At this time, Microsoft revealed the 2022 Environmental Sustainability Report. 2022 was a yr of innovation, partnership, and progress towards our commitments, all whereas serving to our clients, companions, and the world transfer towards a extra sustainable future. You possibly can learn the foreword beneath and the discover the report in its entirety right here.
Enabling sustainability for our firm, our clients, and the world
2022 marked the sixth warmest yr in historical past. Excessive climate brought on devastating droughts, wildfires, famine, floods, and warmth waves with alarming frequency. We felt the consequences of local weather change like by no means earlier than, and because the planet warms, we’ll proceed to see and really feel the damaging impacts on ecosystems and communities around the globe. The newest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Local weather Change (IPCC) underscores the severity of the local weather disaster, and the pressing want for international collective motion. Significant local weather motion requires an everlasting dedication from each authorities and enterprise, with the personal sector enjoying an more and more essential position within the transition from pledges to progress. As we mirror on the seriousness of the local weather disaster, we’ve got expanded our ambition to satisfy this pressing local weather want by investing in a broad vary of initiatives, applied sciences and approaches that help a web zero future.
Microsoft’s strategy to addressing the local weather disaster begins with the sustainability of our personal enterprise. In 2020, we made a daring set of commitments: to be a carbon damaging, water constructive, zero waste firm that protects ecosystems – all by 2030. Three years into this journey, we stay steadfast in our dedication. 2022 was a reminder that to mitigate probably the most extreme impacts of local weather change, our commitments want to increase past our 4 partitions, and we should proceed to speed up investments that may allow progress for many years to return.
In 2022, we launched Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, a complete suite of enterprise-grade sustainability administration instruments. We additionally helped to advance a set of world sustainability initiatives that goal to profit each individual and group on the planet. These embrace accelerating the supply of recent local weather applied sciences by our Local weather Innovation Fund, strengthening our local weather coverage agenda, serving to to develop a extra dependable and interoperable carbon accounting system, advocating for skilling applications to develop the inexperienced workforce, and dealing to allow a simply transition for the weak populations of the worldwide south.
We imagine that Microsoft has an essential position to play in creating and advancing new local weather options, but in addition acknowledge that the local weather disaster can’t be solved by any single firm, group, or authorities. The worldwide group wants partnerships, new improvements, insurance policies, and international dedication to make sure a wholesome future for all.
Getting our personal home so as
Microsoft’s personal sustainability is our first sphere of affect, and we stay centered on getting our personal home so as and delivering on our 2030 commitments. We made formidable commitments in 2020 and we knew that progress wouldn’t all the time be linear. These commitments are rooted in science and take the mandatory steps to guard our ecosystems and stop probably the most extreme impacts of local weather change. We’re firmly centered on attaining our 2030 commitments and making the appropriate long-term investments that help the sustainability of our enterprise for many years to return. Along with our long-term focus, it’s essential to pause and consider our progress in 2022.
In 2022, our enterprise grew by 18% and our general emissions declined by 0.5%. This partly is a results of a discount in our direct operational (Scope 1 and a couple of) emissions by 22.7%. At Microsoft, Scope 1 and a couple of emissions account for lower than 4% of whole emissions, whereas oblique emissions, or Scope 3, account for greater than 96%. Our Scope 3 reported emissions elevated barely in 2022, by 0.5%, regardless of a 25% enhance in bought items and providers resulting from enterprise progress. The extra constructive outcomes in 2022 are the results of enhancements in our operations, real-time system telemetry-based measurement, renewable power investments, sustainable aviation gasoline (SAF) purchases, and procurement of unbundled renewable power certificates (RECs).
Whereas we proceed to work to scale back our Scope 1 and a couple of emissions to close zero, Scope 3 is the last word decarbonization problem. It necessitates the coevolution of finest practices for enterprise, know-how, and coverage amongst 1000’s of world stakeholders. Once we made our carbon damaging dedication in 2020 it wasn’t only a problem to help the sustainability of our enterprise, it was additionally an invite to the world to take part on this journey, translating ingenuity into motion, and motion into impression. Along with our carbon damaging dedication, we’ve additionally made encouraging progress towards our 2030 commitments in water, waste, and ecosystems:
Water constructive
We contracted for replenishment initiatives which can be estimated to supply greater than 15.6 million m3 in volumetric water advantages, growing our working whole of replenishment initiatives to 35 million m3. Moreover, we supplied greater than 850,000 folks with entry to wash water and sanitation options, together with 163,000 in Brazil, India, Indonesia, and Mexico.
Zero waste
We elevated our reuse and recycle charges of all cloud {hardware} to 82% and proceed to tempo towards our 2030 reuse and recycle aim of 90%. We additionally lowered single-use plastics throughout all Microsoft packaging to three.3% and are on monitor to remove their use by 2025. In whole, we’ve got diverted 12,159 metric tons of strong waste from landfills.
Ecosystem safety
We proceed to take care of our dedication to guard extra land than we use. In 2022, 12,000 of the over 17,000 acres of contracted land had been formally designated as protected. The quantity of land protected in 2022 exceeds the roughly 11,200 acres of land we at the moment use.
Amplifying our impression and serving to our clients obtain extra
Our second sphere of affect is buyer sustainability. As a know-how firm, we’ve got a task to play with the 1000’s of company clients who put their belief in Microsoft know-how. The vast majority of our clients have already made a local weather pledge and Microsoft is working to assist them transfer from pledges to progress.
Whereas Microsoft’s emissions footprint is a tiny share of world emissions, we even have a task to play in serving to cut back or take away the opposite 99.97% of world emissions. It’s essential that our strategy to sustainability extends past our personal 4 partitions and helps the sustainability wants of our clients.
Firms can solely handle what they will measure, and Microsoft is dedicated to serving to our clients measure their environmental impression in a well timed and correct method. In June 2022, we launched Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, a complete environmental sustainability administration platform that features Microsoft Sustainability Supervisor. These new digital instruments can interoperate with nearly any enterprise system and unify information intelligence for organizations at any stage of their sustainability journey. Sustainability Supervisor allows organizations to file, report, and cut back their Scope 1, 2, and three emissions.
Azure clients additionally benefited from vital upgrades to the Emissions Impression Dashboard (EID), which helps clients to know the emissions impression that outcomes from their use of the Microsoft Cloud. The EID estimates Microsoft’s direct and oblique emissions associated to a buyer’s cloud utilization, in addition to the emissions clients have averted by working workloads within the cloud reasonably than on-premises.
In 2022, we additionally launched a preview model of the Microsoft Planetary Pc to allow clients to measure, monitor, and subsequently to handle ecosystems which may be affected by their operations, and to make essential choices associated to local weather threat. The Planetary Pc attracts on greater than 60 petabytes of open-source geospatial information. This information, when mixed with the analytic capabilities of our AI for Good Lab, delivers a brand new stage of planetary insights to companies and governments around the globe.
Enabling and supporting a extra sustainable world
Lastly, our third sphere of affect is to impression international sustainability. Simply because the attain of Microsoft know-how extends to nearly each nation on the planet, so ought to the impression of our sustainability applications.
In November 2022, the world’s local weather leaders convened for COP27. There have been essential conversations at COP27 centered on the uneven impacts of local weather change and the way the least developed international locations on the planet are disproportionately affected. For instance, the nations of Africa collectively account for lower than 5% of world emissions however have skilled way over their share of the damaging impacts of local weather change. At Microsoft, we’re centered on local weather insurance policies and applications that may have a constructive impression on all eight billion inhabitants of planet Earth.
Coverage
Microsoft is deeply dedicated to utilizing our voice to affect sustainability insurance policies around the globe. We help public coverage initiatives to speed up carbon reporting, discount and removing, the transition to wash power, water entry and stress discount, and the flexibility to measure, handle, and shield ecosystems. In 2022, we additional dedicated to shaping public coverage by releasing coverage briefs on carbon and electrical energy.
Carbon measurement and the Carbon Name
In February 2022, Microsoft, ClimateWorks Basis, and over 20 main organizations launched an essential new initiative known as the Carbon Name. The target of this program is to unify the world round a carbon accounting system that’s extra dependable and interoperable. ClimateWorks Basis is constructing this program to a worldwide scale. The Carbon Name now has over 80 signatories, and launched its preliminary roadmap at COP27.
Local weather Innovation Fund
We imagine that innovation is a vital part to fixing the local weather disaster, and that the funding of capital performs an essential position in accelerating the supply of recent options. Microsoft is investing in accelerating local weather innovation by our $1 billion Local weather Innovation Fund (CIF). We spend money on modern applied sciences and enterprise fashions which have the potential for significant, measurable local weather impression by 2030. For the reason that founding of the CIF in 2020, Microsoft has allotted greater than $600 million into a worldwide portfolio of greater than 50 investments, together with sustainable options in power, industrial, and pure methods.
Africa information lab
In November, we introduced an growth of our AI for Good Lab into Egypt and Kenya, constructing a brand new group of information scientists on the bottom in Africa that may work to enhance local weather resilience. The work of those information labs will likely be knowledgeable by a brand new Africa AI Innovation Council comprised of representatives from main African organizations.
Sustainability expertise
Delivering on the ambition of the Paris Settlement would require a worldwide initiative centered on the proliferation of sustainability expertise all through the labor market. In November 2022, Microsoft and BCG launched a brand new report, Closing the Sustainability Expertise Hole: Serving to Companies Transfer from Pledges to Progress. This report reinforces the necessity for employers and governments to spend money on upskilling the present workforce by studying initiatives centered on sustainability information and expertise, to arrange the following era for sustainability jobs of the long run. Microsoft is working with companions to develop and share new sustainability studying supplies to speed up the event of the sustainability workforce of the long run.
A decade of innovation and decisive motion
As we glance towards 2030 – and past – we stay optimistic about our collective skill to decarbonize the worldwide financial system whereas persevering with to develop and prosper as a worldwide group. We are going to proceed investing in three key areas that may allow the size of sustainability options wanted to deal with the local weather disaster:
- Advancing AI options for better local weather impression
- Accelerating the event of sustainability markets by funding
- Creating instruments that advance emissions measurement and compliance
This will likely be a decade of innovation and decisive motion, from increasing using AI to deal with sustainability to forging new private and non-private sector partnerships. To maneuver from pledges to progress, we can’t be deterred by near-term challenges, and should stay centered on creating modern new options and, in lots of circumstances, accelerating our actions. At Microsoft, we’re deeply dedicated to sustainability as an organization, as a know-how supplier, and as residents of planet Earth.
