2025 is a notable 12 months on the planet’s continued efforts towards a extra sustainable future. It marks the five-year countdown to 2030, the top of the timeline for the Sustainable Improvement Objectives (SDGs). 2025 may even be the 30th convening of the UN Local weather Change Convention—often known as COP30—and it’s happening in Brazil, each a symbolically and strategically vital nation on the planet’s combat towards local weather change and environmental degradation.
It’s also a notable 12 months for Microsoft. Along with celebrating the 50th anniversary of our firm’s founding, it’s the midpoint of our personal sustainability journey. In 2020 we introduced our ambitions to be carbon adverse, water optimistic, and 0 waste by 2030, all whereas defending ecosystems. We have now made great progress over the previous 5 years, and we’re pleased with what we’ve completed. We’ve additionally realized classes alongside the way in which, classes that continuously inform and form our path towards 2030 and past.
The objectives that we set in 2020 mirrored what we believed we would have liked to do so as to assist push the world towards a net-zero economic system. I joined Microsoft on this journey two years in the past—changing into our Chief Sustainability Officer in January 2023—and I proceed to be impressed by the work of workers throughout the corporate of their relentless pursuit of those objectives.
- In June 2020, we introduced our largest energy PPA to this point on the time—a 500MW PPA with Sol Techniques. Right this moment, we’re one of many largest carbon-free vitality patrons on the planet, with a 34-gigawatt (GW) contracted renewable vitality portfolio throughout 24 international locations to this point. We’re bringing extra carbon-free electrical energy onto the grids the place we function, and we proceed to advocate for the growth of fresh vitality options around the globe.
- A key element of our water optimistic aim is to replenish extra water than we eat throughout our world operations. We’ve grown our replenishment portfolio to 90 initiatives in over 40 places around the globe.
- On our journey to turn into zero waste, we’re discovering alternatives to maintain electronics in circulation. The repairability of our present portfolio of Floor gadgets has advanced considerably from our first field-repairable product in 2019. That is additionally true of Xbox, which lately introduced how they’re working to develop the variety of methods gamers can get help to restore their consoles and equipment.
- We exceeded our land safety aim, with 15,849 acres of protected land and surpassed our preliminary goal of 11,000 acres by greater than 40%.
That is solely a snapshot of the true progress we’ve made over the past 5 years. We have now a longstanding dedication to sustainability, and our expertise reveals us that the investments and improvements we’ve centered on are good for our firm, our prospects, the economic system, and our planet. Each funding has additionally been a studying alternative, an opportunity to check our assumptions and alter as wanted.
Whereas we’re pleased with these achievements, we all know that our work is way from over, and that the trail forward has gotten more durable. The world is just not on monitor to fulfill essential local weather objectives and we see many of those challenges mirrored in our personal journey.
In 2020, Microsoft leaders referred to our sustainability objectives as a “moonshot,” and almost 5 years later, we’ve needed to acknowledge that the moon has gotten additional away. Nevertheless, the pressure creating this distance from our objectives within the brief time period is identical one that may assist us construct a much bigger, quicker, and extra highly effective rocket to succeed in them in the long run: synthetic intelligence (AI). This isn’t hyperbole. Already, we’re seeing AI make a optimistic affect on the planet, and within the coming years, this know-how will start to quickly speed up local weather options at a scale we’ve not but seen. In November 2023, we launched our AI and Sustainability Playbook, which highlights 5 foundational enabling situations wanted to unlock AI’s full transformative potential for accelerating sustainability progress. In January, we shared a report that highlights our progress and the improvements which have superior every of these 5 pillars.
Constructing the AI economic system of the long run is a prime precedence for our enterprise, however we’re additionally within the enterprise of sustainability. As CSO, it’s my job to make sure that these twin mandates are working collectively.
To realize this, we have to run our sustainability initiatives like we run the remainder of our enterprise: making certain that our focus is on the highest-impact interventions that actually transfer the needle in the case of planetary affect.
Carbon Neutrality
Microsoft introduced that it was carbon impartial in 2012, a number of years forward of our formidable aim to be carbon adverse by 2030. Microsoft’s prior years reaching carbon neutrality had been primarily based on a standard mixture of environmental attributes bought with funds from our corporate-wide carbon price and our general carbon emissions discount efforts. This can be a prime instance of the place we’ve realized and adjusted alongside our journey. Whereas we proceed to use the carbon price to investments in emissions reductions, we’ve ceased buying non-additional, unbundled renewable vitality certificates. We’re refocusing using these funds on extra long-term, higher-impact investments throughout carbon discount, carbon elimination, and clear electrical energy procurement. These interventions are anticipated to extra successfully assist us obtain our aim of changing into carbon adverse by 2030 and will take us out of carbon-neutral place.
We may even proceed to spend money on progressive local weather options via our $1B Local weather Innovation Fund (CIF). Since launching the CIF in 2020, Microsoft has dedicated almost $800M to options starting from sustainable fuels and low-carbon constructing supplies to carbon dioxide elimination, water innovation, and round economic system applied sciences. We now have a portfolio of 63 investees that we’re serving to to scale. Going ahead, we’ll prolong this technique and proceed to speculate our capital to construct new markets and improve the market provide of rising sustainable applied sciences to handle carbon, water, and waste.
We’re proud to proceed making choices that drive optimistic environmental affect available in the market and ship high-integrity investments. We stay resolute in our dedication to our local weather objectives and to empowering others with the know-how wanted to construct a extra sustainable future.
In my first 12 months with Microsoft, I wrote a bit on LinkedIn: Eradicating Roadblocks within the Race to Internet Zero, the place I in contrast reaching our sustainability objectives to coaching for a marathon, noting that “it’ll take focus, planning, and perseverance to succeed in the end line.” Right this moment—and now two years into my function—I want to add one other comparability, to an African proverb that claims the next: “If you wish to journey quick, journey alone; if you wish to journey far, journey collectively.”
In 2025, the moon is additional away, so all of us should journey collectively and do extra if we’re going to attain it. We’ll proceed to work in shut collaboration with our workers, prospects, suppliers, business friends, companions, and with policymakers to maximise our affect in pursuit of our shared objectives.
