SSE Renewables and Microsoft have established a strategic partnership focused on sustainability, to identify, develop and deploy innovation activities aligned to the zero-carbon ambitions. This partnership will look to address new ways of working, with the aspiration of adoption across the SSE group. Together we will collaborate across key themes to promote the awareness of business challenges and opportunities around sustainability, technology and digital innovation. We have a view to share knowledge and develop potential solutions to drive operational efficiency through accelerated renewable energy, decarbonisation and digital solutions.

SSE has a goal of trebling their green energy output by 2030. And while tech helps drive us to this goal, a growth mindset culture and open partnerships will help us achieve this. Let’s take a look at the key takeaways we’ve learnt over our 18-month partnership.

Focus on the end goal of sustainability

We started our partnership in envisioning workshops. This gave us the space to explore the possibilities and opportunities we had and how we could use technology to help. What became immediately clear was that we need to focus on our end goal.

Your values are the key that unlocks your innovation. It’s not a case of shoehorning in a piece of tech just for the sake of it. Ask yourself “How can we do what we need to do?” This will help you start on the right path. And remember to continually ask yourself that question throughout your journey to ensure that goal stays at the top of your mind.

We made sure our workshops had people from different areas of SSE, external organisations and our partners like Microsoft. This meant we got a diverse range of ideas and opinions. What was most important was we all came with open minds, which then grew into a space of growth mindset.

Put the tech in front of your people

We wanted to put digital technology in front of our people in the business and see if we could apply that to our problems. Once people saw what it could do, they became passionate to share the knowledge with the rest of the business.

While it’s important to know that technology isn’t the only part of the journey. It’s the thing that helps unlock our innovation, and allows us to work in a hybrid and agile way. As part of our next step, we brought people in to try out our ideas. We listened to their feedback. With a holistic view of your journey – and always remembering your end goal – you can ensure you’re creating the most resilient path.

Coming with this is the need to re- or up-skill your employees. As we introduce new technology or new ways of working, we need to ensure they are confident to use it in their best way. This can be done though virtual training sessions, or even on-demand learning paths. At Microsoft we have some great resources that we were able to share, such as Microsoft Learn.

Don’t be afraid of innovation to drive sustainability

In the Digital Ventures team, we created an innovation space where we could work quite aggressively to bring SSE’s goals to life. This involves taking risks – which can sound quite frightening, but not when it’s done in a space where it’s safe. We invited people to challenge how we did things. This growth mindset has spread throughout the business, and we’ve found that people are sharing ideas and being more open.

Because we had tools like Microsoft Teams, staying collaborative when we went to 100 percent remote working was easy. It meant that we even had the opportunity to invite more people because there was no commuting or travel to different offices. We did work hard to keep the same energy up that you might experience with in-person ideation sessions.

Get leadership buy-in

Taking action is an important part of getting buy-in from all levels of staff, especially your C-level. By staying transparent with them, they will support your aims. As part of our partnership we had CEO to CEO sessions to help stay open. This helps the leadership team feed down into the team, with appropriate support. At the same time, we encouraged our teams to work with autonomy, giving them the tools, they need to work in their best ways and not be afraid to share ideas and proof of concepts. By working with an agile growth mentality we can avoid process delays to innovation, and subsequent adoption.

Openness between partners drives sustainability

During our 18-month partnership we’ve moved beyond just transaction to a real knowledge sharing, collaborative experience. This growth mindset ecosystem is spreading throughout the teams. As a result, we are starting to see how it is pushing out into the rest of the organisation. This type of partnership helps us unlock our potential, reach our goals and create empowered, excited employees. As we continue, we look forward to working together to create a more resilient community for all.

Find out more

Winds of change: how data and analytics are driving renewable power – This video was originally published on The Times

Find out about Microsoft’s collaborations to help accelerate the UK’s sustainability strategy

Create an agile and innovative workplace

About the authors

Ollie joined SSE’s graduate scheme in 2010, having retrained as a Mechanical Engineer. The change was driven by a desire to do something meaningful for society and also leave our planet better than we found it. Ollie is now supporting the Digital (ad)Ventures in SSER, with a mission to help everyone do more with Digital in our business – and keep having fun doing it.

Danielle is experienced in enabling Energy organisations to use digital technologies to achieve industry focussed outcomes. It is such a pivotal time for the industry to transform, with renewable energy, sustainability and decarbonisation being at the heart of many of her customer conversations. She’s excited and fortunate that her role at Microsoft allows her to bring together our digital solutions and net-zero aspirations to help create the future of sustainable energy.

The post How to build innovation and sustainability with partnerships and growth mindset appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

For Microsoft, sustainability has been at the heart of our business for quite some time. We plan to be carbon negative, have zero waste and replenish more water than we consume by 2030. In addition, we are also aiming to use data and AI to help us address biodiversity issues. Mando is a Microsoft partner who uses Azure to help utilities, telecoms, manufacturing and financial services organisations deliver better customer experiences.

In a recent webinar, we discussed the new consumer expectations on utility suppliers around sustainability. Consumers want their suppliers to help them make a difference and create a greener society. It’s no longer about organisations steadily progressing towards meeting sustainability goals. It’s quickly becoming about streamlining and revolutionising your existing processes to ensure you’re positively contributing towards a greener society.

But how can your organisation do this? And how can you support customers on their sustainability journeys? Here we are sharing the five most important points organisations need to consider when building a sustainability strategy.

1.      Streamline and reduce operations

Perhaps the first thing you need to do is to understand your impact on the environment. This is where your data comes into power. You can use data to gain deep insights of how much your organisation relies on carbon, water, and more. We’d recommend starting with the Microsoft Sustainability Calculator, which can help you gain insights and understand your organisation’s carbon emissions. It can help you start the process of improving them and tracking them along your journey. AI for Earth helps organisations solve environmental challenges by harnessing AI and the cloud. You can leverage a range of open source tools that will help accelerate operations, such as analysing land cover or machine learning APIs to spot wildlife.

You can also take advantage of tools like Dynamics 365 to combine your data and reduce organisational silos. Power Platform is a no/low code solution to help streamline operations and reduce paper waste. Machine learning and AI is a great way of reducing paper-based workflows, while improving insights and reducing errors.

Take SSE, for example. They’re deploying analytics, AI and data visualisation capabilities on Microsoft Azure. This means they can scale and gain insights faster, empowering them to generate actionable operational and commercial insights from diverse data sets. They are also using AI to ensure wildlife aren’t negatively affected by new windfarms.

2.      Improve your supply chain

For utilities, sustainability is about more than just providing renewable energy for your customers. It’s about the whole supply chain. Customers expect services that are built with sustainability in mind. The use of circular supply chains are becoming more common, so much so that a 2020 Gartner survey found that 70 percent of supply chain leaders are planning to invest in their circular economy in the next 18 months.

A circular supply chain model encourages organisations to achieve cost efficiencies, facilitate product innovation, create less waste and ultimately, minimise their environmental impact. This is key for your sustainability strategy.

Underpinning this supply chain will be technology. The cloud, IoT, machine learning and automation all have their place to drive transparency while delivering insights. Take Recycleye, for instance. They have goals to improve recycling in the waste management industry. They do this by using machine vision, AI and robotics to detect everything on a waste management facility’s conveyor belt and send it to the right place. For utilities, you can leverage this technology for predictive maintenance and real-time insights to manage customer demand.

3.      Educate and improve customer experiences

According to a 2020 BCG report, 76 percent of respondents think that environmental issues are just as – or more – concerning than health issues. When you announce or share your sustainability goals, you need to make sure you stick to them and stay accountable. For example, after we shared our ambitions in January 2020, we released a progress report a year later to share our journey and learnings with our customers and partners.

One unique position that utility organisations have is the ability to educate their customers on their own sustainability. Anglian Water provides over six million customers with a vital service. They use Azure to help track and manage water supply services to customers. They also have been trialing a smart metering scheme so customers can track their own water usage. As a result, they’ve seen an 11 percent reduction in demands on households. Customers were able to identify leaks and modify their behaviours. At the same time, Anglian Water have more insights to understand their customer’s needs.

4.      Include cross-industry collaboration in you sustainability strategy

For the world to become more sustainable, everyone needs to work together. This includes collaboration at every touchpoint to improve access to new technologies and renewable energy. This will help us be successful in our collective goals. Part of this means sharing data and looking at co-innovation and investment. It’s also about working with regulators to achieve and surpass goals.

This is why Microsoft is working with Accenture and Avanade. We bring together our collective knowledge in cloud, data, AI, IoT and digital twins to help utility and energy companies support the UK’s low-carbon ambition. SSE Renewables is working with the companies to leverage technology to be more cost effective and increase the reliability and life of its assets.

This is a key opportunity for organisations to consider in their sustainability strategy. Rather than just meeting expectations and new regulations you can become ‘best in class’ and shine. A way to do this is to collaborate with other industry experts and create smart cities. By connecting a city through intelligent cloud technologies, you can build resilience, manage critical infrastructure, and make better and more sustainable decisions.

5.      Build a sustainable culture as part of your sustainability strategy

How can we best embed sustainability goals and values into the organisation? By making it part of the culture. To do this, you need to take a top-down approach. We’ve seen organisations bring Chief Sustainability Officers on to take part in key board meetings. Others have strong programmes that focus on sustainability champions to educate internally.

Talking about education, a key factor in leveraging technology that improves your sustainability is to ensure your employees have the skills and ability to do their best work. A strong digital skills programme will democratise skills across the whole organisation. Tools that make working remotely secure and productive can help reduce on-premises energy strain. For example, Centrica use Windows Virtual Desktop to be more agile, and only use the computing power they need, when they need it.

Build your sustainability strategy with authenticity and integrity

Culturally the mindset to be sustainable is there. And the technology to do it is there. From what we’ve seen in the last year businesses can quickly pivot and learn how to use new technology to help them stay connected and productive. When you look internally at your sustainability strategy and outwardly commit to these goals, you can show your customers your commitment authentically. And by using digital technology, you can meet and exceed these, while innovating, improving processes and meeting evolving customer expectations.

Find out more

Get the Sustainability Executive Playbook

Watch the webinar to learn how to be net zero by 2030

Read more on Microsoft’s work

About the authors

Danielle is experienced in enabling Energy organisations to use digital technologies to achieve industry focussed outcomes. It is such a pivotal time for the industry to transform, with renewable energy, sustainability and decarbonisation being at the heart of many of her customer conversations. She’s excited and fortunate that her role at Microsoft allows her to bring together our digital solutions and net-zero aspirations to help create the future of sustainable energy.

Luke helps companies to understand and realise the value that digital services can bring in improving their customers’ experience, reducing costs within their business, and simplifying the lives of their customers and employees.

Mando is a digital agency and Microsoft Gold Partner based in Liverpool. They work with ambitious leaders who need big ideas to create change in a digital world, whilst simultaneously taking care of people and the planet. With a specific focus on getting customers doing more online, they use Microsoft’s .NET, Azure and Cognitive Services platforms to deliver seamless customer experiences. This helps their clients to increase their agility and digital maturity and build value in their business using digital technology.

The post 5 ways to build a sustainability strategy to improve customer experience appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.