What is a Frontier Firm?

Microsoft defines a Frontier Firm as a human-led but AI-operated organization that integrates AI agents as core team members—enabling rapid scaling, agile operations, and enhanced productivity through hybrid human-agent collaboration and on-demand intelligence.

Microsoft identifies four key pillars of AI transformation:

1. Enrich employee experiences: Empower people with AI tools that remove friction and unlock creativity.
2. Reinvent customer engagement: Deliver transparency, personalization, and trust at scale.
3. Reshape business processes: Automate and optimize operations for speed, safety, and sustainability.
4. Bend the curve on innovation: Move beyond pilots to bold, repeatable frameworks that accelerate transformation.

Microsoft mining and metals customers Ma’aden, Petrosea, and Outokumpu bring these pillars to life and drive efficiency, productivity, cost reduction, safety, and sustainability. I’ll talk more about each one below.

From reactive to proactive: How AI and agents transform mining operations

Frontier Firms are deploying AI and agents across the mining value chain—not just to automate tasks, but to enable supervised autonomous systems that can monitor, reason, and act. AI-powered innovations are already delivering measurable results. For example, BHP and Microsoft have partnered to use advanced AI and machine learning technologies to enhance copper recovery at the world’s largest copper mine. AI-powered systems adapt in real-time to more variability. This optimizes recovery rates, improves throughput, and grade control. It also reduces downtime, waste, water usage, energy consumption, and costs.

With AI and agents, mining companies are not only addressing today’s challenges but are also building resilience and agility for the future—empowering their workforce, optimizing operations, and accelerating progress toward sustainability and growth.

The Frontier Firm in action: Empowering people with Microsoft Copilot and agents

Ma’aden, a leading mining and metals company, aimed to transform into a Frontier Firm by using digital innovation and AI to stay competitive in a resource-intensive industry while supporting sustainability and growth.

The company faced pressure to modernize operations without disrupting workforce roles—balancing efficiency gains with its commitment to empower employees rather than replace them and ensuring adoption of AI tools aligned with cultural and operational needs.

Ma’aden deployed Microsoft 365 Copilot and agentic AI capabilities across workflows—integrating generative AI into collaboration and decision-making. The focus was on augmenting human expertise, enabling employees to automate routine tasks, and free time for strategic thinking.

The transformation improved productivity, saved time, and enriched employee experiences—positioning Ma’aden as a Frontier Firm in mining. Employees reported higher engagement and confidence, as AI functioned as a trusted assistant, not a substitute—driving faster decisions, better collaboration, and sustainable growth.

“We intentionally gave Copilot to early adopters—people who are excited about technology—because they would act as change agents for the rest of their teams.”

—Khalid AlMutairi, Vice President, IT at Ma’aden

Turning obstacles into intelligent opportunities

Petrosea, a leading Indonesian mining and energy services firm, faced intense price wars and operational inefficiencies. To sustain growth and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments, it needed to differentiate beyond cost and embrace innovation.

Legacy batch processes and limited data access hindered real-time decision-making. Remote sites and rising sustainability requirements amplified complexity, requiring a shift to advanced digital capabilities for competitive resilience.

Petrosea launched its 3D strategy: diversification, digitalization, and decarbonization—deploying the Minerva Digital Platform on Microsoft Azure, integrating Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, predictive analytics, and digital twins. It adopted Microsoft Azure OpenAI, Copilot Stack, automation agents, and advanced security.

The company achieved a 15% increase in productivity, a 9% reduction in operational costs, improved safety, and was selected by the World Economic Forum to join its Global Lighthouse Network. Petrosea transformed adversity into innovation, building competitive differentiation as a Frontier Firm through AI-powered workflows.

The integration of IoT sensors, predictive maintenance, and a Remote Operations Center reshaped their business processes—shifting from manual, site-based oversight to centralized, data-driven control that improved efficiency and safety.

“All these innovations led to a 9% reduction in operation costs, decrease in incidents, and enhanced safety measures with real-time corrective actions.”

—Krishna Nawacandra, Digital Project Manager, Petrosea

AI-powered sustainability as strategy

Outokumpu, a global stainless-steel leader, faced mounting pressure to meet ambitious climate targets and comply with Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) reporting while embedding sustainability into its core strategy. Steel accounts for 10% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, making decarbonization critical.

Manual, fragmented sustainability reporting hindered transparency and efficiency. Outokumpu needed a unified, intelligent data approach to accelerate green value creation and explore AI-powered ESG innovations for competitive advantage.

Outokumpu partnered with Microsoft to deploy the Intelligent Data Platform, Microsoft Fabric, and Sustainability Manager—automating environmental data processes, enabling advanced analytics, and training leaders through the AI data-driven green value creation program.

Outokumpu achieved up to 75% lower carbon footprint versus industry average, launched Circle Green® stainless steel with 93% lower carbon footprint, and helps customers cut 10 million tons of CO₂ annually. Data and AI now fuel new business models, cost savings, and sustainable growth.

By using Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform and AI capabilities, Outokumpu is not just improving sustainability reporting—it is bending the curve on innovation by accelerating the development of new low-emission products and unlocking green business models that deliver both environmental and commercial impact.

“We have set a very clear goal for ourselves. We want to achieve something remarkable.”

—Heidi Peltonen, Vice President of Sustainability at Outokumpu

Advancing the Frontier for mining organizations

Across these three customer stories, a common thread emerges: transformation is not accidental—it is intentional. Frontier Firms combine human ambition with AI, Copilot, and agents to create scalable impact. Ma’aden reimagined productivity, while Petrosea transformed adversity into innovation, and Outokumpu turned data into a strategic asset.

What sets these leaders apart is discipline: they do not stop at adoption. They measure outcomes, codify frameworks, and scale with intent. Technology is a purpose multiplier, enabling safer operations, faster innovation, and sustainable growth.

As Frontier Firms continue to redefine what’s possible in mining, the horizon is filled with opportunities for AI-powered solutions—from predictive maintenance and autonomous operations to intelligent exploration, workflow automation, and sustainability platforms—each poised to unlock new levels of efficiency, safety, and innovation across the industry. The Microsoft GenAI for Energy Permitting Solution Accelerator applied to mining represents a promising step for Frontier Firms seeking to transform permitting from a bottleneck into a strategic advantage. Built on the Microsoft Cloud, the accelerator aims to help mining companies accelerate permitting timelines, improve compliance confidence, and enhance transparency with regulators and communities.

With these and other innovative solutions, the future belongs to Frontier Firms. Are you ready?

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Using Copilot in energy and resources

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Learn more

• Visit Microsoft for energy and resources and Microsoft for the mining industry.
• Explore Azure Arc.
• Learn more about Microsoft Security for enterprise.
• Discover over 1,000 AI customer use cases in the blog AI-powered success—with more than 1,000 stories of customer transformation and innovation.
• Read the latest International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook 2025.

The post Transforming mining: How Frontier Firms lead with AI and agentic innovation appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

To address reporting complexity, organizations need reliable methods of centralizing, analyzing, and reporting on disparate ESG data that’s spread-out across their value chains, and for driving insights to take action. Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability is built to meet this need, equipping organizations with powerful ESG data readiness and reporting capabilities and AI-powered actionable insights. With solutions built on Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, companies can more easily respond to emerging regulations, identify ways to improve progress, and find new business models and value.  

Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability

Data and AI capabilities to help you transform for the future

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In this blog, we’ll zero in on the latest Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability reporting and AI capabilities that can help you confidently tackle your 2025 reporting goals. 

Drive efficient reporting processes—from assessment to approval  

ESG reporting involves wrangling not just disparate data but varying reporting standards that examine new sustainability dimensions and specific areas like Scope 3 (indirect) supply chain emissions, and water and waste management. Collaboration and AI assistance can be key to streamlining. 

External reporting in Microsoft Sustainability Manager (formerly Project ESG Reporting), now generally available, equips organizations with templates, frameworks, and AI-powered insights to reduce reporting complexity, enhance efficiency, and provide greater transparency to processes. Using these tools through Microsoft Power Platform or in Microsoft Sustainability Manager, organizations can seamlessly connect their ESG data, organize and review it, and collaboratively create voluntary and regulatory disclosure reports across a range of standards and frameworks including: 

• Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)
• Australian Sustainability Reporting Standards (ASRS)
• Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) 1 and 2
• Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
• International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) 1 and 2
• Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) 

Other features include approval and audit workflows to help ensure compliance and data accuracy; Microsoft Sustainability Manager profile and data integration; workflow UI to support task management and content approval; disclosure generation in Microsoft Excel; and extensibility for custom template creation.

Aiming to foster collaboration and enhance data quality and transparency, sustainability services partner Fellowmind is working alongside Microsoft to support customers using the preview capabilities of external reporting in Microsoft Sustainability Manager.  

“External reporting in Microsoft Sustainability Manager is a true game changer to our customers as they strive to comply with the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). Customers can leverage their existing Microsoft platform technology and data for efficient and compliant sustainability reporting.” 

Louise Ol-Ers, Fellowmind Group Sustainability Manager, Fellowmind 

Learn more about external reporting in Sustainability Manager.

Find facts and finish reports faster with Microsoft Copilot 

Synthesizing large amounts of data in comprehensive reports involves large-scale data processing and reporting in multiple formats simultaneously. By enabling Microsoft Copilot in Microsoft Sustainability Manager (preview), you can simplify drafting from different source documents, greatly speeding up disclosure reporting.  

Copilot in Microsoft Sustainability Manager uses a large language model to help you write qualitative and quantitative responses to fulfill ESG disclosure requirements. You can upload documentation and draft responses with references for various requirements, such as CSRD, GRI, and IFRS. 

Relieved of having to individually review large amounts of data to create a cohesive response for every requirement, with Copilot in Microsoft Sustainability Manager, you can fast-track your way to the report review phases. This feature is enabled by admins in external reporting in Microsoft Sustainability Manager.  

Create emissions, water, waste, and CSRD preparatory reports  

With Copilot in Microsoft Sustainability Manager, you can also use natural language to generate emissions, water, waste, and CSRD preparatory reports. Simply enter a trigger phrase, such as “Create a CSRD report” and describe the report you want to create, based on detailed parameters, for example: “Create a CSRD report in English for the year 2023 called ‘2023 CSRD preparation report’ for ‘Contoso Corp’ organizational unit.” 

Learn more about creating emissions, water, waste, and CSRD reports with Copilot in Microsoft Sustainability Manager.  

Do more with Copilot in Microsoft Sustainability Manager 

Of course, Copilot in Microsoft Sustainability Manager can help with much more than report preparation. With a growing set of skills, Copilot in Microsoft Sustainability Manager can help you: 

• Analyze documents when you upload ESG-related documents and ask questions about their contents.
• Create calculation models by simply describing the calculation model you’d like to create.
• Query your organizational data to quickly extract the information you need, such as a particular assessment report value or an organizational unit’s revenue.  

Learn more about Copilot in Microsoft Sustainability Manager.  

Explore sustainability solutions with Microsoft  

Insight to impact: AI use cases to advance sustainability

Explore five actionable ways that organizations use AI.

Read the e-book

• Bookmark Microsoft Industry Blogs: Sustainability for the latest updates, including new capabilities in Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability.
• Discover solutions with Microsoft Sustainability Manager.
• Explore the Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability Community, where you can find answers to questions and connect with peers and experts.
• See what’s new in Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability. 

¹ ESG News Survey, “Global ESG Regulation Increases by 155% Over the Past Decade,” 2023.

The post Expedite reporting with enhanced tools and AI in Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

These initiatives focus on harnessing data insights from smart technologies such as automation, Internet of Things (IoT), and AI, to improve how products are made and distributed. By unifying this and other data—including siloed data sets—into a single ESG data estate, manufacturing organizations can gain holistic views and granular insights to help them not only meet ESG reporting requirements, but also drive the sustainability of sourcing, making, transporting, and disposing of products—and implement business practices that advance a circular economy.  

To support your organization as you explore options and identify cost-effective steps in this era of industrial transformation, we’ve gathered learnings and recommendations into the Leader’s Guide to Sustainable Business Transformation. We’ve also created an ESG data readiness assessment to help you get started quickly. 

A more responsible, competitive path forward 

Manufacturing and mobility organizations that develop smart, automated, and data-driven processes as part of industrial transformation—and incorporate sustainability into those processes—are well positioned to gain a competitive advantage. ESG insights can help manufacturers achieve a range of goals across the value chain, such as:  

• Improved risk management and the protection of critical production processes.
• Engagement with vendors and suppliers to address Scope 3 emissions, reduce exposure to impacts from climate risks, and governance loopholes.
• Reduced costs and improved traceability with streamlined technology resources.
• More responsible capital deployment.  

With advanced solutions, organizations have already begun making these improvements. For example, Sandvik, a leader in mining industry manufacturing, implemented Microsoft AI and cloud technologies to enhance predictive maintenance and lower emissions, allowing them to cut down on waste and optimize resource use. 

ESG data: The input that fuels comprehensive sustainability 

To achieve the full potential of ESG data—from the shop floor to the board room—manufacturing and mobility organizations can benefit from evaluating sustainability comprehensively, in terms of environmental concerns as well as social and governance impacts. This approach uses ESG data insights to improve risk management and protect the value of critical product processes, and to make decisions that improve energy use, labor practices, supply chain transparency, regulatory compliance, and more.  

For example, Outokumpu, a worldwide leader in stainless steel production, tapped into the power of data by developing an industrial digital platform based on Microsoft Azure. The insights this platform provided led to significantly reduced waste (due to fewer defects) and energy usage—contributing to lower CO2 emissions. 

Key ways to maximize the benefits of ESG data in manufacturing and mobility include: 

• Build a data-driven infrastructure: ensure that systems are in place to collect and integrate accurate ESG data seamlessly across all departments.
• Leverage predictive insights: use AI and analytics to forecast and optimize operations, including by using natural language querying to enable all teams to access insights—enabling efficient resource use and proactive risk management.
• Foster a culture of sustainability: from executives to front-line workers, train employees in how ESG data can improve decision-making and drive sustainability outcomes. 

Implementing these ideas can provide the foundation for using ESG data to drive long-term success, and to make significant improvements relatively quickly. For instance, Nordic-based OSTP Group, which specializes in manufacturing stainless steel products and custom equipment, is using Microsoft technologies to track and report CO2 emissions. The data insights they gained led to a 70% reduction in direct CO2 emissions from 2021 to 2023. 

Schneider Electric, a global leader in energy management and industrial automation, has also reduced carbon emissions and optimized energy use—leveraging Azure OpenAI and other Microsoft AI technologies to boost not only sustainability, but also their engineers’ productivity. 

How Microsoft is powering sustainable transformations  

Microsoft has emerged as a leading partner for manufacturing and mobility organizations on their journey toward sustainability. We’ve designed our solutions to help businesses in three primary ways: 

1. Improve ESG data transparency: We’re continuously innovating to enable our customers to glean consolidated data intelligence from across their operations and value chain.
2. Deliver actionable insights: Microsoft has a deep slate of expertise helping manufacturers maximize operational efficiencies using sensor-enabled data management and automated scenarios powered by the Microsoft Cloud.
3. Create new opportunities: We are a global leader in enabling digital transformation through our data and AI solutions, to help businesses grow while becoming more sustainable. 

We’re delivering for these solution areas by bringing together a growing set of ESG data and AI capabilities from Microsoft and our global ecosystem of partners, in Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability.  

A core solution in this suite is Microsoft Sustainability Manager, which allows businesses to more easily record, report, and reduce their environmental impact through data connections and powerful AI-powered analytics—and can be integrated with virtually any business system. With this solution, manufacturing and mobility teams advance on carbon, water, and waste management, as well as circularity.  

Businesses can also implement the purpose-built ESG capabilities of Sustainability data solutions in Microsoft Fabric, to integrate, normalize, and analyze ESG data—and other enterprise data—on a single digital platform. Together, these capabilities help improve ESG data accuracy and transparency, simplify reporting processes, and accelerate progress toward goals.  

Swedish forestry giant Södra is showing what’s possible with these capabilities. Södra utilizes Microsoft Sustainability Manager to improve supply chain transparency and track sustainability data across its entire operation, allowing them to reduce reliance on carbon-intensive materials, displacing 8.8 million tons of CO2 emissions annually. Södra estimates the positive impact of this accomplishment as equivalent to one-fifth of Sweden’s annual reported carbon emissions. 

A sustainable future begins with smarter solutions 

As manufacturing and mobility continues to transform, both smart technologies and ESG data will help companies drive sustainability, meet compliance and reporting requirements, and uncover new opportunities for growth. Microsoft is here to help organizations make the transition with solutions to help reduce their environmental impact, improve operational efficiency, and position themselves for long-term success in a rapidly changing world. To gain a view of your ESG data across key areas, as well as customized guidance on how to drive sustainability progress and add business value, complete our readiness assessment.

Explore ESG readiness for other industries

• Retail and consumer goods: Unlocking business value with data-driven sustainability for retail and consumer goods
• Financial services: ESG data readiness drives value for financial services firms

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The post Data is driving a more sustainable industrial transformation appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

At the same time, individual financial services firms may encounter a risk of disconnect with these stakeholders, primarily due to challenges and questions around disparities between firms’ presentation of their sustainability products, and the accuracy of the ESG data that underlies those products.  

Meanwhile, firms seek to comply with increasing ESG regulations and standards. And they need to meet, and ideally exceed, internal targets for sustainability progress in their own operations. 

ESG Data Readiness Assessment

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Take the assessment

Accordingly, the financial services industry is facing a complex constellation of challenges, with hurdles between the current state and the gaining of comprehensive ESG data insights—against a backdrop of confusion and intense competition.  

But once firms begin their data transformation journey, they’re increasingly well set to leverage data technology to drive meaningful value, from creating audit-ready ESG products to harnessing AI for advanced risk modeling. 

Positioning ESG data as a driver 

Microsoft knows firsthand the value of integrating ESG data with financial, operational, and other enterprise data. Without a connected and systemic view, firms lack holistic insight into equities, loans, or insured assets, leading to a competitive disadvantage. 

As we’ve worked over the last two decades to untangle and solve challenges at Microsoft in support of our own ESG data estate—and to drive on our sustainability commitments—we’ve regularly turned to experts in the field and endeavored to share our learnings. In taking solutions forward to our global customer base, we’ve seen that for financial services firms, the development of a comprehensive ESG data estate can advance speed to market as well as credibility of products. For example, Robeco, a Dutch international asset management organization, can now perform daily data updates for all its sustainable investing solutions—staying laser-focused on returns, but with audit-ready confidence and ESG transparency.  

Priorities for financial organizations translate to inroads in the development of an ESG data estate. For example:  

• Advanced data integration: Develop more sophisticated tools and systems to integrate ESG data seamlessly along with quality governance to inform comprehensive analyses and outcomes. 
• Sustainable and ESG investing and lending: Use data analytics to better identify and expand portfolio-level ESG assessments for risk and performance management.  
• Responsible allocation of transition capital: Help corporate clients achieve their sustainable transition goals through data-driven decision making. 
• Carbon credit markets: Support carbon trading initiatives with robust data management systems for tracking and reporting credits and trading activities.  
• Risk modeling modernization: Leverage AI capabilities to enhance risk modeling practices used in underwriting, pricing, and loan assessments.  

High-value initial steps toward ESG data readiness 

Just like with data security, developing an ESG data estate in a financial services firm doesn’t happen in a single effort. Instead, your firm can benefit from taking a customized approach based on your current data state, regulations, and data governance policy, and desired outcomes as you identify opportunities. 

Depending on the maturity of your existing data infrastructure, your organization may want to consider starting within one, or a mix, of these areas: 

Data gathering

• Develop a plan for integrating ESG data into your portfolio’s due diligence and risk analysis.
• Standardize a process for collecting and updating ESG data—from both internal and external sources. 

Data modernization

• Leverage digital capabilities to deliver new financial products to market.
• Enhance financial data compliance, governance, and security. 

Data insights  

• Implement comprehensive ESG training for your customers to support effective analysis and decision-making, with industry-specific components.
• Develop an AI-powered data system for accelerated ESG analysis tailored to your clients’ needs.  

Data action  

• Develop advanced ESG data systems to pinpoint data gaps and data accuracy risks.
• Align your decision-making and strategy to complete and accurate data. 

Advancing your sustainability journey with Microsoft AI-powered solutions 

We see enormous potential for financial services firms to tackle risks and capitalize on opportunities driven by sustainability, for themselves and their clients, and we believe comprehensive, harmonized, accessible data is the key.  

With cloud-based data capabilities, including Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, Microsoft Fabric, and our AI-powered data solutions, we can help you shift from siloed data and labor-intensive processes to streamlined management that results in timely ESG insights and transparent reporting out to stakeholders—all with Microsoft security and governance. 

Once firms gain comprehensive management and insights into their ESG data, the potential for new and enhanced client services quickly follows. For example, United States-based economics research firm Moody’s leverages Microsoft Fabric solutions, AI-powered insights, and Microsoft Security to enable their 14,000 global employees to drive innovation for clients. In the United Kingdom, the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) selectively deploys generative AI to augment their existing work in Microsoft Fabric with custom chatbots and agents copilots.  

Empowering the financial services industry for sustainability success  

We know that for us to do well, our customers and the world must also do well. Our mission is to empower every individual and organization on the planet to achieve more, by building technology that can deliver business value to our customers, and positive impact to the world. 

Wherever you are in your sustainability journey, we’re here to partner with you—delivering continuous innovation from our solutions teams and our global ecosystem of partners, as we expand our ESG data readiness capabilities to help meet your unique needs in a world that is shifting quickly.  

Explore ESG readiness for other industries

• Retail and consumer goods: Unlocking business value with data-driven sustainability for retail and consumer goods
• Manufacturing: Data is driving a more sustainable industrial transformation

¹ PwC, ESG-focused institutional investment seen soaring 84% to US$33.9 trillion in 2026, making up 21.5% of assets under management: PwC report, October 2022. 

² Stanford Graduate School of Business, The ESG Generation Gap: Millennials and Boomers Split on Their Investing Goals,November 2022. 

The post ESG data readiness drives value for financial services firms appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

Enter Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability data and AI solutions. These include technologies like Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft Sustainability Manager, and Microsoft Copilot which together enable organizations to centralize and standardize complex ESG data for analytics and reporting and unlock critical data intelligence to help them move forward.  

We’re excited to share details about the latest capabilities in Cloud for Sustainability that build on this potential, providing the opportunity to implement transformative, industry-targeted solutions for both our customers and our partners. 

Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability

Data and AI capabilities to help you transform for the future using environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data intelligence

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Three powerful new ways to advance sustainability with AI  

At this year’s Microsoft Ignite, we announced our latest AI innovations empowering organizations to improve their ESG data transparency, gain insights to advance toward their goals, and continue to grow sustainable business opportunities. These features were developed to meet the needs of key sustainability decision makers and practitioners, such as chief sustainability officers, chief financial officers, chief data officers, and chief information officers. 

1. General availability of sustainability data solutions in Microsoft Fabric, built into Fabric to leverage the single, AI-powered platform for centralizing enterprise data and analytics. Using these solutions, organizations can take care of their ESG data analytics in one place, driving progress faster by simplifying and accelerating analytics, collaboration, and decision making.  

Sustainability data solutions enable organizations to: 

• Centralize and transform disparate data into one sustainability data lake that conforms to a standardized ESG schema.
• Build custom insights for carbon, water, and waste by connecting to their data in Microsoft Sustainability Manager.
• Compute, visualize, and analyze ESG metrics for regulatory standards like Corporate Sustainability Disclosure Regulation (CSRD) by using prebuilt and custom metric definitions.
• Generate social and governance insights from disparate social and governance data in the ESG data lake.
• Report and analyze Microsoft Azure emissions data by collecting and processing the emissions data in the ESG data lake.

Now, there’s also next-generation AI and the power of large language models (LLM) to accelerate our customers’ work in Fabric at every layer. Users can simply describe the visuals and insights they’re looking for, and Copilot in Microsoft Power BI will do the rest.  

All in conversational language, users can: 

• Create and tailor reports in seconds.
• Generate and edit calculations.
• Create narrative summaries.
• Ask questions about their data.

With the ability to easily tailor the tone, scope, and style of narratives and add them seamlessly within reports, Power BI can also deliver data insights even more impactfully through easy-to-understand text summaries.  

Explore Sustainability data solutions in Microsoft Fabric and learn how to deploy the solutions.  

2. Coming soon: External reporting in Microsoft Sustainability Manager (formerly Project ESG Reporting). To address ESG reporting complexity, enhance efficiency, and provide greater transparency for ESG reporting, we’ve developed templates based on various ESG standards or frameworks. Using these, organizations can more easily create, complete, and approve comprehensive reports across both quantitative and qualitative metrics. 

The reporting templates map to: 

• Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) 
• Australian Sustainability Reporting Standards (ASRS) 
• Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR 1 and 2)
• Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
• International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS 1 and 2)
• Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) 

Organizations can also add standards manually or with a .CSV file.  

This feature is available in Microsoft Sustainability Manager Essentials and Premium and in Power Apps as simply Microsoft Sustainability Manager.  

3. Sustainability agents. New prebuilt and custom agents are designed to help organizations rapidly uncover insights on a Microsoft AI platform such as Microsoft Copilot Studio or Azure AI Foundry. Agents can integrate company data for real-time retrieval and be surfaced to users in a multitude of ways, from canvas apps to supported enterprise applications such as Microsoft Sustainability Manager. 

Using a Sustainability Insights agent, organizations can quickly configure an AI assistant to get insights and data about their company’s sustainability goals and progress. They can assess sustainability efforts year over year or in comparison to other organizations while quickly accessing general knowledge around sustainability. 

As compliance standards continue to evolve, it’s crucial to have the ability to quickly adapt and meet diverse needs, such as varying standards by geography or industry. With agent templates, organizations can use LLM with their data aligned with the Cloud for Sustainability schema to help meet sustainability standards like the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) fee.  

The CBAM agent (coming soon) helps organizations estimate their fee for “carbon leakage” around less stringent climate policies in non-European Union (EU) countries. This can occur when EU-based companies move carbon-intensive production abroad or when EU products are replaced by more carbon-intensive imports.  

The agent helps to ensure that their carbon pricing is factored into imported goods while supporting the EU’s climate objectives, maintaining competitiveness, and avoiding potential regulatory penalties. Using it, you can leverage Copilot to: 

• Align your carbon fee with CBAM.
• Put a price on carbon-intensive goods imported into the European Union to help ensure that the carbon prices of imports and domestic products align.
• Estimate your carbon fee to be paid on CBAM. 

These solutions are available in AppSource and the Power Catalog. 

Partners: Build a solution practice with Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability  

Are you a systems integrator or independent software developer? By partnering with Microsoft, you can take advantage of the Microsoft Cloud platform, which extends beyond Dynamics 365 and Power Platform to Microsoft 365 and Azure and includes industry clouds, enabling you to empower your customers and deliver industry solutions faster.  

Use our cloud platform and resources to: 

• Accelerate your innovation and reduce time to market by leveraging industry-specific capabilities, data models, connectors, and APIs on a foundation of security and compliance.
• Make investments in content, programs, incentives, and offers that will help you scale as you go.
• Co-sell industry solutions alongside Microsoft by using our commercial marketplace and increasing your visibility with software certifications.

To support your solution practice, we offer Cloud for Sustainability resources, such as sandbox offers, learning paths, online technical summits, architecture guidance, sales assets, Azure Marketplace and AppSource, and more.  

Are you already a partner? Join our Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability Insider Program to participate in preview conversations with program members from other organizations and the engineering team.   

Looking for a Cloud for Sustainability partner or solution? Visit AppSource. 

Learn more about sustainability solutions with Microsoft 

• Bookmark Microsoft Industry Blogs: Sustainability for the latest updates, including new capabilities in Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability.     
• Discover solutions with Microsoft Sustainability Manager.    
• Explore the Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability Community, where you can find answers to questions and connect with peers and experts.    
• See what’s new in Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability.

The post Drive transformative business with new AI features in Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

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Tighten your emissions goals with what-if analysis—now generally available

Conducting what-if analysis in Sustainability Manager allows organizations to evaluate their current carbon emission trends against the projected effects of altering variables within their business practices. Put simply, companies can intelligently forecast the long-term effects of altering their practices on their emissions footprint. With this GA release, the what-if analysis capability is enhanced to help businesses advance toward their objectives more quickly.  

Organizations can now extend their forecast horizons longer, based on the amount of historical data incorporated, by utilizing the what-if analysis feature. Typically, the forecast horizon spans about half the duration of the historical data used. An organization with four years of historical data, for example, can expect to see a forecast of up to two years. This allows businesses to create more informed and strategic plans for reducing their carbon footprint. By estimating the long-term effects of different emission reduction strategies, companies can help identify actions to take toward meeting reporting requirements and enhancing their progress toward goals.  

With increased customizability, organizations can select specific fields to manipulate within forecasts, rather than being restricted to the default fields available in earlier versions. Fields can also be layered together to enable the prediction and comparison of different reduction strategies’ outcomes in a single view. Up to three forecasts can be layered to help identify optimal reduction opportunities. 

Figure 1. Customizable what-if analysis allows users to alter variables to deliver more precise insights. 

With customizable what-if analysis, organizations ultimately enable greater precision and flexibility in their sustainability efforts. They can make more informed decisions, tailored to specific needs and goals, and drive more targeted progress toward reporting and long-term sustainability objectives. Moreover, through intelligent forecasting, they can preempt potential issues and sharpen strategic planning to help save time and resources. 

Figure 2. With layered forecasting, organizations can estimate and compare the outcomes of different reduction strategies in a single view. 

Strengthen analysis and decision-making with intelligent insights

Building on the predictive capabilities of what-if analysis, intelligent insights in Microsoft Sustainability Manager further assists decision-making by enabling deep, AI-driven data analysis and actionable insights. The intelligent insights capability, also now generally available, helps organizations analyze complex data patterns and drive meaning from data to make more informed decisions. This feature helps identify data trends and gaps as well as hidden opportunities for efficiency, allowing businesses to optimize costs, form targeted strategies, and make better progress. 

Used with what-if analysis to simulate different scenarios, businesses can assess the potential impact of various decisions, evaluate the outcomes of different strategies before implementation, and understand potential risks and benefits. As a result, businesses can plan more effectively and avoid potential pitfalls. 

Overall, the intelligent insights capability provides businesses with a competitive edge by enabling them to make smarter, more data-driven decisions. By leveraging AI to help analyze complex data patterns, businesses can uncover valuable insights that drive better outcomes and support long-term success. Whether it’s optimizing operations, accelerating sustainability progress, or responding to market expectations, intelligent insights offer a wealth of benefits that can help transform the way businesses operate.

Tackle multiple reporting standards with Project ESG Reporting

Project ESG Reporting (preview) offers a collection of templates, frameworks, and directives that can be populated and reused for future reports, helping organizations streamline the reporting process. These tools are designed to support organizations in their sustainability reporting journeys, making it easier to track progress, identify areas for improvement, and communicate their sustainability efforts effectively. 

New SASB templates (preview) enable drafting responses to Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Standards across a wide array of industries. Overseen by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), SASB Standards facilitate reporting on industry-related sustainability risks and opportunities over short, medium, or long terms, across 77 industries. Get more information about the templates for SASB and other standards. 

Figure 3. Organizations can streamline the reporting process for SASB and other standards, using Project ESG Reporting (preview). 

Improve greenhouse gas calculations with DEFRA emission factors

Microsoft Sustainability Manager also now includes Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) 2023 and 2024 emission factors in the factor library. With DEFRA factors, organizations can calculate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from a range of activities, including energy use, water consumption, waste disposal, recycling, and transport activities.

Learn more about sustainability solutions with Microsoft

Bookmark Microsoft Industry Blogs: Sustainability for the latest updates, including new capabilities in Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability.    

Discover solutions with Microsoft Sustainability Manager.   

Explore the Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability Community, where you can find answers to questions and connect with peers and experts.   

See what’s new in Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability.    

The post Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability: Drive specific reduction and reporting targets with AI appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

In this blog, we explore the capabilities of this management tool and how it helps simplify reporting on multiple levels. Features include a variety of user-friendly templates, workflow management, and extensibility that accelerate the reporting process and boost accuracy. In addition, we look at a new data trail capability in Microsoft Sustainability Manager that improves transparency in data flow and an alternate emissions feature that helps people accurately quantify emissions. Lastly, for game creators, we revisit the Xbox Developer Sustainability Toolkit, released in 2023, to see how it is helping pinpoint and reduce energy usage for gamers. 

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Simplify the complexities of ESG disclosure

ESG disclosure reporting can be a complex and challenging process for companies. For example, there is no global standardization in ESG reporting, which makes it difficult to know what metrics to report and how to structure disclosures. Organizations are facing challenges as they aim to report against numerous voluntary and regulatory reporting frameworks.  

Project ESG reporting (preview) solves these challenges by enabling customers to create, complete, and approve reports based on multiple ESG disclosure standards across quantitative and qualitative metrics. The solution offers templates, frameworks, and directives that can be populated and subsequently re-used for future reports, reducing the overall reporting process for years to come. The templates can be customized with flexible data input options—from numeric to rich text—to build a comprehensive report and provide accurate insight into an organization’s ESG performance. Customers also have the option to bring in their own templates. Additionally, they can use collaboration and approval workflows to enhance data quality and consistency.  

The solution focuses on multiple areas that simplify the challenges inherent in reporting, across industries. This includes reducing complexity, enhancing efficiency, and providing greater transparency.

Key features include:   

1. Variety of standard templates. To save our customers time and effort, we included a range of ESG standard and framework templates:
   • Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)
   • Australian Sustainability Reporting Standards (ASRS)  
   • Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) 1 and 2 
   • Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) 
   • International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) 1 and 2  
   • Numerous Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) templates 
2. Microsoft Sustainability Manager integration for company profile and CSRD data points  
3. Workflow UI for task management and content approval   
4. Disclosure generation in Excel  
5. Extensibility for custom template creation

Explore our collaborative end-to-end ESG reporting solution.

Follow the workflow of data with Microsoft Sustainability Manager to make better decisions

Sustainability data helps company leaders make informed decisions about sustainability with their apps. To maximize the value of that data, we’ve given Microsoft Sustainability Manager data trail capabilities. This feature covers the entire data lifecycle—from ingestion to reconciliation—providing a complete representation of the data flow. Capabilities include a comprehensive preparation report providing the data trail across different time periods and organizational hierarchies. 

Features include: 

• Understanding how data moves and changes in the app (such as who is responsible for the data, data quality, and the outcome of using data) 
• Visibility into each stage of the data journey, delivering a clear, end-to-end view of sustainability in data flow, transformations, and calculations
• Streamlining data access, traceability, and auditability  

Having a data trail helps companies more easily handle the constantly changing regulatory requirements for data traceability and auditability. For auditors, investors, and stakeholders, it also builds trust. 

Learn more about generating a data trail report.

Create separate emissions versions specific to reporting standards or accounting methods

The regulatory landscape is complicated and continues to evolve. The alternate emissions feature in the Microsoft Sustainability Manager calculations engine empowers customers to accurately quantify their emissions using diverse calculation methodologies. The tool generates alternative emission reports tailored to the requirements of different regulatory bodies or regional reporting standards. Users leverage the same activity data, tailoring emission calculations to specific emission scopes and classifications. This can enhance operational efficiency and mitigate risks associated with non-compliance or inaccurate reporting.

The feature’s flexibility simplifies maintaining compliance with regional or industry-specific reporting standards and variations and ever-evolving regulations. Users can configure multiple emission calculation methodologies for each emission category (Scope 1, Scope 2, Scope 3) and its underlying activity data. That includes the ability to choose destination or classification of emissions along with the output activity category within the calculation model. Such capabilities enable the generation of parallel emission reports for different regulatory bodies, regional standards, and customer requests. Users will also be able to filter emission records based on approach or calculation methodology and visualize the alternate results according to methodology or purpose.  

Learn more about calculating emissions for different standards (preview).

Get the latest factor library updates 

Microsoft Sustainability Manager has added new emission factors to the factor library that you can seamlessly import. They are: 

• National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) database: Microsoft Sustainability Manager integrates with the NGER database, enabling users to access accurate and up-to-date emission factors. These factors are essential for calculating greenhouse gas emissions associated with various activities, products, and processes.  

• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) factors for 2024: The EPA regularly updates emission factors based on scientific research and industry trends. Microsoft Sustainability Manager has automatically incorporated the latest EPA factors for 2024, ensuring accuracy and compliance with regulatory standards. 

Encourage game creators to create sustainability goals

Reducing the impact of gaming on the environment requires a collaborative effort. Working closely with studio partners, we’ve done that with the Xbox Sustainability Toolkit. To date, we’ve already seen great success with games like Halo Infinite, Fortnite, and Call of Duty.  

Our game creator stories show that identifying and implementing energy efficiency opportunities in game development doesn’t have to be expensive or time intensive. The results can reduce console energy consumption, carbon emissions, and in-home electricity costs for gamers. The energy optimizations help game creators achieve sustainability goals without disrupting players. Visit Microsoft Game Dev Docs to learn more about our partner collaborations and the toolkit.  

We’ll continue to add to the Xbox Sustainability Toolkit as we expand our number of studio partners. We’ll also continue to contribute and participate in the United Nations Playing for the Planet Alliance to support sustainable game design.  

To learn more, visit Gaming Sustainability. 

Learn more about sustainability solutions with Microsoft  

• Bookmark Microsoft Industry Blogs: Sustainability for the latest updates, including new capabilities in Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability.   
• Discover solutions with Microsoft Sustainability Manager.  
• Explore the Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability Community, where you can find answers to questions and connect with peers and experts.  
• See what’s new in Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability. 

The post Streamline ESG disclosures with new and expanded reporting solutions appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

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In this blog, we explain how creating scorecards and goals empowers you to curate sustainability metrics and track against your organization’s key business objectives. We also share other recent updates to Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability designed to help you manage, track, report, and gain better insight into your sustainability data. 

Use scorecards and goals to achieve your sustainability objectives

Sustainability reporting can be a complex process. Sustainability Manager includes a new capability that simplifies the process, making it more accessible and manageable for you to communicate your organization’s sustainability achievements. With scorecards and goals, you can curate your organization’s sustainability metrics and track them against your organization’s business objectives. 

Create a scorecard, which you can use to chart your organization’s sustainability metrics, encapsulate them within a scorecard, and designate an owner to guide its advancement. 

Create goals, the benchmark of your organization’s sustainability trajectory, which can be seamlessly integrated with the scorecards. These goals, whether entered manually or derived from interconnected data streams, provide a dynamic framework for sustainability targets, adaptable to the shifting tides of your organization’s needs. 

Using the scorecards and goals feature, you can mark goals as aligning to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), giving your organization the ability to highlight the scientific rigor and global recognition of its sustainability efforts. By including a baseline year, the goal-setting process deepens, offering a historical perspective from which you can measure and assess progress. Finally, the dual capability of manual updates or automated system tracking enables you to not only set but actively pursue and achieve your organization’s sustainability goals.  

The scorecards and goals capability transcends the mere establishment of targets, fostering a culture of engagement and accountability. It provides a centralized platform for setting, monitoring, and updating sustainability goals, which is crucial for accurate disclosure reporting. With the ability to connect goals to data sources, you can ensure that your organization’s reporting is data-driven and reflects real-time progress towards its sustainability targets. This feature simplifies the complex process of sustainability reporting, making it more accessible and manageable for organizations of all sizes to communicate their sustainability achievements transparently to stakeholders.  

Calculate emissions using IEA factors within Sustainability Manager 

Multinational organizations can now calculate emissions using International Energy Agency (IEA) emission factors within Sustainability Manager, with some restrictions as governed by IEA. Using the IEA factors can help you understand your organization’s carbon footprint and develop strategies to reduce emissions, as well as help with regulatory compliance, risk management, and cost reduction. 

The IEA factors library is available to download from Microsoft Cloud Solution Center. The IEA emission factors are available to use alongside all other emission factor libraries within Sustainability Manager. This feature is available within Sustainability Manager Premium.

Learn how to calculate emissions with the IEA emissions feature. 

Create and associate meter entities with a facility within Sustainability Manager 

For Scope 1 and Scope 2 emission categories, customers collect utility consumption data from utility providers through bills and, in some cases, through real-time devices like meters. The consumption reported in utility bills and real-time devices are recorded through utility meters (per collection device configuration). 

Now deprecated, Sustainability Manager previously included an optional meter text attribute for purchased energy and stationary combustion. However, since the consumption is recorded at a facility level and the meter is the device used to record this consumption for each facility, the meter must be associated with a facility within Sustainability Manager. 

You can now create and associate multiple utility meters (entities) with the facility entity in Sustainability Manager. This will enable you to track and report energy consumption for emissions calculations, as well as water usage at a facility level within your organization. 

Note that reports by meter is a future enhancement. In the meantime, you can use custom reports to add meter-based pivot views. 

Transfer data connections across deployments 

Sustainability Manger includes advanced ingestion capabilities. A connection is made of several parts:   

• The data source connectivity specifications  
• Mode of ingestion such as Power Query, Excel, or from a custom data provider  
• Mapping of source shape to the Sustainability Manager data model  
• Execution context, such as scheduling  

Enterprises need repeatable, verifiable processes across deployments; so, once a connection is specified, it can be transferred across deployments or environments. Now, environment administrators can use application lifecycle management (ALM) with Microsoft Power Platform to transfer connections across environments.   

Learn more about how to copy connections from one environment to another. 

Gain insights into your organization’s sustainability progress with Microsoft Copilot Studio templates 

The Sustainability Insights Copilot template (preview) was recently added to Copilot Studio. The template enables you to get insights and see data about your organization’s sustainability goals and progress and can be tailored to suit your organization’s specific needs. Information can be publicly shared in the form of reports, documents, and records. For example, a company’s sales and marketing professionals might be required to respond to queries from customers about the company’s sustainability progress on various sustainability fronts like measuring across environmental metrics, social and governance stats and indexes, energy meters, pollution indexes, and biodiversity impact.  

You can create and deploy a Sustainability Insights Copilot template as you would for any other Copilot template in Copilot Studio. 

Once deployed, your copilot is ready to field questions.  

You can configure the template with more sources of knowledge and other system of records, leveraging connectors to respond to related queries better.  

Enhanced Scope 3 categories now generally available in Sustainability Manager 

We’re excited to announce that Sustainability Manager has successfully completed the verification process for several Scope 3 categories of the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol. The following categories are now generally available:  

• Category 3: Fuel-and energy-related activities  
• Category 10: Processing of sold products  
• Category 11: Use of sold products  
• Category 14: Franchises  
• Category 15: Investments 

This update spans across various features, including import, activity data, calculations, and documentation, ensuring a seamless user experience.  

The verification process was comprehensive, involving a rigorous assessment and validation of data, methodologies, and calculations related to these Scope 3 categories. Independent experts conducted a thorough review to ensure accuracy, consistency, and compliance with industry standards.  

We’re committed to providing you with reliable and transparent tools to manage your sustainability efforts. The general availability of these enhanced Scope 3 categories marks a significant milestone in our journey towards empowering organizations to achieve their environmental goals. 

Learn more about sustainability solutions with Microsoft 

• Bookmark Microsoft Industry Blogs: Sustainability for the latest updates, including new capabilities in Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability.  
• Discover solutions with Microsoft Sustainability Manager. 
• Explore the Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability Community, where you can find answers to questions and connect with peers and experts. 
• See what’s new in Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability June 2024.

Want to learn more about Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability? Sign up for news and updates. 

The post Simplify reporting with real-time insight into your sustainability progress appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

To address this growing need, Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability data solutions in Microsoft Fabric (preview) can help organizations take sustainability data in any format, organize, and normalize the data for sustainability regulatory reporting. This quantitative data reporting approach is complemented by a joint solution from Accenture and Avanade that leverages generative AI to provide qualitative insights. This enables organizations to manage workflows associated with multiple sustainability reporting frameworks globally, including CSRD, Global Report Initiative (GRI), and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). Organizations can optimize both quantitative data from Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability solutions and qualitative data with Accenture and Avanade’s generative AI-powered solution. 

The solution integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Sustainability Manager, offering a comprehensive platform for managing sustainability key performance indicators (KPIs) across different frameworks. The solution’s collaborative features, generative AI-enhanced insights, and streamlined data integration can help organizations simplify compliance-related processes. Meanwhile, the improved richness of its sustainability reporting enables organizations to take more effective actions to achieve their ESG targets.  

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Navigate the complexities of reporting frameworks

All ESG reporting frameworks carry their own complexities. However, the CSRD has been top of mind in 2024 for organizations in and outside of the European Union as they begin to gather, analyze, and report the required data. This is no simple task—the CSRD encompasses 12 standards and 82 reporting requirements, which amounts to approximately 500 KPIs and over 10,000 underlying data points. In addition to managing this large array of ESG data, companies face other significant challenges associated with CSRD compliance and data management including reporting on the entire value chain versus only on their own organization. The evolving nature of sustainability criteria and metrics further complicates the reporting process. 

Navigating the intricacies of a multitude of reporting frameworks and intricate regulations necessitates extensive data gathering and assimilation. The process of ESG reporting often engages various departments and resources within an organization, introducing its own set of risks and costs. The more manual a process, the more opportunities there are for errors to occur, and the complexities of each reporting framework require time, diligence, and accuracy. A proficient solution can help simplify the process and effectively aid in the generation of accurate reports with fewer resources required. 

Accenture and Avanade’s generative AI-powered solution allows users to select from different reporting frameworks and adapts to the specific requirements of the chosen framework, displaying relevant categories and reporting structures. Users can access the breadth and depth of their data and translate it into the necessary reporting frameworks. This flexibility is crucial for organizations that are subject to multiple reporting obligations or need to adhere to international standards beyond local mandates. 

Streamlining data management using Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service

Accenture and Avanade’s solution addresses the dual challenges of qualitative and quantitative data in sustainability reporting, utilizing Azure OpenAI for enhancing its reporting capabilities, especially for qualitative data input. Using Azure OpenAI to create an AI assistant, Accenture and Avanade’s solution offers a unified platform for sustainability reporting, simplifying the process of compiling CSRD reports, making it easier for users to interact with data and generate reports quickly.  

• Qualitative data management: Leveraging Azure OpenAI integration, Accenture and Avanade’s solution assists in drafting responses to qualitative questions, such as detailing a company’s sustainability policies, practices, and goals. This AI assistant ensures that responses are not only in keeping with reporting standards but also reflective of best practices and forward-thinking sustainability strategies.  
• Quantitative data management: The integration of Microsoft Sustainability Manager allows for the automatic import of calculated quantitative metrics. This means that insights or recommendations provided by Accenture and Avanade’s solution is informed by the data in the user’s ESG platform. The AI assistant enables identification of trends and patterns in both qualitative and quantitative data sources, aiding in a more holistic analysis.   

An enhanced collaborative workflow  

One of the biggest pain points that companies have related to ESG reporting is managing the approval workflow with multiple process and approval steps. It’s important to have a trail of accountability, which depending on organization size, can exist across several departments and users. Accenture and Avanade’s solution enables organizations to assign responsibility and accountability, thereby streamlining the process of preparing the report and its associated approval processes.   

Importantly, team members can work on the same sections of the report simultaneously and the platform maintains comprehensive audit trails of all changes made to the report. This transparency is vital for accountability, enabling team leaders to monitor progress and ensure that all contributions align. 

Learn more about sustainability solutions

By facilitating clear communication, structured workflows, and shared access to data in Microsoft Sustainability Manager, Accenture and Avanade’s generative AI-powered solution enables teams to work together toward their sustainability reporting goals. 

To learn more about Accenture and Avanade’s generative AI-powered solution and how it can be customized for your industry and region, register for a complimentary workshop.  

The post Leverage AI to simplify CSRD reporting   appeared first on The Microsoft Cloud Blog.

Ahead of the fair, we also published a new report in collaboration with MIT Technology Review Insights uncovering the current state and ambitions around AI in the manufacturing industry. The report clearly indicates that manufacturers are excited about the potential of AI and plan to make significant investments over the next two to three years to deploy AI at scale to unlock innovation and enhance efficiency.

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Transforming the manufacturing value chain with AI

The Microsoft experience focused on how AI transforms the manufacturing value chain: starting with accelerating product development cycles, improving efficiency in the factory, making operations more sustainable, and finally empowering every employee across business functions with the latest AI tools. These four opportunities manifested as the four distinct neighborhoods in the booth, with demos and customer stories populating each one.

1. Unlock innovation in design and engineering

AI has the potential to unlock a tremendous amount of innovation in design and engineering by allowing manufacturers to simulate and generate new options faster. It can help accelerate development cycles for new products and services as shown by our customers Kuka & Schneider Electric, how manufacturers can accelerate the programming of industrial robots and programmable logic controllers (PLCs) with Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, significantly speeding up development times. Siemens, along with customer Harting, showcased how generative AI can be used to speed up the design process of new industrial connectors and revolutionize mass-customization. Additionally, our partners Threedy, PTC, Hexagon, Capgemini, and Ansys showcased how applying technologies from digital twins to mixed reality to the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing accelerates product development cycles.

2. Enable intelligent factories

Making factories smarter is top of mind for manufacturers. In this area of the booth, we showed customers how they can improve quality, resource utilization and accelerate issue resolution in the factory with industrial IoT, data, and AI. Along with our partners Accenture, Avanade, Sight Machine, Rockwell, and AVEVA, we showcased the manufacturing data solutions in Fabric (preview) and the Copilot template for factory operations on Azure AI. These solutions help manufacturers unify their information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) data estates in an industry standard data model on Fabric. The Copilot template then uses this unified data to answer questions asked in natural language to help resolve issues on the factory floor. In addition, we showcased solutions from partners such as Tulip, TCS, SymphonyAI, SAP with Syntax, Cognite, Weavix, and Unmanned Life and from customers including Andritz, Chevron, Electrolux, and Ecopetrol that utilize Microsoft Azure IoT Operations, Azure private multi-access edge compute (MEC), Azure AI, Fabric, and more to enable intelligent factories.

3. Create resilient and sustainable operations

Manufacturing companies are looking to make their supply chain and service operations more resilient and sustainable. In this neighborhood we showed how they can achieve their goals using the power of cloud, AI, and mixed reality. In collaboration with Volvo Penta, we showed how using Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Field Service and Guides improves technician training, service manager workflows, and eventually, delivers better customer outcomes for their marine engines. With Caterpillar, we showcased how their Service Information System built on Azure provides detailed service information for CAT products from 1977 up to today. We also showcased Microsoft Sustainability Manager, which helps organizations to record, report, and reduce their environmental impacts through the power of data and AI. Our partners Blue Yonder, O9, and Tools Group demonstrated the power of cloud and AI to make supply chains more resilient.

4. Enhance employee productivity with AI

AI has the potential to unlock productivity and innovation for employees in all areas of the business. In this area of the booth, we showcased how Microsoft Copilot in products such as Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Security, Microsoft Power Platform, Fabric, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Windows, and Bing on Surface devices can empower employees across business functions in the manufacturing enterprise to achieve more. We showcased how Microsoft Copilot for Security and Microsoft Defender for IoT empower security teams to protect their OT environments, bringing collaboration to the forefront by reducing knowledge barriers for securing such environments. In the Fabric demo, we showed how manufacturing customers can use the suite of analytics workloads in Fabric, Copilot in Fabric, and direct integration with generative AI models to transform their factory operations.

The BMW Group showcase was the connecting thread between each of the booth neighborhoods. Built in collaboration with Hexagon, NVIDIA, PTC, and Rockwell Automation, business leaders and dignitaries could experience how technology enables cutting-edge transformation through AI-assisted design, connected data, and agile production for organizations like BMW Group. Featured in the exclusive Hannover Messe press tour highlight, which hosted more than 40 international journalists, this demo garnered significant attention for depicting how the integration of technology is changing manufacturing as we know it.

Thought leadership and continued innovation

A space for thought leadership, the Microsoft theater was very busy this year, bringing together C-level leaders, innovators, and business leaders eager to learn about how technology is changing the sector, what their peers are doing, and the importance of diversity within manufacturing. This space connected customers to the experts: creating a unique forum of innovation where solutions to complex industrial problems were revealed, and where ideas were brought to life.

Covering topics from the return on investment (ROI) of 5G factories, to delivering practical insights for how exactly to build your own copilots, the theater sessions delivered valuable insights on the most pressing questions the industry faces today. Here are a few highlights of the theater sessions:

• Celebrating women in manufacturing brought together influential voices of women in manufacturing to explore their career journeys, achievements, challenges, and best leadership practices to inspire the next generation of female talent.
• Industrial transformation with AI: A discussion with Kraft and Schneider Electric shared how cloud, IoT, and mixed reality technologies together with AI are reshaping entire value chains.
• Microsoft partners, including IBM, PwC, Fractal, DXC, Honeywell, and Rescale spoke about how their solutions built with Microsoft technologies can help transform all aspects of manufacturing from design and engineering to the factory floor.
• Microsoft Intelligent Manufacturing Award showcase, in partnership with Roland Berger, celebrated the winners of the fifth annual Microsoft Intelligent Manufacturing Awards (MIMA), a prestigious award recognizing innovation in digitalizing the manufacturing industry in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). The award honors the most promising and innovative digital best practices from the industrial and operations sectors: production, purchasing, supply chain, engineering, and after sales. This year’s MIMA winners were Mercedes Benz, Northvolt, Malvern Paralytical, Wilo, Andritz, and Danfoss.

Learn more about solutions from Microsoft

Finally, we would like to thank our customers and partners who joined us at the booth as exhibitors, along with the thousands of attendees who visited the booth to engage with us and looking forward to Hannover Messe 2025. To learn more about the latest solutions for manufacturing, please visit Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing.

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