Elly Yates-Roberts |
Microsoft will launch its new Cloud for Sustainability later this year to help customers meet their carbon reduction and sustainability goals.
The cloud platform aims to enable organisations to record, report and reduce their emissions, help them invest in sustainable practices and partner with experts to accelerate their goals.
Microsoft says that the new offering “acknowledges carbon reduction as one of the most urgent crises facing the planet, and it responds to demand from investors, customers and legislators for more commitment, accountability and measurement of carbon reduction efforts within organisations”.
Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability is built on Microsoft technologies including Azure, Microsoft Dataverse, Power Platform and Power BI.
The new cloud platform adds to Microsoft’s existing designated clouds, including Microsoft Cloud for Retail, Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing, Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services and Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit.
The Cloud for Sustainability is one of many recent sustainability initiatives from Microsoft. The firm has said that it is on track to reach its 2025 renewable energy goal, having procured 5.8 gigawatts of renewable energy across 10 countries in the past 12 months.
Microsoft will also pilot a 24/7 renewable energy matching solution in the Netherlands with energy provider Eneco and technology provider FlexiDAO, that will match hourly energy consumption at one of the company’s Amsterdam data centres with Dutch offshore wind.
In addition, the firm has partnered with clean energy analytics provider REsurety to create the Locational Marginal Emissions (LMEs) platform. Powered by Azure, the platform considers where and when energy was produced, and the condition of the transmission grid, to assess the environmental value of clean energy.