Microsoft Sustainability News, Milestones, Partnerships and Net Zero Timeline

Here are more updates....

May 2023: Microsoft Sustainability Strategy Milestones

Multiple updates...

• Partner Integrations: The company is working with partners to provide specialized Microsoft Sustainability Manager connectors. Those connectors, in turn, provide streamlined ingestion, collection and aggregation of Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 data, according to Shefy Manayil Kareem, general manager of Microsoft Cloud for sustainability. In an a detailed blog explaining the integrations, Kareem described relationships with Arcadia for energy data, Seeq analytics software for process manufacturers, Johnson Controls OpenBlue Enterprise Management for physical buildings, Cognite Data Fusion for asset-heavy industries, and Mesa Impact for corporate sustainability management.
• Sustainability Hackathon: Four Wipro employees won the Microsoft Pledge to Progress: Sustainability Hackathon. The hackathon provides a platform for organizations and individuals to "develop progressive solutions that can help reduce carbon emissions, save water, manage waste, create green software." The solutions are built on the Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability platform.
• Partnership - Startup Accelerator: The company and Accenture have announced the third cohort of the Project Amplify program. The latest round will support 13 Indian startups with solutions focusing on clean tech, circularity, regenerative agriculture, education and skilling, the companies said.
• Partnership - Global Consulting and Software: This deal involves Fujitsu Uvance.
• Partnership - Consulting & Software: KPMG has launched a Circularity Tracker solution built atop Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability. The software helps to "automate data collection from diverse sources and perform model-based data calculations using standards, regulatory reporting metrics and universally accepted measurement frameworks for circularity performance," KPMG said.
• 2022 Sustainability Report: Details are here.
• Fusion Energy: The company has signed an agreement to receive electricity from Helion Energy's first fusion power plant starting in 2028. Constellation will serve as the power marketer and will manage transmission for the project.
• Funding: Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund has invested in AMP Robotics Corp., a provider of artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and infrastructure for the waste and recycling industry. This investment lifts AMP’s Series C round, led by Congruent Ventures and Wellington Management, to a total of more than $99 million.
• Funding: Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund invested in Energy Impact Partners' Elevate Future Fund I, which raised $111.9 million.

April 2023: Sustainability Strategy Milestones

Multiple Updates...

• Microsoft CEO Statement: During Microsoft's April 2023 earnings call with Wall Street analysts, CEO Satya Nadella said: "Our Cloud for Sustainability is seeing strong adoption from companies in every industry, including BBC, Nissan and TCL as they deliver on their respective environmental commitments." Still, the company did not disclose actual revenue figures tied to the sustainability cloud service.
• Azure Cloud for Sustainable Energy Research: Johnson Matthey is leveraging Microsoft Azure Quantum to drive new discoveries in sustainable energy, the two companies said.
• Singapore: The company, together with Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and SGTech, have launched the Singapore GreenTech Challenge 2023. This nationwide challenge aims to “accelerate the development and use of innovative sustainability solutions in Singapore, as the nation makes progress on its green plan and works towards getting to net zero by 2050,” Microsoft said.
• IoT Integration Partner: Seeq Corporation, a developer of industrial internet of things advanced analytics software, announced Seeq Solution for Microsoft Sustainability Manager. The solution “enables sustainability teams to extend the power of Microsoft Sustainability Manager… to integrate time series process data preparation, analysis, and continuous improvement, reducing the environmental impact of process industry operations,” the company said.
• CSO Perspectives: Microsoft Chief Sustainability Officer Melanie Nakagawa described her typical day, in an interview with FastCompany. 
• AI Concerns and Sustainability: A blog assured customers and partners that the software company will leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) in a responsible way to assure fairness, reliability and safety, privacy and security, inclusiveness, transparency and accountability. The blog surfaced a few days after Elon Musk called for a six-month pause on big tech AI projects to study their potential implications…
• SaaS Software: The BBC (British Broadcasting Company) has embraced Microsoft Sustainability Manager to help manage carbon emissions and overall sustainability performance, according to Danielle Mulder, the BBC’s group director for sustainability, the software company reported.
• Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund: The $1 billion Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, launched three years ago, has about $400 million left to invest, according to Bloomberg. Where will that money go? The fund’s directors will target areas set to benefit from the $370 billion in climate spending allocated by the Biden administration’s landmark Inflation Reduction Act, Bloomberg said.

March 2023: Microsoft Sustainability Strategy Milestones

Multiple updates...

• Water Management: Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability previewed Water Management Features and Ecolab Collaboration.
• Funding & Recycling: The company was among six major businesses to fund Circular Services, which positions itself as the largest privately held recycling company in the United States. 
• Agriculture Sustainability: Bayer — working with Sonata Software and Microsoft — has built a cloud solution for the agri-food industry. The solution will “benefit farmers seeking to track carbon emission and capture, track disease, pest and weed pressure, apply precision inputs, identify crop growth and production patterns, measure potential yield, and analyze heat stress impact, rainfall, hail and weather data,” Bayer said.
• Sustainability Consulting Partnership: e& enterprise of Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) has selected Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability solutions as the foundation for a Sustainability-as-a-Service offering.
• Scope 3 Research Findings & Challenges: Only 16% of companies analyzed have publicly set science-based targets for operational carbon emissions, according to research from the company and Tata Consultancy Services.
• Systems Integrator Partnerships: The company in a blog touted global systems integrators, ISVs, consultancies, and sustainability partners that are integrating with Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability.

January 2023 and Earlier

• January 2023 - Digital Twins Partnership: NTT DATA and e-Magic together partnered to launch a sustainability application that leverages Microsoft Azure Digital Twins technology.
• December 2022 - New Chief Sustainability Officer: New Microsoft Chief Sustainability Officer Melanie Nakagawa will focus on three major priorities at the cloud computing and software giant, according to a blog from President Brad Smith.
• April 2022 - Data Centers and Water Use: Here’s how Microsoft measures data center water and energy use to improve Azure cloud sustainability. Source: Corporate VP Noelle Walsh. 
• January 2022: Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund invested in BlocPower, a startup that deploys energy efficient and/or renewable energy solutions in urban buildings.
• January 2020 - Carbon Negative Goal: Microsoft commits to be carbon negative by 2030. Source: Brad Smith, president and vice chair.

Check back regularly for more timeline updates.