Tech giant also touts further carbon removal efforts, $50m innovation investment, an expanded carbon tax, and a new 'sustainability calculator' for customers
Microsoft has announced a suite of new sustainability measures set to move the company closer to its aim of removing all the carbon it has produced over its lifespan by mid-century and becoming 'carbon negative' by 2030.
In an update published to its website yesterday, the software firm firstly revealed that it has inked a sizeable power purchase agreement (PPA) with US renewables developer Sol Systems, a deal that will enable the development of 500MW of solar projects in "under-resourced" communities across the US. The partnership - which is Microsoft's largest clean energy purchase to date, accounting for a quarter of its existing clean energy capacity - is expected to benefit communities disproportionately affected by environmental challenges, according to the firm.
Microsoft also unveiled a new pledge to eliminate its dependency on diesel fuel at power backup generators in data centres by 2030, as it revealed plans to issue a "ground-breaking" request for proposal this week seeking nature- and technology-based carbon removal solutions capable of cumulatively sucking one million metric tonnes of carbon from the environment this year.
The move is aimed at pushing the company towards its aim of becoming carbon negative by 2030, a commitment that requires the firm removing more carbon from the environment than it produces, and then an even more ambitious goal of removing all the carbon it has produced in its lifetime by 2050.
In addition, the firm announced it was investing $50m investment in Energy Impact Partners, a US venture capital firm that specialises in decarbonisation technologies. It marks the first investment from its $1bn climate fund launched in January.
The announcements come hot on the heels of yesterday's launch of Transform to Net Zero, an alliance dedicating to sharing resources and tactics that can boost corporate climate action led by Microsoft alongside eight other corporations, including Unilever, Nike, Mercedes-Benz and others.
In a blog post outlining the firm's new green initiaitves, Microsoft chief environmental officer Lucas Joppa emphasised the importance of collaboration with external organisations and partners. "We cannot achieve our sustainability ambitions alone - this update reflects an extraordinary amount of hard work and dedication across Microsoft and with customers, partners, NGOs and others around the world," he said.
Other green announcements from the software giant yesterday include the launch of a new "sustainability calculator" to provide its cloud computing customers with full transparency over their operational, power and indirect carbon emissions, while it has also extended its company carbon tax - which has been levied on internal business transactions since 2012 to incentivise low carbon activities - to additionally cover its suppliers and customers.
And finally, Microsoft it said that it had updated its code of conduct for suppliers to ensure that they disclosed their Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions. "This reporting is the first significant step toward helping their suppliers reduce their emissions in alignment with Microsoft's goals of transparency in emissions reductions," Joppa explained.