Microsoft Honors Sustainability Partner of the Year for 2023

Microsoft has honored hundreds to business and technology partners ahead of the company's annual Microsoft Inspire 2023 conference.

The annual Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards surface around this time every year just before the company's annual partner conference. Still, the categories evolve each year. Among the areas to note: The Social Impact awards category recognized such partners as:

• nVisionIT in Mauritius for Community Response;
• WPP in the United Kingdom for Inclusion Changemaker; and
• EY in the United States for Sustainability Changemaker.

Dig into an expansive list of winners and finalists -- spanning 56 pages -- and you'll find the terms "sustainable" or "sustainability" mentioned 26 times. Many of the mentions are from consulting companies and cloud software developers that increasingly focus on green IT or ESG (environmental, social and governance) strategies.

According to Microsoft Chief Partner Officer Nicole Dezen (pictured, top of page) the company is seeing partners: "Adapt to the opportunities presented by new technology — from innovative uses of AI in every industry, to solutions enabling industries to operate more sustainably — to drive global impact."

Microsoft Partner of the Year Award 2023: Sustainability Changemaker

Why was EY honored in the Sustainability Changemaker category? Here's the summary from Microsoft's report:

Environmental, social and government (ESG) issues disciplinary teams to address them. Emphasizing decarbonization and the economy through energy production and consumption is essential for achieving environmental stability. These teams need to be informed by data from a variety of internal and external sources in order to address organizational sustainability issues. Recognizing this need, EY teams developed an ESG data hub on Azure that supports with net zero planning, decarbonization and product footprint management.

The solution helps enable a multinational manufacturer with ESG data aggregation and cleansing prior to disclosure and a large materials company with measuring sustainable material flows in its products. The solution can be further supported by AI agents that support with emissions calculation and analysis. Data can also be validated, tokenized and exchanged as a representative digital twin of a sustainable product attribute that can be passed through the value chain. In addition to EY teams innovative work in ESG data management, they have also supported with ongoing delivery of Sustainability Manager instances, guiding and informing the enhancement of Microsoft's ESG solutions.

-- Microsoft

Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability: Key Partners

Meanwhile, Microsoft continues to build sustainability partnerships with dozens of global systems integrators, ISVs (independent software companies) and consultancies.

In an early 2023 blog, the software giant mentioned growing sustainability relationships with such firms as Accenture, Avanade,  Capgemini,  EY,  KPMG, Publicis Sapient, PwC and Willow. 

And by May 2023, Microsoft relationships with Fujitsu and KPMG were in the spotlight.

In terms of Microsoft's overall sustainability strategy, the company expects to be carbon negative by 2030. Chief Sustainability Officer Melanie Nakagawa is leading that effort.

Meanwhile, EY's sustainability focus is worldwide. The effort includes organic growth; partnerships with IBM and other software firms; and acquisitions such as EBS Advisory of Africa.