As world sustainability progress turns into extra urgent, organizations want tangible, transformative options to assist them transfer ahead quicker. Most haven’t progressed as a lot as they’d like. Whereas 85% of executives report that sustainability is strategically vital to their firm, solely 16% have built-in sustainability into their enterprise methods.
In the present day, we’re introducing new knowledge and AI options in Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability that present capabilities organizations have to progress of their sustainability journey. These embody quicker environmental, social and governance (ESG) knowledge analytics and insights, an AI assistant to assist speed up impactful decision-making and reporting, and different superior capabilities — all designed to assist organizations transfer the needle quicker.
Microsoft Material: A single analytics platform for sustainability knowledge
In Could 2023, we unveiled Microsoft Material, an end-to-end, analytics SaaS platform that brings collectively all of a company’s enterprise knowledge, together with ESG knowledge that the corporate could not have had entry to earlier than. With Microsoft Material, your groups can hook up with knowledge from wherever, uncover insights utilizing AI-powered analytics instruments in a unified expertise, and embed these insights within the purposes your folks use day by day to drive motion and enhance decision-making.
Now in preview, sustainability knowledge options in Microsoft Material permits organizations to speed up their time to insights and sustainability progress by offering out-of-the-box ESG knowledge mannequin, connectors and reporting. By connecting your ESG knowledge with Microsoft Material you may flip volumes of sustainability knowledge into significant insights and progress.
Copilot and clever insights: AI help for higher, quicker choices
With centrally managed knowledge and Copilot in Microsoft Sustainability Supervisor, now in preview, organizations can use highly effective generative AI and pure language queries to realize quicker traces of sight into and solutions out of information. Organizations can ask Copilot questions, and Copilot will work throughout Microsoft Sustainability Supervisor to:
- Rapidly analyze environmental knowledge and floor discount alternatives in areas like carbon and water use, saving work and time.
- Discuss to sustainability knowledge — ask questions and retrieve solutions shortly.
- Draft sustainability preparatory stories, lowering time and releasing up assets to concentrate on different priorities.
With clever insights in Microsoft Sustainability Supervisor, additionally in preview, organizations get an built-in and interactive AI mannequin enabling deeper evaluation of calculated emissions knowledge. Utilizing it, they will:
- See the place their knowledge wants cleansing or the place extra full knowledge is required.
- Scan the group’s knowledge to determine each short- and long-term discount alternatives.
- Advantageous-tune choices primarily based on historic developments, seasonality and knowledge anomalies.
Södra, Sweden’s largest forest-owner affiliation with 52,000 homeowners of responsibly managed forests, processes sustainable uncooked supplies from members’ forests into renewable merchandise. Utilizing Microsoft Sustainability Supervisor with new AI capabilities, Södra has improved sustainability practices like reporting via automated flows that allow staff to extra simply accumulate detailed data.
“With the AI capabilities in Microsoft Sustainability Supervisor, we might be extra productive, which is our final aim,” shares Cristian Brolin, Chief Digital Officer at Södra. “We discovered the Copilot characteristic very simple to make use of and my imaginative and prescient and ambition is that it will assist speed up the way in which we work. We’re excited to see how this resolution helps speed up our sustainability progress.”
ESG worth chain resolution: Working with suppliers to drive reductions
For many organizations, provider actions can account for upward of 80-90% of their emissions footprint. Getting a deal with on this knowledge is crucial to assembly discount targets and reporting necessities.
ESG worth chain resolution in Microsoft Sustainability Supervisor, now usually accessible, permits organizations to simplify knowledge assortment and offers a seamless and safer course of for suppliers. Organizations can run superior analytics on ESG worth chain knowledge in a single place and discover emissions discount alternatives inside their worth chain.
At Microsoft, our procurement group has discovered that getting knowledge out of siloed stories, spreadsheets, and methods into one knowledge property and sharing learnings with others is vital to advancing our personal progress in addition to others’ progress. Via extra automated knowledge gathering and administration, corresponding to via ESG worth chain resolution, we can’t solely extra simply share knowledge but in addition reply extra nimbly to altering regulatory necessities.
Driving sustainable enterprise towards new progress alternatives
In line with analysis by the United Nations and Accenture, 98% of CEOs see sustainability as a core to their position, and two out of three are forming partnerships and taking motion on sustainability. Many are additionally translating these actions into new enterprise fashions and progress.
Allegiant Stadium, dwelling to the Las Vegas Raiders, is utilizing Microsoft Sustainability Supervisor to assist a state-of-the artwork and power environment friendly facility that hosted the 2024 Tremendous Bowl. Allegiant obtained LEED Gold certification, is 100% powered by renewable power from native photo voltaic farms and is utilizing Microsoft options to assist set up knowledge to tell choices about useful resource utilization.
Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability is designed to be extensible by companions, together with specialists working on the intersections of sustainability and AI. For instance, Avanade’s copilot for ESG takes the friction out of regulatory compliance reporting, producing audit-ready stories towards new and present ESG frameworks.
We’re proud to have a rising, world ecosystem of sustainability resolution, advisory and implementation companions working carefully with us, to construct and deploy capabilities that may handle the broad, multifaceted and sophisticated challenges in sustainability.
On the intersection of sustainability and AI, the probabilities are huge for any group to refocus enterprise round reworking operations, reinventing manufacturers and exploring new enterprise alternatives. Microsoft AI delivers on this potential and the wants of our prospects with a accountable method to AI that’s primarily based on strong analysis, verification and validation.
Utilizing the ability of information and AI, sustainability progress isn’t simply doable however tangible. Organizations can achieve effectivity and accuracy in decision-making and reporting in addition to new methods of doing and rising enterprise — on an thrilling, shared path to a transformative future.
