Right now, Microsoft revealed the 2024 Environmental Sustainability Report. This report covers fiscal 12 months 2023, and measures progress towards our 2020 baseline. You’ll be able to learn the foreword beneath and discover the report in its entirety right here.
Accelerating innovation and partnership for folks and the planet
4 years in the past, Microsoft dedicated that, by 2030, we’d develop into carbon damaging, water constructive, zero waste, and shield extra land than we use. Since that announcement, we now have seen main adjustments each within the expertise sector and in our understanding of what it can take to satisfy our local weather objectives. New applied sciences, together with generative AI, maintain promise for brand spanking new improvements that may assist deal with the local weather disaster. On the identical time, the infrastructure and electrical energy wanted for these applied sciences create new challenges for assembly sustainability commitments throughout the tech sector. As we take inventory as an organization in 2024, we stay resolute in our dedication to satisfy our local weather objectives and to empower others with the expertise wanted to construct a extra sustainable future.
On the finish of final 12 months, the world met in Dubai at COP28 to evaluate world sustainability progress. The outcomes have been sobering. The world shouldn’t be on observe to satisfy important local weather objectives, and we see lots of the world’s challenges mirrored in our personal scenario. In the course of the previous 4 years, we now have overcome a number of bottlenecks and have accelerated progress in significant methods. As we report right here, we’re on observe in a number of areas. However not in each space. We subsequently are mobilizing to speed up progress in areas the place we’re not but on observe.
In 4 areas we’re on observe, and in every of those we see progress that has the potential to have world impression past our personal sustainability work. These are:
- Lowering our direct operational emissions (Scope 1 and a pair of)
- Accelerating carbon elimination
- Designing for circularity to attenuate waste and reusing cloud {hardware}
- Enhancing biodiversity and defending extra land than we use
On the identical time, there are two areas the place we’re not but on observe, and in every of those we’re intensively engaged in work to establish and pursue extra breakthroughs. These are:
- Lowering our Scope 3, or oblique, emissions
- Lowering water use and replenishing extra water than we eat in our datacenter operations
Even amid the challenges, we stay optimistic. We’re inspired by ongoing progress throughout our campuses and datacenters, and all through our price chain. Much more, we’re impressed by the scores of executives and workers throughout Microsoft who’re rolling up their sleeves and figuring out new and modern steps which are serving to us to shut important gaps. All of us acknowledge the identical factor: There isn’t any subject at present that connects everybody on the planet greater than the problems round local weather change. All of us have to succeed collectively.
Carbon damaging
Our carbon damaging dedication consists of three main areas: decreasing carbon emissions; growing use of carbon-free electrical energy; and carbon elimination. We made significant progress on carbon-free electrical energy and carbon elimination in FY23. Microsoft has taken a first-mover strategy to supporting carbon-free electrical energy infrastructure, making long-term investments to convey extra carbon-free electrical energy onto the grids the place we function.
In 2023, we elevated our contracted portfolio of renewable power property to greater than 19.8 gigawatts (GW), together with initiatives in 21 international locations. In FY23, we additionally contracted 5,015,019 metric tons of carbon elimination to be retired over the subsequent 15 years. We’re persevering with to construct a portfolio of initiatives, balanced throughout low, medium, and excessive sturdiness options.
Carbon discount continues to be an space of focus, particularly as we work to handle Scope 3 emissions. In 2023, we noticed our Scope 1 and a pair of emissions lower by 6.3% from our 2020 baseline. This space stays on observe to satisfy our objectives. However our oblique emissions (Scope 3) elevated by 30.9%. In mixture, throughout all Scopes 1–3, Microsoft’s emissions are up 29.1% from the 2020 baseline.
The rise in our Scope 3 emissions primarily comes from the development of extra datacenters and the related embodied carbon in constructing supplies, in addition to {hardware} parts reminiscent of semiconductors, servers, and racks. Our challenges are partially distinctive to our place as a number one cloud provider that’s increasing its datacenters. However, much more, we replicate the challenges the world should overcome to develop and use greener concrete, metal, fuels, and chips. These are the largest drivers of our Scope 3 challenges.
We now have launched a company-wide initiative to establish and develop the added measures we’ll want to cut back our Scope 3 emissions.
Leaders in each space of the corporate have stepped as much as sponsor and drive this work. This led to the event of greater than 80 discrete and vital measures that can assist us scale back these emissions – together with a brand new requirement for choose scale, high-volume suppliers to make use of 100% carbon-free electrical energy for Microsoft delivered items and companies by 2030. As an entire, this work builds on our multi-prong technique, this 12 months specializing in the next:
- Enhancing measurement by harnessing the ability of digital expertise to garner higher perception and motion
- Rising effectivity by making use of datacenter improvements that enhance effectivity as rapidly as potential
- Forging partnerships to speed up expertise breakthroughs by way of our investments and AI capabilities, together with for greener metal, concrete, and fuels
- Constructing markets by utilizing our buying energy to speed up market demand for a majority of these breakthroughs
- Advocating for public coverage adjustments that can speed up local weather advances
Water constructive
We take a holistic strategy to turning into water constructive, which incorporates water entry, replenishment, innovation, discount, and coverage. In 2023, we achieved our water entry goal by offering greater than 1.5 million folks with entry to scrub water and sanitation options. We contracted water replenishment initiatives estimated to supply greater than 25 million m3 in volumetric water profit over the lifetime of those initiatives – sufficient water to fill about 10,000 Olympic-sized swimming swimming pools. Lastly, we proceed to drive innovation in water, by way of first-of-their sort replenishment initiatives like FIDO, which leverages AI-enabled acoustic evaluation to cut back water loss from leakage.
Wanting forward, as our datacenter enterprise continues to develop, so does the necessity to reduce our water consumption and replenish greater than we eat in these operations. In FY23, our progress on water accelerated, and we all know we have to implement a fair stronger plan to speed up it additional. We subsequently are investing in our water constructive dedication in 4 methods:
- We’re taking motion to scale back the depth with which we withdraw assets by persevering with to design and innovate so as to reduce water use and obtain our depth goal
- Our new datacenters are designed and optimized to help AI workloads and can eat zero water for cooling. This initiative goals to additional scale back our world reliance on freshwater assets as AI compute calls for improve
- We’re partnering to advance water coverage. In 2023, we joined the Coalition for Water Recycling. Over the approaching 12 months we’ll finalize a place and technique for water coverage
- We’re creating modern scalable replenishment initiatives in excessive water stress areas the place we function datacenters. We lately introduced Water United, a brand new initiative to unite private and non-private sectors in decreasing water loss from leakage throughout the Colorado River Basin
Zero waste
Our journey to zero waste consists of decreasing waste at our campuses and datacenters, advancing round cloud {hardware} and packaging, and bettering machine and packaging circularity. In FY23, we achieved a reuse and recycle charge of 89.4% for servers and parts throughout all cloud {hardware}, a goal that’s more and more vital as wants for cloud companies proceed to develop. In 2023, we additionally diverted greater than 18,537 metric tons of waste from landfills or incinerators throughout our owned datacenters and campuses, and we lowered single-use plastics in our Microsoft product packaging to 2.7%.
From increasing our Round Facilities to piloting packages that give a second life to used fiber optic cables by way of partnerships with native technical faculties, we’re working to maintain supplies in use longer and strategy our work at each stage with circularity in thoughts. We’re accelerating our work to reuse and recycle cloud {hardware} wherever potential, and launched two new Round Facilities in Quincy, Washington, and Chicago, Illinois in 2023.
Defending ecosystems
We now have dedicated to defending extra land than we use by 2025, whereas preserving and restoring ecosystems within the areas the place we dwell and work. As of FY23, we exceeded our land safety goal by greater than 40%. At this level, 15,849 acres of land have been legally designated as completely protected in comparison with our objective of 11,000 acres.
We’re incorporating inexperienced enterprise practices that help the encircling ecosystems close to our campuses and datacenters. This consists of regenerative design options round our datacenters that improve native biodiversity, improved stormwater administration, and contributing to local weather resilience. We’re additionally piloting AI-driven Microsoft expertise to supply insights into the general well being of the ecosystem and inform future actions.
Buyer and world sustainability
In final 12 months’s Environmental Sustainability Report, we introduced that we have been increasing our ambition to assist advance sustainability for our clients and the world. In 2023, we continued this work to empower our clients and companions on their very own sustainability journey by creating the expertise wanted to raised handle assets and optimize techniques. On a worldwide scale, we targeted on accelerating innovation, analysis, and coverage, not just for ourselves but in addition to help a extra sustainable world for all.
The shift from pledges to progress requires motion, transparency, and accountability. Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability helps clients unify knowledge and garner richer insights into the sustainability of their enterprise. In 2023, we expanded Microsoft Sustainability Supervisor to incorporate Scopes 1, 2, and all 15 classes of Scope 3 carbon emissions to assist observe progress and inform motion throughout a company’s operations and worth chains.
Because the world experiences worsening impacts of local weather change, we’re additionally serving to to place planetary knowledge into the palms of researchers, governments, firms, and people by way of the Planetary Pc. We’re offering open entry to petabytes of environmental monitoring knowledge to assist empower folks with actionable data to guard their communities.
Microsoft’s sustainability progress requires world engagement. We’re investing in modern options, advancing analysis, and advocating for insurance policies that we consider can drive progress at scale. A trademark of this effort has been our Local weather Innovation Fund (CIF) – our $1 billion dedication set in 2020 to advance innovation past Microsoft’s 4 partitions. To this point, the CIF has allotted $761 million towards modern local weather applied sciences together with business direct air-capture applied sciences, sustainable aviation gasoline (SAF), industrial decarbonization, and extra.
Our science, analysis, and AI for Good groups are additionally working to speed up options and develop local weather resilience with AI. In November 2023, we revealed a whitepaper and playbook that expands on the unbelievable potential of AI for sustainability. By way of our AI for Good workforce, we’re collaborating with the United Nations to analysis the usage of AI to advance the Early Warning for All Initiative, with a objective of higher understanding the populations that could be susceptible to excessive climate occasions and different threats.
Final 12 months, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella known as local weather change “the defining subject of our era.” To fulfill this generational problem, we’re placing sustainability on the heart of our work. With every rising expertise, with every new alternative, we ask ourselves an vital query: How can we advance sustainability?
As we try to reply that query, we’re creating new approaches, experimenting with new partnerships, and studying as we go. We’re optimistic in regards to the function expertise can proceed to play in accelerating local weather progress, and we sit up for working with others on this important journey for all of us.
