Microsoft operates 100 percent carbon neutral. It also levies an internal carbon tax on its own business units to help pay for climate change and environmental sustainability initiatives, including giving technology grants to environmental projects outside of Microsoft.<\/p>\n
Both are part of being a good steward of the environment, says Elizabeth Willmott, carbon program manager at Microsoft, but they are only a beginning. There is a much bigger opportunity within reach.<\/p>\n
\u201cMicrosoft is in a unique position with its enormous network of customers, partners, and suppliers,\u201d Willmott says. \u201cWe have an incredible reach with our software and services, and with our devices. If we can use that reach to drive positive change for the environment, then we can really start to help the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n
[Read this case study on how Microsoft is using machine learning to minimize its carbon footprint and reduce its energy consumption<\/a>.]<\/em><\/p>\n Employees are asking about and encouraging Microsoft\u2019s efforts all the time, and the company\u2019s leaders are also pushing to find ways to do more.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is definitely a year when we\u2019re on the move in terms of doing a lot more on sustainability,\u201d says Brad Smith, Microsoft\u2019s president and chief legal officer, speaking to company employees at a recent internal event. \u201cIt starts with getting our house in order, but then it ultimately connects to how we can help everyone on the planet use technology to drive sustainability goals.\u201d<\/p>\n To mitigate its impact on the climate, the company\u2019s efforts have been in three main areas: decreasing its carbon emissions through energy efficiency and conservation; moving to renewable energy for its datacenters and buildings; and offsetting the carbon emissions of business air travel.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re on a leadership path in these areas,\u201d Willmott says. \u201cNow we are leaning in to encourage and help our suppliers, our partners, and our customers to do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n Levying a tax for good<\/strong><\/p>\n Microsoft charges internal teams a tax of $15 per metric ton on all operational carbon emissions, a fee that just went up from the approximately $8 per metric ton charged previously. The money is paid into a sustainability fund that is used to achieve carbon neutrality via efficiency, renewable energy, and offsets. From there it is granted to Microsoft internal teams and external organizations to address climate change and other environmental sustainability priorities. This process is transparent, and the investment areas are tracked publicly on Microsoft\u2019s Sustainability Fund Power BI Dashboard<\/a>.<\/p>\n Among those investments to accelerate progress is Microsoft\u2019s AI for Earth program<\/a>, a commitment by Microsoft to spend $50 million over five years to support projects that use Microsoft\u2019s AI and machine-learning technology to tackle environmental challenges, says Bonnie Lei, AI for Earth program manager at Microsoft.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re supporting individuals and organizations that are building AI models that are broadly useful for the environment,\u201d Lei says. \u201cWe want to provide exponential impact with our investment, and so we work with our partners to make these models available on the AI for Earth website to the wider public.\u201d<\/p>\n For example, Microsoft is supporting SilviaTerra<\/a>, a California company that is using an AI for Earth grant to create a national forest inventory, which is now being piloted in an effort to help people who own small private forest land receive payment for keeping that land forested.<\/p>\n \u201cThey created machine-learning algorithms that were scaled through Microsoft Azure to create the first map of every single tree in every forest in the continental US, down to the tree\u2019s species and size,\u201d Lei says.<\/p>\n Landowners can use those maps to better manage their land, and, more importantly, they are testing a new approach to qualify their lands as viable carbon offsets. This means that, for the first time, these owners can be paid to keep their land forested by companies looking to offset their carbon emissions.<\/p>\n \u201cPreviously, they were not able to enter the carbon market due to the high cost of overhead and monitoring,\u201d Lei says. \u201cNow they have more incentive and a way to value keeping their forest stands standing.\u201d<\/p>\n Landowners are also leveraging the maps to improve how they manage their land, including better preparing themselves for fire danger and drought.<\/p>\n Easing the environmental cost of buildings<\/strong><\/p>\n One of the core ways Microsoft aims to reduce its carbon footprint is by transforming how it constructs and manages its buildings.<\/p>\n The company is currently rebuilding part of its headquarters in Redmond, Washington, and it\u2019s seeking to do so in ways that slash the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere that is typical of new construction, says Katie Ross, global sustainability program manager for Microsoft Real Estate and Security.<\/p>\n \u201cTraditionally, the building sector has been focused on operational carbon,\u201d says Ross, referring to the carbon associated with the energy used to run a building. \u201cBut that\u2019s only half of the carbon problem in the building sector\u2014the other half is embodied carbon, or the carbon that is emitted when building materials are manufactured.\u201d<\/p>\n Think about the latter as \u201cupfront carbon.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the carbon you expend before you even flip the switch to turn on the building,\u201d Ross says.<\/p>\n Unlike operational carbon, which you can reduce to zero over the life of the building by implementing energy-efficiency programs and by sourcing renewable energy, embodied carbon was emitted to make that concrete\u2014to pull the raw materials out of the ground, to process them, and so on.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a carbon footprint number you can only reduce when you pick the material, and once the building is built, you cannot change it,\u201d Ross says.<\/p>\n Microsoft is constructing 17 new buildings on its east campus\u2014a total of 2.5 million square feet of new space.<\/p>\n \u201cWe knew we wanted to tackle both sides of the carbon equation, with the aim to build zero-carbon buildings,\u201d Ross says. \u201cTo get there, we\u2019re focusing on reducing our energy usage, we\u2019re sourcing 100-percent carbon-free electricity, we\u2019re removing natural gas\u2014including for cooking\u2014in our cafes, and we\u2019re using a new tool, Embodied Carbon Calculator for Construction (EC3)<\/a>, to track and reduce our embodied carbon.\u201d<\/p>\n Microsoft is partnering with the University of Washington\u2019s Carbon Leadership Forum and the global project-development and construction company Skanska to pilot EC3 on its new campus. This open-source, free-to-use tool is helping the Microsoft Real Estate and Security construction team assess the embodied carbon within construction materials it considers for the project.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of this is unchartered territory,\u201d Ross says.<\/p>\n Efforts by corporations to track and reduce the embodied carbon impact of their buildings are in their infancy, she says.<\/p>\n \u201cSo far we are on target to reduce our embodied carbon emissions by 15 to 30 percent,\u201d she says. \u201cWe are learning a lot about what\u2019s possible by piloting this tool and hope to create a roadmap to support the industry targeting embodied carbon reductions in future projects.\u201d<\/p>\n Energy and airplanes<\/strong><\/p>\n Willmott says that one of the most notable ways Microsoft has made an impact on the environmental sustainability side is by procuring renewable energy to power the company\u2019s datacenters.<\/p>\n So far, Microsoft has procured enough renewable energy to power 60 percent of its datacenter load by the end of this calendar year. The goal is to continue on a path to power 100 percent of its datacenters with renewable energy.<\/p>\n One area the company is exploring to further shift behavior and reduce carbon emissions is by encouraging employees to skip carbon-intensive airline trips in favor of using Microsoft Teams to meet and collaborate.<\/p>\n When employees do fly, Microsoft offsets the associated emissions by investing in verified carbon-offset projects, such as a first-of-its-kind forest conservation project in King County, Washington. The company\u2019s environmental sustainability team vets all offset projects closely to ensure that they are having a measurable impact.<\/p>\n \u201cThese investments have supported the protection of 5.1 million acres of sensitive land worldwide,\u201d Willmott says. But even though scaling up the impact of these \u201cnatural climate solutions\u201d investments is meaningful, the team is very aware that avoiding carbon emissions altogether is the first and best line of action.<\/p>\n It\u2019s all part of Microsoft\u2019s commitment to sustainability, Willmott says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re using Microsoft tools and purchasing decisions to prove what our research has told us\u2014that AI and other technologies can help usher in a low-carbon transition and protect the planet from catastrophic degradation,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n If there were significantly greater adoption of AI in key sectors, greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced enough to zero out the annual emissions of Australia, Canada, and Japan combined.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is so much we can do if we all work together on this,\u201d Willmott says. \u201cLet\u2019s go do this.\u201d<\/p>\n Read this case study on creating business intelligence with Azure SQL Database<\/a> and this case study on using machine learning to develop smart energy solutions<\/a> to see how Microsoft is using technology to minimize its building footprint and reduce its energy consumption.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Microsoft operates 100 percent carbon neutral. It also levies an internal carbon tax on its own business units to help pay for climate change and environmental sustainability initiatives, including giving technology grants to environmental projects outside of Microsoft. Both are part of being a good steward of the environment, says Elizabeth Willmott, carbon program manager […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":4779,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"_hide_featured_on_single":false,"_show_featured_caption_on_single":true,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[71],"tags":[199,330,76,332,336,331,335,115,333,84,334,189],"coauthors":[138],"class_list":["post-4775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-ai","tag-azure-ai-and-machine-learning","tag-azure","tag-business-applications","tag-carbon-neutral","tag-data-and-ai","tag-machine-learning","tag-microsoft-azure","tag-microsoft-power-bi","tag-power-bi","tag-renewable-energy","tag-sustainability","m-blog-post"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n