing water use and replenishing more water than we consume in our datacenter operations
Carbon Negative
Microsoft carbon negative commitment focuses on three main areas: reducing carbon emissions, increasing the use of carbon-free electricity, and carbon removal. They made significant progress in FY23, particularly in carbon-free electricity and carbon removal. Microsoft has led efforts to support carbon-free electricity infrastructure, making long-term investments to add more carbon-free electricity to the grids where we operate.
Focuses for this year include:
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Improving measurement by harnessing the power of digital technology to garner better insight and action
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Increasing efficiency by applying datacenter innovations that improve efficiency as quickly as possible
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Forging partnerships to accelerate technology breakthroughs through our investments and AI capabilities, including for greener steel, concrete, and fuels
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Building markets by using our purchasing power to accelerate market demand for these types of breakthroughs
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Advocating for public policy changes that will accelerate climate advance
Water Positive
Microsoft takes a holistic approach to becoming water positive, which includes water access, replenishment, innovation, reduction, and policy. In 2023, they achieved their water access target by providing more than 1.5 million people with access to clean water and sanitation solutions.
Microsoft are investing in our water positive commitment in four ways:
- Microsoft are taking action to reduce the intensity with which we withdraw resources by continuing to design and innovate in order to minimise water use and achieve our intensity target
- Our new datacenters are designed and optimised to support AI workloads and will consume zero water for cooling. This initiative aims to further reduce our global reliance on freshwater resources as AI compute demands increase
- Microsoft are partnering to advance water policy. In 2023, Microsoft joined the Coalition for Water Recycling. Over the coming year we will finalise a position and strategy for water policy
- Microsoft are developing innovative scalable replenishment projects in high water stress locations where we operate datacenters. Microsoft recently announced Water United, a new initiative to unite public and private sectors in reducing water loss from leakage across the Colorado River Basin
Zero Waste
Microsoft zero waste journey includes reducing waste at our campuses and data centres, advancing circular cloud hardware and packaging, and improving device and packaging circularity. In FY23, we achieved an 89.4% reuse and recycle rate for servers and components across all cloud hardware, crucial as demand for cloud services grows. In 2023, we diverted over 18,537 metric tonnes of waste from landfills or incinerators at our data centres and campuses, and reduced single-use plastics in Microsoft product packaging to 2.7%.
Protecting Ecosystems
Microsoft have committed to protecting more land than they use by 2025 and preserving and restoring ecosystems where we operate. As of FY23, they exceeded their target by over 40%, with 15,849 acres of land permanently protected, surpassing our goal of 11,000 acres.
Microsoft are adopting green business practices that support ecosystems around our campuses and data centres. This includes regenerative design solutions to enhance local biodiversity, improved stormwater management, and contributing to climate resilience. Additionally, they are piloting AI-driven Microsoft technology to assess ecosystem health and guide future actions.
Customer and Global Sustainability
In last year’s Environmental Sustainability Report, Microsoft expanded their goal to advance sustainability for their customers and the world. In 2023, they continued this effort by developing technology to help customers and partners manage resources and optimise systems. Globally, Microsoft focused on accelerating innovation, research, and policy to support a more sustainable world.
In 2023, they expanded Microsoft Sustainability Manager to include Scopes 1, 2, and all 15 categories of Scope 3 carbon emissions, helping track and inform action across operations and value chains.
As climate change impacts worsen, Microsoft are providing planetary data to researchers, governments, companies, and individuals through the Planetary Computer. This offers open access to petabytes of environmental monitoring data to help protect communities.
Microsoft’s sustainability progress involves global engagement, investing in innovative solutions, advancing research, and advocating for impactful policies. Their Climate Innovation Fund (CIF), a $1 billion commitment made in 2020, has so far allocated $761 million towards innovative climate technologies, including commercial direct air-capture, sustainable aviation fuel, and industrial decarbonisation.