Microsoft
CEF Lead Executives
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MELANIE NAKAGAWA
Chief Sustainability Officer
Melanie has spent nearly two decades at the nexus of policy, business and techlogy where she has been committed to using the power of techlogy and invation to advance sustainability. Melanie leads Microsoft’s ambitious plans to become a carbon negative, water positive, and zero waste company. She most recently served as Special Assistant to President Biden and Senior Director for Climate and Energy on the National Security Council at the White House. Prior to the White House, she helped launch Princeville Capital's inaugural global growth equity climate techlogy fund investing in companies delivering transformative solutions to climate change. During the Obama administration, she served as a strategic advisor to Secretary of State John Kerry on climate change and environmental issues and was the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Transformation in the Bureau of Energy Resources, leading efforts to promote the global shift toward a low carbon ecomy. She also held roles in the U.S. Senate and with the Natural Resources Defense Council. Melanie received a J.D. and M.A. from American University and A.B from Brown University.
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BONNIE LEI
Winner CEF Leadership Program (2019)
Head of Environmental Justice, Employee Engagement, and Ecosystems
Bonnie is Microsoft’s first Head of Environmental Justice, Employee Engagement, and Ecosystems. She embeds environmental justice at the heart of the company’s sustainability commitments and empowers every employee to contribute to them. She also leads Microsoft’s effort to protect more land than it uses by 2025. Previously, she was a founding member of AI for Earth, where she awarded over 850 grants in 110 countries and helped build the first Planetary Computer. Bonnie started her career as a conservation biologist. She received a B.A. in biology from Harvard University and was an inaugural Schwarzman Scholar at Tsinghua University. Bonnie has participated in the 2019 CEF Sustainability Leadership Development Immersion Program, and has been recognized as an Aspen Institute First Mover Fellow, National Geographic Explorer, The Trust for Public Land’s Next Gen Councilor, and served on Seattle’s Urban Forestry Commission.
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BRIAN MARRS
Senior Director of Sustainability Commitments
With over 15 years of global commercial experience in the cloud and energy industries, Brian drives efforts to execute Microsoft’s carbon negative, water positive, and zero waste commitments. In doing so, he leads a team which drives technology and procurement for carbon reduction, carbon removal, water replenishment, and circular economy. Prior to joining Microsoft in 2017, Brian served as the Director of Policy & Strategy at NRG Energy, the largest competitive power company in the United States. In addition, Brian worked as a power systems economist in the European Union at the German Energy Agency and Vattenfall Europe, and has extensive consulting experience in quantitative analytics related to global power, oil, and gas markets. He served as a delegate economist to five UNFCCC COP delegations and an UN Goodwill Ambassador. Brian holds graduate degrees in energy economics & policy from Yale University, and completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Virginia.
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LYNNE ANDERSON
Senior Director, Business Programs
Lynne Andersen leads Microsoft’s operational sustainability team which is accountable for ensuring the company meets its commitments to be a carbon negative, water positive, and zero waste company by 2030, as well as leading our efforts around sustainability-related compliance, risk management, and reporting. She also serves as the Chief of Staff for the company’s Chief Environmental Officer, Lucas Joppa. Lynne has 20+ years of professional experience, holding several engineering, business and operations roles across many product teams, Professional Services, Human Resources and Venture Integration. In the Microsoft Environmental Sustainability team she’s charged with tapping her experience in driving operational excellence to ensure Microsoft achieves its ambitious environmental aspirations.
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MICHELLE LANCASTER
Director, Sustainability Engagement & Partnerships
Michelle has over 16 years of experience in creating, driving and evolving issue and communications strategies that improve perceptions, protect reputations and support growth into new sales and marketing areas. In her current role at Microsoft, she leads the team responsible for building external partnerships and driving company engineering and marketing to enable Microsoft to lead on sustainability from products to perception. She has held a variety of positions in government, PR agencies and Fortune 100 companies, leading integrated communications strategies to achieve policy and regulatory outcomes, shift the perception of companies and industries, and enable successful business and sales outcomes. Awards include: PRSA Silver Anvil for Public Affairs, PRSA-NCC's Thoth Awards for Crisis Communications and Public Affairs, and Finalist in PR Week's Public Affairs Campaign of the Year.
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TJ DICAPRIO
Winner CEF Leaderhip Program (2013)
Winner CK Prahalad Award (2014)
Director, Datacenter Sustainability
TJ is responsible for leading efforts to break the one-to-one relationship between Microsoft Cloud services' business growth and resource consumption through transformational innovation. She applies a principled approach that supports environmental and social justice. She was previously a founder of the Datacenter Community Development team where she designed and launched the Community Empowerment Fund that supports community social, economic and environmental projects. TJ previously led the Microsoft CELA Environmental Sustainability carbon mitigation efforts and established the first corporate-wide environmental target to operate carbon neutral and architected Microsoft’s internal carbon fee, which fund sustainability-related technology innovation, renewable energy and low-carbon economic development and climate justice. TJ is a Fellow with the Aspen Institute, has an MBA in Sustainable Business and Energy Policy from Marylhurst University, a B.A. in Environmental Studies from University of California at Santa Barbara, and sustainability and leadership certificates from Harvard and Kellogg. TJ recently returned from analyzing impacts of climate change and ocean waste in Antarctica with Christiana Figueres.
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JIM HANNA
Director, Datacenter Community Development
Jim Hanna leads development and execution of urban planning function within Microsoft's Datacenter Community Development team. He works to develop quantifiable community livability metrics to measure our datacenter's impact on critical community infrastructure that ensures Microsoft's presence contributes positively to enabling datacenter community members to thrive, ensuring contineud license to operate from policymakers and stakeholders, and attracts Microsoft talent to work in rural datacenter locations. He works with rural stakeholders and internal business teams to build complex solutions to urban planning challenges, including housing, transportation, infrastrucutre, broadband, environmental health, and community amenities - all with a focus on increasing livability for rural datacenter communities around the world. Previously, Jim served ten years as director of environmental impact for Starbucks, where he collaborated with partner corporations and nongovernmental organizations to help shape the company’s environmental strategy. He contributed to enterprise-wide initiatives that supported green building, energy conservation, international procurement, recycling and waste reduction efforts.
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ERIKA BASHAM
Director, Sustainability Product Strategy
Erika focuses on climate tech product strategy and investments, with particular expertise at the intersection of digital technology and nature-based solutions, including regenerative Ag, forestry, oceans, and climate intelligence. I’ve led global teams, managed P&Ls, led product strategy and product development across hardware and software solutions, and worked on climate tech investments.
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HOLLY BEALE
Winner CEF Leadership Program (2018)
Program Manager, Datacenter Environmental Sustainability
Holly leads efforts and fosters partnerships to manage and execute environmental sustainability projects in Microsoft’s datacenter footprint, focusing on positive, strategic contributions to the long-term health of these diverse, international communities and ecosystems. She partners with Microsoft communities and employees to inspire, ignite action, and embolden the resolution of top environmental issues.
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JASON OPPLER
Business and Operations Manager, Sustainability
Jason works to minimize the environmental impact of Microsoft operations while accelerating progress on global environmental challenges through policy advancement, innovative programs, and the deployment of advanced technology. He leads business management and operations for the Corporate Environmental Sustainability & AI for Earth Teams. This includes oversight of the Microsoft carbon tax and sustainability fund, environmental data tracking & reporting, analytics, tools and working closely with cross-company stakeholders to advance the Microsoft sustainability agenda.
Sustainability Goals
Sustainability Goals
By 2023
- Reach 70% renewable energy for data centers
By 2025
- 100% renewable energy
- Protect more land than used by direct operations
- Build a new Planetary Computing platform to help monitor, model, and manage Earth's natural systems
- Invest an additional $150 million towards diversity and inclusion efforts, double the number of Black and African American people managers, senior individual contributors, and senior leaders in the United States
By 2030
- Become a carbon negative company (reduced 586,683 metric tons of CO2 equivalent emissions across all scopes in FY20 and reduced Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 17% in 2021)
- Become a water positive company
- Achieve zero waste for its direct operations, products, and packaging. To achieve this goal, the company will:
- Divert at least 90% of its waste from landfills (diverted 15,200 metric tons of waste from landfills in 2021)
- Manufacture 100% recyclable Surface devices
- Use 100% recyclable packaging (reduced single use plastics packaging by 18% in 2021)
- Achieve at least 75% diversion of construction and demolition waste for all projects.
- Committed to a “100/100/0” vision through which the company will have 100% of its electricity consumption matched by zero-carbon energy purchases 100% of the time.
By 2050
- Remove
all of the carbon the company has emitted since Microsoft was founded
Latest Sustainability Reporting
2022 Environmental Sustainability Report
(May 2023)
Highlights
- Overall emissions declined by 0.5%, while the business grew by 18%;
- Reduced Scope 2 emissions through the use of renewable energy from power purchase agreements (PPAs), green tariff programs, and unbundled renewable energy certificates;
- Diverted 12,159 metric tons of solid waste from landfills and incinerators from direct operations in FY22;
- Contracted 1,443,981 metric tons of carbon removal in FY22;
- Allocated more than $600 million of impact investment capital from Climate Innovation Fund (since its inception);
- Provided more than 850,000 people with access to clean water and sanitation solutions;
- Signed new PPAs that bring total portfolio of carbon-free energy to over 13.5 GW in 16 countries;
- Reduced single-use plastics in product packaging by more than 29 percent.
Recent News
2024
Signed a 6-year offtake agreement with carbon removal company The Next 150 to purchase 95,000 tons of CO2 removal credits generated by The Next 150’s biochar production facility in Mexico. (April 2024)
Advanced Clean Electricity RFI — Google, Microsoft, and Nucor announced an effort to work together to develop new business models and aggregate their demand for advanced clean electricity technologies. They aim to accelerate development of first-of-a-kind or early commercial projects, such as advanced nuclear, next generation geothermal, and clean hydrogen. Their first step is issuing a request for information (RFI) in the U.S. for potential projects. There will be informational sessions on the RFI on 26 March at 2pm ET and 3 April at 3pm ET. (March 2024)
Signed a 15-year electricity agreement with EDP Renewables North America and Volt Energy Utility to purchase electricity and renewable energy credits from the new Hickory Solar Park under development. The agreement uses an Environmental Justice Power Purchase Agreement form (developed by Microsoft and Volt Energy) to make clean energy investments in rural and urban communities disproportionately impacted by environmental injustices and behind in benefiting from a clean energy economy. (March 2024)
MICROSOFT / CATONA CLIMATE — Microsoft signed a six-year offtake agreement with Catona Climate to purchase 350,000 metric tons of carbon removal credits. The credits will come from an agroforestry project in Kenya, which partners with 15,000 smallholder farmers to develop forest gardens. (Feb 2024)
Microsoft published a report that provides an overview of positions on 11 key climate policies held by eight trade associations that are active in climate policy. The report aims to help evaluate how well these organizations align with the company’s sustainability goals and values, and to identify potential areas of collaboration or misalignment. The policies are organized around global and national targets; carbon abatement policies; and power sector & fuels policies. (Jan 2024)
Accelerating Biodiversity and Ecosystem Reporting (Planet and Microsoft) — Helps navigate new sustainability reporting demands around nature-related impacts and dependencies, providing a step-by-step walk through reporting, from scoping to assessing and reporting. The guide surveys tools and data sources and reviews many of the available options. It also reviews concrete examples from industry and the scientific literature demonstrating how recent advances in Earth observation, artificial intelligence, and ecosystem science can help deliver up-to-date and actionable insights for biodiversity and ecosystem metrics. (Jan 2024)
Rise Ahead Pledge — Launched by Schwab Foundation’s Global Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship, this initiative will mobilize private sector commitments on social innovation to help meet the estimated $1.125 trillion in funding required by social enterprises for their transformative work. Over a dozen companies have endorsed the pledge as early signatories, including CEF Member Microsoft, and have committed to increase their engagement in social innovation and the social economy by 2030. (Jan 2024)
MICROSOFT / QCELLS — Announced a strategic alliance in which Qcells will supply 12 GW of solar modules and engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) services over an eight year period to Microsoft. This expands the companies’ agreement from 2023 for 2.5 GW of solar modules. Qcells will supply the solar panels from its new solar supply chain factory in Georgia. (Jan 2024)
The Granular Certificate Trading Alliance — This collaboration, led by LevelTen Energy, is developing a first-of-its-kind trading and management platform for “granular certificates” (GCs), a type of energy attribute certificate that verifies the time and location that carbon-free energy (CFE) is generated. The effort will include both a Trading Platform to connect CFE buyers and sellers and a Management Platform to manage GCs before and after trades. Alliance members, including AES, Constellation, and CEF Members Google and Microsoft, intend to be among the first group of users when the solution launches. (Jan 2024)
Signed a 15-year offtake agreement with nature-based carbon removal developer Chestnut Carbon. The project, based in the U.S., will deliver 362,000 tons of projected carbon removal during Phase I and up to 2.7 million tons in subsequent phases. This is the largest Gold Standard-Registered afforestation project certified to date. (Jan 2024)
2023
MICROSOFT / CARBONFUTURE — Microsoft signed an agreement with Carbonfuture to purchase more than 32,000 metric tons of biochar-based carbon removal credits by June 2024, making this one of the largest biochar carbon removal (BCR) purchase agreements to date. The credits will come from the Exomad Green Concepción project in Bolivia, which transforms forestry waste that would have been burned into biochar. (Dec 2023)
Signed an agreement to purchase as many as 1.5 million carbon removal credits through 2032 from Brazilian startup Mombak Gestora de Recursos. Mombak is planting at least 30 million trees of more than 100 native species on deforested farmland in the Amazon. (Dec 2023)
Partnered with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to build a new AI-powered platform to provide digital support to the UNFCCC’s Enhanced Transparency Framework. This climate data hub and platform will “dramatically simplify” the process to validate and analyze climate data submitted by the 196 Parties to the Paris Agreement. It will also provide tools to allow member states to plan reduction strategies using simulations and data visualizations. (Dec 2023)
Net Zero Innovation Hub for Data Centers — This new consortium aims to accelerate the European data center industry toward Net Zero. The Hub will foster knowledge sharing, set up innovation programs with academic and industry partners, identify challenges and facilitate calls for innovation projects to address these. It will also aims to provide a platform for engagement between data center operators and the public. The Hub is exploring projects to replace diesel generation at data centers, reuse heat, use renewables, and decarbonize building raw materials. Founding members include CEF members Google, Microsoft, and Schneider Electric.
Sustainable Steel Buyers Platform — Leading corporate consumers of steel, including CEF member Microsoft, announced a plan to jointly request a total of two million metric tons of “near-zero emissions” steel from producers (using green electricity, renewable hydrogen, or capturing emissions). The Platform will begin a competitive procurement process open to all steelmakers to deliver sustainable steel to North America. (Sept 2023)
Climate mitigation potentials of teleworking are sensitive to changes in lifestyle and workplace rather than ICT usage (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)) — Assesses the greenhouse gas emissions of remote work, including impacts from information and communication technology, commuting, noncommute travel, and office and residential energy use. The research, utilizing employee data from CEF member Microsoft, finds that, in the U.S., switching to working from home can reduce up to 58% of work’s carbon footprint, primarily through reduced office energy use. It also finds the impacts of IT usage are negligible, while commute and noncommute travel impacts are important. Partially working from home (2-4 days) can reduce emissions by 11-29%. However, working only 1 day/week at home reduces emissions by just 2%, due to offsetting factors such as increased noncommute travel. (Sept 2023)
More than 250 companies and organizations, coordinated by the Global Renewables Alliance, issued an open letter calling on world leaders to agree at COP28 on a global target to triple renewable electricity capacity to at least 11,000 GW by 2030. The companies, representing a market value of more than $12 trillion, include CEF members Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Schneider Electric, and Unilever. (Sept 2023)
Agreed to buy credits from carbon capture startup Heirloom Carbon for the removal of up to 315,000 metric tons of CO2 over 10 years, making this one of the largest ever purchases of carbon-removal credits, according to reporting from the Wall Street Journal. The effort will use the limestone as a mechanism to capture CO2. (Sept 2023)
More than a dozen companies submitted letters calling on California lawmakers to finalize first-in-the-nation legislation that would require companies to provide standardized and consistent climate-related disclosures. This includes two laws, requiring companies to 1) report greenhouse gas emissions across operations and supply and value chains, and 2) report on their climate-related financial risks. CEF members Microsoft and REI Co-Op were signatories of these letters. And CEF member Salesforce submitted its own letter in support of reporting emissions. (Aug 2023)
MICROSOFT / INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES GROUP (IAG) — Signed the largest co-funded purchase agreement for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) emissions reductions globally. CEF member, Microsoft, will co-fund IAG’s SAF purchasing of 14,700 metric tons in 2023. (Aug 2023)
Microsoft Carbon Removal (Microsoft) — This third annual report assesses Microsoft’s efforts to cultivate a global carbon removal market. Contents include a look into its supply-side learnings, including its portfolio makeup, commentary on the demand and pressures to scale CDR deployments, market infrastructure observations, and reflections on policies & standards. The case study emphasizes the importance of considering environmental justice alongside scaling CDR deployment. (July 2023)
JUST CLIMATE — This investment company announced it was closing its Climate Assets Fund I (the Fund) after raising $1.5 billion in institutional capital for investments in emissions reduction (exceeding its $1 billion target). The Fund will invest in asset-heavy growth-stage companies in industries with high emissions and limited options for reducing them, such as energy, mobility, industry, and buildings. The Fund’s first three investments are in electric vehicle charging solutions provider ABB E-mobility, low carbon steel startup H2 Green Steel, and industrial clean energy company Meva Energy. Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund anchored the Fund. (June 2023)
FUJITSU / MICROSOFT — Announced a strategic five-year partnership to expand Fujitsu’s Uvance business, which provides “digital innovation” solutions to drive business sustainability. The companies will both invest in co-developing and deploying cloud solutions across manufacturing, retail, health care, and the public sector. (June 2023)
ØRSTED — Announced the Danish Energy Agency has awarded the company a 20-year contract for its carbon capture and storage project, the Ørsted Kalundborg Hub. The project will capture 430,000 metric tons of biogenic CO2 from two biomass power stations per year, and store it in the Northern Lights storage reservoir in the North Sea. Microsoft has agreed to purchase 2.76 million metric tons of carbon removal over 11 years from this project, part of its efforts to become carbon negative by 2030. (May 2023)
Announced it had signed the first-ever deal to purchase nuclear fusion energy, a yet-to-be-realized energy source. Under the deal, Helion Energy will supply 50 MW of fusion energy per year starting in 2028. Helion’s approach uses Helium-3 to convert it directly into electricity. (May 2023)
The Open for Business Coalition, made up of 34 global companies, denounced anti-LGBTQ legislation passed by Uganda's parliament last week, warning it would curb investment flows, deter tourists, undermine companies’ ability to hire a diverse workforce, and damage the country's economy. The legislation criminalizes identifying as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or queer, and imposes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality.” The coalition includes CEF members Dow, Google, JP Morgan Chase, Mastercard, McKinsey & Co., Meta, Microsoft, and Unilever. (April 2023)
CLOSED LOOP PARTNERS (CLP) — Announced that six leading companies, including CEF members Microsoft, PepsiCo, and Unilever, as well as Nestlé, SK Group, and Starbucks, have invested in Circular Services, the largest privately held recycling company in the U.S., with efforts to bolster recovery rates in packaging and e-waste. This brings total investments to nearly $1 billion (with $700 million initially invested in 2022 by Brookfield Asset Management). (March 2023)
Recycled Content Standard Annex A (SCS Standards) — The SCS-103 Certification Standard for Recycled Content adds this new annex focused on the electrical and electronics equipment sectors, setting a minimum threshold for recycled content in the full product and allowing for a product-level claim. This raises the bar for recycled content in consumer electronics products, expanding beyond just component materials. Development of the annex is being led by a diverse multi-stakeholder group that includes: CEF members: Amazon, Dell Technologies, HP, and Microsoft, as well as The Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners, De’Longhi, The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Logitech, Phillips, and The Recycling Partnership. The annex is now available for public review, after which it will be finalized and published. Comment here until April 8, 2023. (March 2023)
MICROSOFT / QCELLS — Announced a partnership for Qcells to supply Microsoft with more than 2.5 GW of solar panels and engineering, procurement, and construction services to selected solar projects Microsoft has contracted for through power purchase agreements. This will bring more renewable energy to the U.S. grid, while supporting the domestic supply chain, through Qcells’s investments in a complete U.S. solar supply chain. This alliance is the first time a company procuring energy is working directly with a solar supplier to adopt clean energy on a large scale. (Jan 2023)
CLIMEWORKS — Announced that it has provided third-party certified CO2 removal (CDR) services to its first corporate customers: Microsoft, Shopify, and Stripe. Climeworks CDR Services were certified by quality assurance leader DNV, based on a Direct Air Capture & Storage (DAC+S) methodology co-developed by Climeworks and Carbfix, a partner in providing Climeworks’ CDR services. (Jan 2023)
JUST CAPITAL — Released its JUST 100 list for 2023 in collaboration with CNBC. Of 951 large public companies, 100 were scored for their just business behaviors, such as paying a fair living wage, protecting workers’ health, and minimizing pollution (based on the polling of 3,002 Americans). Of the top 10, five were CEF members, including Bank of America (#1), Microsoft (#3), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (#7), Apple (#8), and JPMorgan Chase (#10). In total, 23 CEF member companies were included in the 2023 JUST 100 list. (Jan 2023)
2022
The Earthshot Prize announced the five winners of its second annual prize. These include: Mukuru Clean Stoves in Kenya; Kheyti, providing solutions to smallholder farmers in India; Indigenous Women of the Great Barrier Reef working to protect the reef and region; Notpla, a UK packaging startup that uses seaweed; and 44.01, a CCS company in Oman that works to bind CO2 in rock. They will each receive a prize of £1 million ($1.2 million) and tailored support from the Earthshot Prize Global Alliance—which includes CEF members Bloomberg, Microsoft, and Unilever, as well as Bezos Earth Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth—to help scale their innovative and technological climate solutions. (Dec 2022)
NEWSWEEK / STATISTA — Released its “America’s Most Responsible Companies 2023” list, which ranks 500 of the U.S. largest public companies based on their ESG performance. The top 50 include CEF members: HP (#1), Qualcomm (#13), Microsoft (#17), Cisco (#19), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (#34), Walt Disney (#39), Mastercard (#40), and Ecolab (#46). (Dec 2022)
U.S. companies now account for 14% of all installed solar capacity in the U.S., according to the new Solar Means Business 2022 report. Through June, U.S. businesses installed nearly 19 GW of on-site and off-site solar capacity, double the 9.4 GW installed through 2019. CEF member Meta has the largest corporate solar portfolio in the U.S., growing from 177 MW in early 2019 to 3.6 GW in 2022. CEF members Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft had the second, third and fifth largest installed capacities. (Dec 2022)
Ethereum Climate Platform (ECP) — A group of Web3 companies, convened by ConsenSys and Allinfra, launched the ECP. ECP’s mission is to incentivize and fund the development of real-world projects that will mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and deliver positive environmental and social impact long into the future in order to mitigate Ethereum's past emissions. It will also support new and innovative solutions in need of market validation, ensuring they will achieve tangible impact. CEF member Microsoft is a founding member. (Nov 2022)
Cognizant Sustainability Accelerator (Cognizant and Microsoft) — This tool, powered by the Microsoft Cloud and Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, automates the collection of data and provides valuable analytics that allow clients to track and take action on their sustainability goals. The Accelerator utilizes Microsoft Sustainability Manager to automate the collection, analysis and reporting of sustainability efforts. (Nov 2022)
The U.S., The Rockefeller Foundation, and the Bezos Earth Fund announced a partnership to create an Energy Transition Accelerator (ETA), a carbon credit system to increase private finance to accelerate the clean energy transition in developing countries. Operating at the scale of national or subnational jurisdictions, the ETA will produce verified greenhouse gas emission reductions, which participating jurisdictions will have the option of issuing as marketable carbon credits. CEF members Bank of America, Microsoft, and PepsiCo, and Standard Chartered Bank have expressed interest in informing the ETA’s development, with decisions on whether to formally participate pending the completion of its design. (Nov 2022)
The Semiconductor Climate Consortium — Aims to accelerate the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across the semiconductor value chain and will work together along three objectives: collaborating on common approaches and technology innovations to reduce GHG emissions; publicly report progress on Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions annually; and set near- and long-term decarbonization targets with a net zero goal by 2050. The consortium is made up of 60 founding members, including CEF members: Google, Microsoft, Samsung, and Schneider Electric. Companies can learn how to join here. (Nov 2022)
More than 330 businesses and financial institutions from 52 countries, with combined revenues of over $1.5 trillion, urged world leaders to move beyond voluntary actions to halt and reverse biodiversity loss in a new statement. The statement advocates for the leaders to adopt “mandatory requirements for all large businesses and financial institutions to assess and disclose their impacts and dependencies on nature by 2030.” CEF Members involved include BASF, Google, International Paper, McKinsey & Co., Microsoft, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Schneider Electric, Tiffany & Co., Unilever, and WM. Businesses can sign the statement here. (Oct 2022)
Released updates to Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability to help other organizations accelerate their sustainability progress. This tool helps organizations track greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, both directly (Scopes 1 and 2) and across its value chain (Scope 3). Microsoft also made available the Emissions Impact Dashboard for Microsoft 365, which allows customers to quantify GHG emissions associated with their organization’s use of Microsoft 365 applications, broken down by Scopes 1, 2, and 3. (Oct 2022)
Microsoft published briefs on
carbon policy and
electricity policy to share the priorities and principles that guide Microsoft’s policy advocacy work around the world. Specifically, the policies focus on carbon reporting, carbon reduction, and carbon removal; and accelerating the transition to clean electricity, improving grid infrastructure, and encouraging an equitable energy future. (Oct 2022)
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New Secretariat to Address Connected Device Emissions — Global climate consultancy, the Carbon Trust, and technology companies Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Samsung and Sky, are developing the industry’s first specification for measuring, accounting for, and decarbonizing the emissions associated with connected devices while being used by customers. Connected devices, which include phones and laptops, used a total of 500 Terawatt hours in 2020. The group aims to produce an accurate baseline for reporting energy efficiency improvements and establish rules for matching electricity consumption with renewable energy generation, as well as applying technology to optimize energy use of connected devices by consumers. (Sept 2022)
MCKINSEY / MICROSOFT — Are collaborating to create an integrated solution that combines sustainability data intelligence from Microsoft Sustainability Manager with decarbonization planning and an execution engine from McKinsey Sustainability’s Catalyst Zero. This joint product will integrate data from emissions producing activities with initiatives to abate them, utilizing data from across more than 70 industry sectors. (Sept 2022)
The U.S. Department of Commerce and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative launched the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) Upskilling Initiative, a public-private endeavor to support training and education in digital skills for women and girls in 8 countries, including Brunei, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Fourteen U.S. companies, including CEF members Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Dell Technologies, Google, HP, Mastercard, Microsoft, and Visa, will each provide 500,000 or more digital upskilling opportunities by 2032, such as providing training in data science, cyber-security, AI, and robotics; providing female small business owners with toolkits to help with website planning, social media, and marketing; and supporting digital leadership and entrepreneurship training in rural areas. (Sept 2022)
CEF member Microsoft and green hydrogen company Plug successfully tested the world’s first 3-megawatt hydrogen-fueled generator as a backup power system for a datacenter. The power output and responsiveness of the generator makes it a viable replacement for diesel generators, but with zero emissions—a development Microsoft’s director of datacenter research, Sean James, is calling “a moon landing moment” for the decarbonization of power-intensive data centers. Microsoft will next install the system at a research datacenter where engineers will learn how to work with and deploy the new technology. The demand signal from Microsoft is expected to help boost the production of green hydrogen and fuel cells, pushing cost down and availability up toward competitive scale. (Aug 2022)
Microsoft Climate Research Initiative — A network of research scientists from academia, industry, government, and civil society working with CEF member Microsoft’s computing experts and machine learning tools to accelerate progress on urgent climate-related challenges. The initial focus will be on three project areas "where computational advances can drive key scientific transformations:" 1) Overcoming constraints to decarbonization; 2) Reducing uncertainties in carbon accounting; and 3) Assessing climate risks in greater detail. All results from the Initiative will be publicly available for free and are intended to provide strategic direction for climate-related research priorities and investments. (July 2022)
MICROSOFT / CLIMEWORKS — signed a 10-year carbon offtake agreement, where CEF member Microsoft will purchase the removal of 10,000 metric tons of atmospheric CO2 via direct air capture (DAC) from Climeworks. The agreement, and DAC in general, is a key component of Microsoft’s commitment to be carbon negative by 2030 and remove its historic CO2 emissions by 2050. The long-term commitment helps ensure financial stability for Climeworks as it develops its removal capacity to gigaton scale, and increases market signal in for the nascent carbon removal industry. (July 2022)
First Movers Coalition — The flagship public-private partnership announced a major expansion to more than 50 corporate members—including CEF members Alphabet, Microsoft, Ecolab, Ford, and Schneider Electric—worth about $8.5 trillion and a total of nine governments comprising over 40% of the global economy. The coalition, which aims to create market demand for early-stage technology that cuts emissions from hard-to-abate industry sectors, also launched new sector initiatives in aluminum and carbon dioxide removal (CDR). In the Aluminum sector, Ball Corporation, Ford, Novelis, Trafigura, and Volvo Group committed to have near-zero emissions from 10% of their primary aluminum purchases by 2030. New CDR sector 2030 commitments include (May 2022):
- Alphabet, Microsoft, and Salesforce collectively committed $500 million to CDR.
- Boston Consulting Group (BCG) pledged to remove 100,000 metric tons of carbon.
- AES, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, and Swiss Re each committed to 50,000 metric tons of carbon removal, equivalent to a $25 million investment from each company.
- Members must demonstrate that the carbon can be stored for more than 1,000 years.
- Breakthrough Catalyst, Carbon Direct, Frontier, and South Pole joined the coalition as implementation partners for the CDR initiative.
Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability (Microsoft) —A packaged SaaS solution that can collect and connect Internet of Things (IoT) data from devices across a client company’s enterprise and value chain, automate data connections, and deliver actionable insights in real time. It will be available for use starting June 1, 2022. (May 2022)
A letter coordinated by the European Corporate Leaders Group has been sent to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, reinforcing business support for accelerating Europe's green transition. The letter, signed by 124 businesses—including CEF members Microsoft, PepsiCo, Schneider Electric, and Unilever—comes in the context of the ongoing, destabilizing Russia-Ukraine war, the pending publication of the REPowerEU Plan, and meetings of the G7 energy ministers and European Council. It states, in part, "At the core of the current energy security and price crises sits an overdependence on volatile, imported fossil gas, oil and coal. It is time for all of us to take necessary steps to strengthen Europe’s energy security and resilience by accelerating the green transition." Specifically, the letter calls for the Commission to (May 2022):
- Accelerate measures to reduce energy consumption by households and industries through energy efficiency and circular economy improvements and incentives.
- Accelerate the move away from fossil fuels and towards renewable and fossil-free powered electrification across industry, transport, heating and cooling, and buildings.
- Ensure an inclusive and fair transition process, with clear attention to cost of living and access to work.
More than 100 large companies and investors made a business case to the U.S. Congress and the Biden Administration last week for ambitious federal action on climate. The collective effort, called LEAD on Climate 2022 and organized by sustainability nonprofit Ceres, attracted participants—including CEF members Amazon, HP Inc, Marriott International, Microsoft, Netflix, PepsiCo, Siemens, and Unilever—that count a total of $1.6 trillion in annual revenue and $4.6 trillion in assets under management, and more than 3 million employees across all 50 states. Through two days of virtual meetings, they asked lawmakers and administration officials to (May 2022):
- Meet the urgency and scale of the climate crisis with ambitious federal investments to accelerate the transition to affordable, secure, domestic clean energy.
- Seize the economic opportunities to lead the world in clean energy manufacturing and deployment to create jobs, spur innovation, strengthen supply chains, and reduce costs and volatility for businesses and consumers.
- Tackle inequity by targeting climate and clean energy investments in disadvantaged, rural, and frontline energy communities.
An Assessment of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Waste Impacts from Improving the Repairability of Microsoft Devices (Oakdene Hollins, for Microsoft) — Provides an analysis of the potential emissions and waste reductions from improved repairability of Microsoft’s consumer electronics. The study is part of Microsoft’s broader response to a 2021 shareholder resolution filed by nonprofit As You Sow, alleging the company “actively restricts consumer access to device repairability, undermining sustainability commitments” and urging corrective action. The Oakdene Hollins study compares the emissions and waste impacts of repair vs. replacement and local repair vs. China-based factory repair scenarios, using four Microsoft Surface products as examples. Key findings include (May 2022):
- Repairing of products can yield up to a 92% reduction in potential waste generation and GHG emissions when compared to disposal/replacement.
- An increased design-for-repair emphasis would have additional benefits to emissions and waste reduction.
Mode and distance of transportation account for about 20% of the net emissions of repairs. To minimize this, Microsoft should expand its network of regional service providers (RSPs) and open RSP service to all customers. It should also promote “mail-to” service options that do not entail air shipment to and from China.
DELL TECHNOLOGIES — Announced plans to partner with Intel, Computer Aid, and Microsoft to create Solar Community Hubs (“the Hubs”) that will bring infrastructure, technology, and services to meet the most pressing needs of remote communities around the world. The Hubs will be built with Dell technology solutions and will also provide communities with technical skills training, entrepreneurship support, education and career guidance, and revenue-generating services, as well as more fundamental things like electricity, clean water, and healthcare. Critically, each hub will be managed by the community and will offer services based on each community’s unique needs. “Research shows that the greatest impact starts with empowering local communities,” said Cassandra Garber, VP of Environmental and Social Governance, Dell Technologies. (May 2022)
Design For Good — A new global nonprofit alliance of companies and institutions committed to harnessing the power of their design communities to advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Founding partners—which include CEF members McKinsey & Company, Microsoft, PepsiCo along with General Mills, Logitech, Nedbank, Nestlé, Philips, and the Royal College of Art—will allow their 5,000+ designers to work together to research, design and develop open-source products and services that measurably advance the UN SDGs. Each year, Design For Good will focus on one UN SDG—with Goal 6 (clean water and sanitation) the focus this inaugural year. The most promising new solutions each year will be awarded funding for accelerated scaling and implementation for global benefit. (April 2022)
SPHERE: the packaging sustainability framework (WBCSD) — A new framework to help companies choose the most sustainable packaging option for specific needs and delivery systems. SPHERE can assess the environmental impacts of packaging for a particular product or identify company-level portfolio hotspots based on six principles, including circularity, impact on climate change and biodiversity loss. CEF members Dow, Microsoft, and Sealed Air were among the 12 companies that helped develop the framework. (April 2022)
Partnership for Carbon Transparency (PACT) — WBCSD announced it had achieved a major milestone in developing the Pathfinder Network (launched at COP26), a decentralized network infrastructure for sharing product-level carbon emissions data across value chains and industries: the first successful data exchange across different technology systems by CircularTree, IBM, SAP, and CEF member Siemens. PACT next plans to add new tech components, including from CEF members Amazon and Microsoft. It expects the Pathfinder Network to be available for use by the end of the year. (April 2022)
Direct air capture (DAC) company Heirloom has raised $53 million of funding for the first deployment of its DAC technology, which “has the lowest peer-reviewed, at-scale cost of any direct air capture technology on the market.” The funding round, “one of the largest private financings in direct air capture to date,” was co-led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Carbon Direct Capital Management, and Ahren Innovation Capital, with Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund as an additional participant. (March 2022)
FORTUM / MICROSOFT — European energy company Fortum and Microsoft are collaborating to create the “world’s largest” waste heat recycling concept of its kind in Finland. Microsoft will build a new region of data centers powered by 100% emission-free electricity in the Helsinki metropolitan area, and Fortum will capture the excess clean heat generated by the centers and transfer it to heat nearby homes, services, and businesses, reducing CO2 emissions by about 400,000 tons annually. (March 2022)
Constellation Energy and Microsoft are entering a five-year strategic collaboration to develop a new energy-matching solution that combines renewable and clean energy with technologies such as battery storage, hydrogen, and fuel cells. The solution will match Constellation Energy customers with local, carbon-free energy sources in real time 24/7 year-round. Microsoft will also be one of the first customers and will purchase some of its clean energy supply from Constellation, with Constellation adopting the Microsoft Azure platform to develop other clean energy solutions. (March 2022)
Shareholder advocacy group As You Sow released a report ranking 55 of the largest US companies’ progress in aligning their GHG emission reductions with 1.5°C of warming. Only three companies—CEF members Ecolab, Microsoft, and PepsiCo—received an overall “A” grade, and two—CEF members Alphabet and Apple—received an overall “B” grade, with 84% of companies receiving an overall “D” or “F.” Zero companies received an “A” for GHG target setting. (March 2022)
Consumer Electronic Recycling Pilot — A unique collaboration incubated at CEF, in which Google, Apple, Amazon, Dell, and Microsoft recently launched a doorstep electronics recycling pilot program in Denver, CO. In partnership with Retrievr, an innovative start-up with roots in Philadelphia, these brands hope to increase consumer recycling rates, doing so in a way that is responsible and safe, while also being convenient and affordable. (March 2022)
The Carbon Call — Twenty corporate, scientific, philanthropic, and intergovernmental organizations, hosted by the ClimateWorks Foundation, launched a new collaboration to accelerate the development of reliable and interoperable carbon accounting, with a focus on carbon removal and methane, indirect, and land-sector emissions. Participating organizations will work to advance universal accounting methodology standards, expand access to reliable GHG emissions and removal data, and strengthen the interoperability of digital accounting infrastructure. Corporate signatories (including CEF member Microsoft plus Capricorn Investment Group, EY, GSK, KPMG, and Wipro) commit to annually and transparently reporting on their GHG emissions and offsets, including all scopes and classes. (Feb 2022)
Corporations bought a record 31.1 gigawatts of clean energy through PPAs in 2021,up nearly 24% since 2020 and equivalent to over 10% of renewable energy capacity added globally, according to BloombergNEF. Technology companies bought the most clean energy, and the top 10 corporate buyers overall include CEF members Amazon (#1), Microsoft (#2), Meta (#3), BASF (#4), and Google (#6). (Feb 2022)
VC firm Energy Impact Partners is launching a Deep Decarbonization Frontier Fund to support early-stage climate tech across several industries and accelerate the net-zero transition. The fund has raised over $200 million (goal of $350 million) from over 22 strategic partners and investors, including CEF members Duke Energy and Microsoft (through its Climate Innovation Fund). (Jan 2022)
JUST CAPITAL 2022 “JUST 100 LIST” — 100 companies out of 954 public companies scored by JUST Capital, in collaboration with CNBC, made the 2022 “JUST 100” list, which recognizes companies that perform the best against 20 “priorities for just business behavior” (e.g., accountability to all stakeholders, paying a fair, living wage) that are identified based on polling of the American public. The top 10 includes CEF members Alphabet (#1), Microsoft (#3), Bank of America (#5), Apple (#7), and Cisco Systems (#10). (Jan 2022)
MICROSOFT — Is investing $50 million through its Climate Innovation Fund to help LanzaJet build the Freedom Pines Fuels plant in Georgia, which will produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel from sustainable ethanol sources. The plant is expected to start producing 10 million gallons of SAF and diesel annually in 2023. (Jan 2022)
Breakthrough Energy’s Catalyst program launched an RFP to finance climate tech projects in the EU, Iceland, and Norway focused on four areas: direct air capture, long-duration energy storage, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), and “green hydrogen” (hydrogen produced using renewable energy). It is the next phase of the EU-Catalyst partnership, which aims to mobilize up to $1 billion from 2022-2027 for technologies that deliver on the European Green Deal goals and the EU’s 2030 climate targets. Catalyst “anchor partners” include CEF members Bank of America, BlackRock, General Motors, and Microsoft. (Jan 2022)
2021
CDP “A LIST” — 272 out of nearly 12,000 companies scored by CDP made CDP’s 2021 “A List,” which includes a climate change A List (200 companies), a water security A List (118 companies), and a forests A List (24 companies). The lists recognize companies for their “environmental leadership,” all of which are reducing their value chain emissions and have verified Scope 1 and 2 emissions, SBTi-approved emission-reduction targets, evidence of targets that cover their Scope 3 emissions, “robust governance and oversight of climate issues,” and “rigorous risk management processes.” A record 14 companies received Triple A scores for their work across all three themes, including: Danone, Firmenich, Fuji Oil Holdings, CEF member HP, International Flavors & Fragrances, KAO Corporation, Klabin, Lenzing, L’Oréal, Metsä Board Corporation, Mondi, Philip Morris International, Syrmise, and CEF member Unilever. Additional CEF members on the A Lists include: Ecolab (water security), Ford (climate change, water security), General Motors (water security), HPE (water security), Microsoft (climate change, water security), PepsiCo (forests), Samsung (water security), Schneider Electric (climate change), Visa (climate change). (Dec 2021)
Breakthrough Energy’s Catalyst program (BEC) launched its first RFPs to finance climate tech projects focused on four areas: direct air capture, long-duration energy storage, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), and “green hydrogen” (hydrogen produced using renewable energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen). BEC aims to deploy $3 billion of funding over six years to projects in the U.S. and US territories, starting in 2022. Catalyst “anchor partners” include CEF members Bank of America, BlackRock, General Motors, and Microsoft. (Dec 2021)
Eco-Skies Alliance — 12 companies, including CEF members Meta, Microsoft, and Visa, joined United Airlines’ corporate alliance to reduce aviation-related environmental impact and create demand for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Existing signatories have collectively contributed to the purchase of over 7 million gallons of SAF this year—enough to eliminate approximately 66,000 metric tons of GHG emissions. (Dec 2021)
Value framework for sustainable charging infrastructure
(WBCSD, in collaboration with Arcadis, Arval BNP Paribas Group, Eaton, EDP, Enel X, Lanxess, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, National Grid, and Nederlandse Spoorwegen)
— Offers a technology and policy framework, as well as 9 cross-sector actions, to help the mobility, energy, and real estate sectors accelerate the deployment of EV fleets and sustainable charging infrastructure.
(Nov 2021)
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WBCSD, RMI,
and the
Catena-X Automotive Network will jointly develop in 2022 a consistent method for the auto industry to measure product-level Scope 3 carbon emissions and exchange verified, primary data across supply chains.
CEF members
BASF, Microsoft,
and Siemens
belong to the Catena-X Automotive Network.
(Nov 2021)
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1.5°C Supplier Engagement Guide (1.5°C Supply Chain Leaders /
Exponential Roadmap Initiative)
—
A
new online platform with open-source tools, case studies, and resources
to help businesses engage with their suppliers to halve GHG emissions by 2030. CEF members
Google, Oracle,
Mastercard, Microsoft, and
Unilever
belong to the Exponential Roadmap Initiative, the last three of which also belong to 1.5°C Supply Chain Leaders.
(Nov 2021)
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The Climate Reporting Performance of the DOW 30, EURO STOXX 50 and FTSE 100(EcoAct) — Highlights industry and company trends for climate-related reporting by Dow 30, Euro Stoxx 50, and FTSE 100 companies. It also highlights companies’ best practices for net zero, science-based targets, TCFD, and carbon reduction and offsetting. CEF members Apple and Microsoft were ranked among this year’s top performers. Key findings (Nov 2021):
- Over 60% of companies have net-zero commitments—twice the amount in 2020
- 65% of companies have science-based targets, a 26% increase since 2020
- 39% of companies have Scope 3 commitments
- Almost 80% of companies have aligned with climate-related financial disclosure recommendations
Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability
(Microsoft) — A new packaged SaaS solution to help organizations automate their carbon accounting and emissions management.
In particular, the solution “connects to data sources, accelerates data integration and reporting, provides accurate carbon accounting, measures performance against goals, and enables intelligent insights to drive more effective action on sustainability.”
Plans are in place for the solution to support water and waste in the future.
(Nov 2021)
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GENERATION INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT — The sustainable asset management firm co-founded and chaired by Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore
launched
Just Climate, a new investment business “to catalyze and channel capital into companies and projects which have the potential to deeply decarbonize our economy, but which are not yet fully served by traditional investment mandates.”
Just Climate is backed by a consortium of founding strategic partners, including
Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund,
Goldman Sachs, and Harvard Management Company. (Nov 2021)
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Wildfire AI (Terrafuse AI)
—
The weather- and climate-risk forecasting developer launched a
new, free public tool that tracks the risks of wildfires through predictive modeling. A
risk score is created using Earth observation data as well as machine learning techniques processed on
Microsoft Azure. Partners include
Microsoft AI for Earth. (Oct 2021)
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The British government
is forming a strategic partnership with Breakthrough Energy’s
Catalyst program
to drive
private-sector investment in UK climate tech projects
and
accelerate the U.K.'s net-zero transition. The
government
committed at least $276 million for projects in Catalyst’s areas of focus (green hydrogen, direct air capture, long-duration energy storage, and sustainable aviation fuel), which will be matched by
Catalyst’s investor and business partners over 10 years.
Catalyst “anchor partners” include CEF members Bank of America, BlackRock, General Motors,
and Microsoft.
(Oct 2021)
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HRH The Duke of Cambridge’s
Earthshot Prize
announced the first 5 winners:
Takachar,
Coral Vita,
AEM Electrolyser, Costa Rica,
and
Milan, Italy. They will each receive a prize of over $1.3 million
and tailored support
from the
Earthshot Prize Global Alliance—which includes CEF members
Bloomberg, Microsoft,
and
Unilever, as well as
Bezos Earth Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies,
and Breakthrough Energy Foundation—to help
scale their innovative and technological climate solutions. (Oct 2021)
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The CEOs of over 1,000 companies
with a combined $4.7 trillion in annual revenue
sent an
open letter to all heads of state
ahead of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity
(COP15), urging them to adopt a concrete commitment to reverse nature loss by 2030.
They said the July 2021
draft plan for a Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework
“lacks the ambition and specificity required to drive the urgent action needed.” Signatories include the CEOs of CEF members
BASF, Google, International Paper, McKinsey & Co., Microsoft, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Schneider Electric, Tiffany & Co., Unilever,
and Waste Management. (Oct 2021)
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Plans to expand its customers’ options for product repair by the end of 2022, following a shareholder
resolution submitted in June by advocacy group
As You Sow that urged the company to respond to the growing
"right to repair" movement. (Oct 2021)
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Company officials released a
piece in the
Nature journal
summarizing lessons learned from its recent carbon-removal efforts. They assert that
“ambiguity” around standards and definitions for measuring, verifying, and reporting carbon removal “is a barrier to investment” and
consistency could help enable large-scale deployment of the technologies. (Oct 2021)
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A group of 7 private companies collectively committed
over $1 billion as the new “anchor partners” for Breakthrough Energy’s
Catalyst program (introduced in July), a
public-private sector partnership
to accelerate the commercial viability of climate technologies, with an initial
focus on 4 areas: green hydrogen, direct air capture, long-duration energy storage, and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The companies—including CEF members
Bank of America, BlackRock, General Motors,
and Microsoft,
as well as
American Airlines, ArcelorMittal SA, and
Boston Consulting Group—launched a
Request for Information and, as “anchor partners,” will invest in early-commercial demonstration projects and provide insights on investment and offtake strategies. (Sept 2021)
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Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets (TSVCM) — The taskforce has formed an
independent Board of Directors to govern voluntary carbon markets, with
22 members
representing 12 countries (40% in the Global South); the NGO, academic, corporate, and financial sectors; Indigenous people; and local communities.
The Board will be supported by TSVCM’s founding sponsors, an Executive Secretariat, an Expert Panel, a Senior Advisory Council, and a
Member
consultation group of 250 organizations (including CEF members
Bank of America, BlackRock, BloombergNEF, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Boeing, Chevron, Delta, Google, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Siemens,
and Unilever). (Sept 2021)
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Elemental Excelerator
launched
Earthshot Ventures, a
VC fund to invest in early-stage climate tech companies,
with a first close of $60 million. Backers include
Facebook executive Chris Cox,
Microsoft, and Tom Steyer. (Sept 2021)
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Earthshot Prize Global Alliance —
HRH The Duke of Cambridge and The Royal Foundation created a new
alliance of companies
that will offer tailored support to 15
Earthshot Prize finalists.
The companies—including CEF members
Bloomberg, Microsoft,
and
Unilever—will
help scale the finalists’ innovative and technological solutions around 5 focus areas:
nature conservation and restoration, air pollution, oceans, climate change, and waste reduction. (Sept 2021)
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HP /
Hewlett Packard Enterprise /
Intel / Microsoft —
Launching a
virtual tech conference this month for all Historically Black Colleges and Universities across the U.S, which the companies say is the first conference of its kind. Students can learn tech skills, access online learning programs, and participate in a “Bot A Thon,” whose finalists will have the opportunity to interview for internships with HP and Microsoft. (Sept 2021)
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AT&T —
Committed to
collaborating with other businesses to collectively reduce one gigaton of GHG emissions by 2035—equal to about 15% of all US GHG emissions or 1.6 billion flights from LA to New York—through 5G and other broadband solutions. Founding partners of the
“Connected Climate Initiative” include
Duke Energy, Microsoft,
and
BSR. (Sept 2021)
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Accenture, Duke Energy, and
Microsoft
are partnering to create a new platform that provides near-real-time data on
methane emissions from Duke Energy’s natural gas distribution systems. The platform will be hosted on Microsoft Azure, and Accenture—in collaboration with
Avande, its joint venture with Microsoft—will apply its AI, analytics, and cloud computing expertise. Platform implementation is expected by October. (Aug 2021)
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Shareholder advocacy group
As You Sow
released an updated “Racial Justice Scorecard” for the S&P 500, using 26 key performance indicators on racial justice, including four new indicators on “environmental racism.” CEF members
Alphabet, General Motors, HPE,
and
Microsoft
are among the list’s
top 10 best-performing companies. The NGO plans to
initiate conversations with poor scorers and file shareholder proposals at those companies’ annual meetings in 2022. (Aug 2021)
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2021 Sustainability Leaders (GlobeScan, the SustainAbility Institute by ERM) — A survey of nearly 700 sustainability experts in over 70 countries on how the pandemic will affect the global sustainable development agenda. The experts rank the top 15 companies displaying corporate sustainability leadership, including Unilever as #1 and Microsoft, Danone, Google, and Walmart. (Aug 2021)
Nearly 100 leaders of companies, associations, and organizations—including CEF members
Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Amazon, Alphabet, General Motors, Mastercard, HP Inc., Cisco,
and
TPG Capital—sent a letter urging Congress to pass legislation to create a pathway to citizenship for the “Dreamers”—who would benefit from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The leaders were organized by the
Coalition for the American Dream. (Aug 2021)
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ENERGY IMPACT PARTNERS —
The global energy venture capital firm
launched the Elevate Future Fund, which aims to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion for clean-tech entrepreneurs working toward a low-carbon economy. The fund has secured over half its targeted amount of $120 million. Founding corporate partners include
Duke Energy, Microsoft, Alliant Energy,
and FirstEnergy Corp. (Aug 2021)
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Over 150 companies that belong to the Business for Voting Rights Group, including CEF members
Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Facebook, Google, HP, Microsoft, PepsiCo, and
Unilever,
sent a letter to U.S. lawmakers urging them to reintroduce and pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would help prevent voting discrimination and establish an improved system for states to report changes to election law. (July 2021)
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Launched the
Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability service to help companies set sustainability goals and measure and manage their carbon emissions. Its software-as-a-service offerings provide carbon accounting, connection to real-time data sources, and insights for organizations to take action. (July 2021)
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Committed to a
“100/100/0” vision through which the company
will have 100% of its electricity consumption matched by zero-carbon energy purchases 100% of the time by 2030.
(July 2021)
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Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance — The alliance of companies, spearheaded by
RMI
and the
Environmental Defense Fund,
will
pilot a sustainable aviation fuel certificate (SAFc) this year, created to enable air transport customers to invest in high-quality SAF. The companies—Boston Consulting Group, Boeing, Deloitte, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, Netflix,
and Salesforce—will share takeaways and insights to be put in a future usage guide. (July 2021)
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RE100
— The RE100 companies, which are committed to 100% renewable electricity, now have an electricity demand greater than that of the U.K. or Italy and are on track to save CO2 emissions equal to burning over 118 million tons of coal per year. RE100 members include
CEF Members:
3M, Apple, Bank of America, Bloomberg, Dell Technologies, Ecolab, Facebook, General Motors, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HP Inc., Johnson & Johnson, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Mastercard, McKinsey & Co., Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Siemens AG, TD Bank Group, Trane Technologies, Unilever,
and Visa.
(July 2021)
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Arizona Water Conservation Collaborative
—
Corporations and foundations—including
Intel Corp., Google, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Ecolab, and Target—committed a total of $38 million in funding to conserve nearly 49 billion gallons of water and avoid the first water shortage in Lake Mead. Led by the state of Arizona, Business for Water Stewardship, and the Environmental Defense Fund, this is the single largest multi-sector, collaborative drought-response effort in the state. (June 2021)
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MORGAN STANLEY —
Launched Morgan Stanley Next Level Fund, as part of Morgan Stanley Investment Management’s Private Credit & Equity platform, to invest in technology-enabled companies and early-stage technology with women or diverse founders,
with tech, financial tech, consumer/retail, health care, media, and entertainment as target sectors. Inaugural corporate partners include
Microsoft, Hearst, and Walmart.
(June 2021)
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Women in Climate Tech
— The group—including
Trane Technologies, Microsoft, and PG&E—announced a new TCFDW program to create a TCFD-aligned toolkit governments and businesses can use to better investors’ understanding of the relationship between climate change and gender equity, assess risks posed on net-zero commitments as a result of gender inequity, and assess opportunities that emerge from addressing inequity along with climate change solutions. (June 2021)
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The Biden administration announced a “Call to Action” for businesses and social enterprises to make new commitments to support inclusive economic development in Central America, as part of efforts to sustainably address the root causes of migration. Founding participants include
Mastercard, which pledged to help 5 million people in the region access banking services and digitize 1 million small businesses; and
Microsoft, which promised to expand internet access to up to 3 million people by July 2022 and create digital skill-building community centers for women and young people. (June 2021)
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Business Alliance to Scale Climate Solutions (BASCS) — A new collaborative knowledge-sharing network serving all organizations seeking to engage, invest in, and scale climate solutions.
Founding members include
Amazon, Disney, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, Salesforce, Unilever,
and Workday. Nonprofit and public partners include
Environmental Defense Fund, United Nations Environment Programme, and World Wildlife Fund,
withBSR serving as Secretariat. (June 2021)
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Earned the World Environment Center’s (WEC) 2021 Gold Medal Award for International Corporate Achievement in Sustainable Development.
The award will be presented at a virtual public ceremony on June 9, 2021. (June 2021)
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Joined the 1.5C Supply Chain Leaders Group to encourage small and medium-sized businesses to reduce their emissions and decarbonize their supply chains. (May 2021)
Established the
Green Software Foundation, a new nonprofit seeking to reduce emissions within the software industry by 45% by 2030 through the development of people, standards, tools, and leading practices.
Other founding members include
Accenture, GitHub,
and ThoughtWorks; general members include
Goldman Sachs
and nonprofits “Leaders for Climate Action,” “Watt Time,” and “The Green Web Foundation.” (May 2021)
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EnergyTag Initiative — This new global initiative, seeking to enable 24/7 clean energy tracking, unveiled 6 international projects to test and demonstrate improved clean energy traceability. The projects will test an hourly energy certificate mechanism allowing customers to “tag” electricity with the time and source of production to ensure clean power is constantly available. The initiative includes over 100 utilities, government agencies, NGOs, and companies, including Enel, Engie, Google, Microsoft, and PwC. (May 2021)
Over 80 companies—with combined annual revenue of $1.5 trillion, $341 billion in assets, and over 3 million U.S. employees—called on federal lawmakers to support ambitious climate policy action to address the climate crisis and advance environmental justice
as part of the Ceres-led “LEAD on Climate” advocacy day. CEF members participating included Amazon, CBRE, Dell Technologies, Dow, HP Inc., McDonald’s, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Samsung Electronics America, Siemens,
and Unilever. (May 2021)
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VMware Zero Carbon Committed — A new initiative led by VMware to accelerate the transition to zero-carbon clouds and help customers achieve decarbonization goals by connecting them with cloud providers committing to power data centers with 100% renewable energy or achieving net-zero carbon by 2030. Inaugural partners include Atea, Equinix, IBM, Microsoft, and OVH. (May 2021)
Second Chance Business Coalition — A cross-sector coalition of 29 large US employers committed to expanding second chance hiring and advancement practices for people with criminal records. Co-chaired by JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and Eaton CEO Craig Arnold, members include Bank of America, Cisco, GM, JPMorgan & Chase, Mastercard, McDonald’s, Microsoft, P&G, PepsiCo, and Visa. (May 2021)
Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance
(SABA)
—
A new alliance launched by RMI and Environmental Defense Fund to accelerate aviation decarbonization by driving investment in sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), catalyzing new SAF production and technological innovation, and supporting member engagement in policy-making. Founding companies involved include
Boeing, BCG, Deloitte, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, Netflix,
and Salesforce.
(April 2021)
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Low-Carbon Patent Pledge —
An HPE-led initiative in collaboration with Facebook and Microsoft, pledging to make over 400 patents applicable to the development, storage, and distribution of low-carbon energy technology royalty-free to the public.
Additional patent owners may join. (April 2021)
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Members of the Corporate Electric Vehicle Alliance (CEVA) and the BICEP Network sent letters (CEVA letter and the BICEP letter) calling for the Biden administration to adopt vehicle standards aligned with climate science and consistent with a pathway to 100% zero-emission vehicle sales by 2035. The two Ceres-led networks represent over 80 companies with combined annual revenue of $1.3 trillion and include Amazon, CBRE, Kaiser Permanente, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Siemens, Tiffany & Co., Unilever, and VF Corporation. (April 2021)
More than 300 businesses representing over $3 trillion in annual revenue and employing nearly 6 million US workers signed an open letter calling upon President Biden to adopt a GHG emissions reduction target of at least 50% by 2030 (2005 baseline). Organized by the We Mean Business coalition and Ceres, signatories of the letter included: Apple, Dell Technologies, Facebook, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HP, Johnson & Johnson, Mastercard, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Siemens, Trane Technologies, Unilever, and VF Corporation. (April 2021)
Companies across the country—including Apple, BlackRock, Bank of America, Cisco, Facebook, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, and UPS—denounced the state of Georgia’s new law overhauling state election procedures over concerns it will restrict voter access and disproportionately disenfranchise people of color. Dozens of Black executives have called on companies to stand up for racial justice by fighting a wave of similar restrictive voting bills being advanced by Republicans in at least 43 states. (April 2021)
MICROSOFT/ LINKEDIN — Microsoft announced “Career Connector,” a new service to help 50,000 people affected by the coronavirus pandemic enter into tech-enabled jobs over the next 3 years, with a specific focus on women and underrepresented minorities. The announcement builds on the success of its global skills initiative launched last summer with LinkedIn, which provided 30.7 million people with free digital skills training. (April 2021)
2021 Work Trend Index (Microsoft) — Examines trends shaping the future of a hybrid work world, based on a study of more than 30,000 people in 31 countries and an analysis of trillions of productivity and labor signals across Microsoft 365 and LinkedIn. Key findings (March 2021):
- Flexible work is here to stay
- Leaders are out of touch with employees and need a wake-up call
- High productivity is masking an exhausted workforce
- Gen Z is at risk and will need to be re-energized
- Shrinking networks are endangering innovation
- Authenticity will spur productivity and wellbeing
- Talent is everywhere in a hybrid work world
Vision 2050: Time to Transform — WBCSD and over 40 of its members—including 3M, BASF, Microsoft, and Unilever—released an action agenda based on 9 “transformation pathways” essential to a sustainable and prosperous future. The pathways cover business areas essential to society: energy; transportation and mobility; living spaces; products and materials; financial products and services; connectivity; health and wellbeing; water and sanitation; and food. Each pathway includes 10 action areas for companies to take over the next decade. (March 2021)
Circular Electronic Partnership (CEP) — A new initiative launched by 6 major organizations—GeSI, GEC, PACE, RBA, WBCSD, and WEF—to develop a circular economy for electronics, the fastest growing waste stream in the world, by 2030. CEP has published a roadmap that identifies 6 opportunity pathways to achieve circularity along the value chain, including (1) designing for circularity, (2) driving demand for circular products and services, (3) scaling responsible business models, (4) increasing official collection rates, (5) aggregating for reuse and recycling, and (6) scaling secondary material markets. Member companies include Cisco, Dell, Google, and Microsoft. (March 2021)
Microsoft and Total announced a strategic partnership to help drive digital innovation, including carbon-removal technologies, to accelerate the transition to a net-zero economy. Total will also support Microsoft’s sustainability objectives, including contributing to Microsoft’s 2025 target for renewable energy and its development of a long-term roadmap to diesel-free operations, and will adopt Microsoft’s cloud platforms. (March 2021)
Microsoft and Spanish energy company Repsol announced a strategic partnership to co-innovate to build new AI-powered digital solutions for the energy industry. Part of the agreement involves Repsol proving Microsoft with renewable energy in Europe and Repsol expanding its use of Microsoft’s cloud solutions. (March 2021)
Value Chain Carbon Transparency Pathfinder — New WBCSD-led initiative to define and accelerate the wide-scale exchange of verified primary carbon emissions data between businesses to increase scope 3 emissions transparency. Over a dozen companies are involved, including BASF, Chevron, Dow, Microsoft, and Unilever. Additional partners welcome. (March 2021)
Chevron announced a partnership with Microsoft, Schlumberger, and Clean Energy Systems to build a carbon capture plant in California to convert agricultural biomass to electricity and store almost all the carbon captured in the conversion underground. The plant is expected to use about 200,000 tons of agricultural waste and remove roughly 300,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually. (March 2021)
Microsoft, Accenture, and their joint venture Avanade are partnering to help utility and energy companies in the U.K. lower the cost of decarbonizing the supply and demand of electricity and transform the energy system. The companies will leverage their cloud, data, and AI expertise to drive efficiency, support cross-industry innovation around new markets, and improve asset performance and optimization. (March 2021)
Ethisphere released its 2021 list of the World’s Most Ethical Companies. CEF members recognized include (March 2021):
- 3M
- ADM
- Aptiv
- CBRE
- Dell Technologies
- Ecolab
- General Motors
- HanesBrands
- Hewlett Packard Enterprise
- Honeywell
- HP
- International Paper
- Kaiser Permanente
- Kimberly-Clark
- Mastercard
- Microsoft
- PepsiCo
- VF Corporation
- Visa
- Waste Management
SilviaTerra
— The climate tech company launched the data-driven forest carbon marketplace Natural Capital Exchange (NCAPX), which utilizes satellite-based measurements of every forest acre each year and encourages landowners to sell credits from their forest at no upfront cost. Gigatons of carbon credits will be brought to market.
Microsoft utilizes NCAPX as 1 of 26 solutions in its carbon removal portfolio. (February 2021)
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A major new coalition, “America is All In,” launched to mobilize bold climate ambitions nationally and uphold the federal government’s commitment to climate action—specifically to cut U.S. emissions in half or more by 2030 and reach net-zero by 2050. Co-led by UN Special Climate Envoy Michael Bloomberg, the coalition effectively merges We Are Still In and America’s Pledge and is the most expansive effort ever assembled to support climate action in the U.S., involving U.S. businesses, cities, states, tribal nations, schools, and faith groups, health care organizations, and cultural institutions. Large companies involved include: 3M, Adobe, Amazon, Apple, ADM, Autodesk, BASF, Best Buy, Cargill, Carrier Corporation, The Clorox Company, Coca-Cola, Danone N.A., Dell Technologies, Dow Inc., DSM N.A., DuPont, eBay, Edison International, Facebook, Gap, General Mills, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HP, Inc., IKEA U.S., Johnson & Johnson, Johnson Controls, Kellogg Company, LafargeHolcim, Levi Strauss & Co., L’Oréal, Mars Incorporated, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Mondelez International, National Grid, Nestle, NIKE, Novozymes, PG&E Corporation, PepsiCo, Salesforce, Siemens, Sony Corporation of America, Starbucks, Steelcase, Target, Tiffany & Co., Trane Technologies, Verizon, VF Corporation, Walmart, and Waste Management. (February 2021)
The Take on Race Coalition, led by Procter & Gamble, announced a new initiative (“One Million Connected Devices Now”) to deliver one million connected devices to students lacking access to digital devices and tools. The Partners include Comcast, Dell Technologies, Dow Jones, Fidelity, Intel, Microsoft Corp, PNC Bank, PolicyLink, and Walmart. Additional partners are welcome. (February 2021)
Ranked #3 on Fortune list of “World’s Most Admired Companies,”which ranks companies based on their performance against nine criteria, including investment value, quality of management, products, social responsibility, ability to attract talent, and more. (February 2021)
Transform to Net Zero, a coalition of 9 global entities — Danone, Environmental Defense Fund, Maersk, Microsoft, Natura & Co., Nike, Starbucks, Unilever, and WIPRO — with BSR as secretariat, shared its action plan to "enable business transformation for an inclusive net-zero economy by 2050." (February 2021)
Land O’Lakes subsidiary
Truterra launched
TruCarbon, the
first-ever farmer-owned carbon marketplace to “help
farmers generate and sell carbon credits to private sector buyers.” For the initial launch, farmers may receive
$20 per ton of carbon sequestered.
Microsoft is the platform’s
first secured buyer. (February 2021)
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The Renewable Energy Buyers Association (REBA) issued a statement signed by 36 companies — including Amazon, Clorox, Facebook, GM, Google, Johnson & Johnson, McDonald’s, Microsoft, PepsiCo, and Unilever — proposing federal policy priorities to help accelerate the adoption of a customer-centric clean energy transition. Priorities include: 1) expanding and enhancing wholesale energy markets; 2) harmonizing clean-energy procurement and standards; 3) supporting the innovation and commercialization of energy R&D. (January 2021)
The World Economic Forum
launched Partnering for Racial Justice in Business Initiative, a new coalition to build more equitable and just workplaces. Three steps required to join the initiative include: 1)
Racial and ethnic equity must be placed
on the board’s agenda; 2) Companies must
make at least one commitment towards racial and ethnic justice in their organizations; 3) Companies must put a
long-term strategy in place towards
becoming an anti-racist organization. Founding members include
Bank of America, BlackRock, Bloomberg, Cisco Systems, Facebook, Google, HP, Johnson & Johnson, Kaiser Permanente, Mastercard, McKinsey & Company, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Unilever,
and UPS.
(January 2021)
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Microsoft announced plans to
factor sustainability performance
in executive pay structures starting in the next fiscal year and will
invest in direct air capture startup Climeworks.
(January 2021)
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Microsoft released a case study, “Microsoft Carbon Removal: Lessons From An Early Corporate Purchase,” offering
detailed insights into their approach to carbon removal procurement and lessons learned. “By sharing our experiences, we want to catalyze discussion and collaboration that will lead to the development of a more robust global market for corporate procurement of carbon removal solutions.” (January 2021)
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»
Microsoft is partnering with GM and its self-driving electric vehicle subsidiary Cruise to accelerate the commercialization of self-driving cars. GM and Cruise will use Microsoft’s cloud services, while Microsoft will join GM, Honda, and other investors in a combined new equity investment of $2 billion in Cruise. (January 2021)
2020
Microsoft has joined Amazon’s “The Climate Pledge.” (December 2020)
Microsoft has hired government affairs firm Lot Sixteen to lobby on "programmatic design and funding, including tax treatments, to improve sustainability outcomes and address climate change." The is the first time an outside firm will exclusively lobby on climate and environmental topics for the company. (November 2020)
Microsoft announced plans to become water positive by 2030, meaning the company will replenish more water than it uses. (September 2020)
Emerald Technology Ventures announced the closing of its
$100 million water impact fund, which aims to “invest in early- to expansion-stage companies globally to drive critical innovation and its adoption in the water space.” The fund is
backed by cornerstone investor Temasek
and strategic investors SKion Water, Ecolab, and Microsoft. (September 2020)
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Microsoft announced a new goal to achieve zero waste for its direct operations, products, and packaging by 2030. To achieve this goal, the company will divert at least 90% of its waste from landfills, manufacture 100% recyclable Surface devices, use 100% recyclable packaging, and achieve at least 75% diversion of construction and demolition waste for all projects. (August 2020)
Microsoft announced an update on the progress it is making towards the company’s goal to be "carbon negative" by 2030. The company announced the first investment from its $1 billion Climate Innovation Fund (investing $50 million in Energy Impact Partners’ global platform for innovation of new technologies to transform global energy and transportation systems), issued a request for proposal to identify nature- and technology-based solutions that remove carbon from the environment, formed a partnership with renewable energy developer and investor Sol Systems to develop 500 megawatts of renewable energy with a focus on "communities disproportionately affected by environmental challenges," and more. (July 2020)
Microsoft and a group of nine companies — including Danone, Nike, Starbucks, and Unilever — have launched “Transform to Net Zero,” a cross-sector initiative that aims to “develop and deliver research, guidance, and implementable roadmaps to enable all businesses to achieve net zero emissions” no later than 2050. (July 2020)
A group of more than 300 businesses — including Dow, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Tiffany & Co., Trane Technologies, VF Corporation, and Visa — have called on U.S. Congress to “build back a better economy by infusing resilient, long-term climate solutions into future economic recovery plans.” The effort was organized by Ceres and other partner organizations. (May 2020)
Microsoft joined a group of companies through The CEO Water Mandate to launch the Water Resilience Coalition, a CEO-led initiative that aims to “preserve the world’s freshwater resources through collective action in water-stressed basins and ambitious, quantifiable commitments.” The companies participating in the initiative pledge to build a water resilient value chain and achieve net-positive water impact by 2050. (March 2020)
Joined consortium of partners with IBM to launch the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium to provide scientists with supercomputing capacity for projects that “have the most immediate impact” on global efforts to combat COVID-19. (March 2020)
Included on Ethisphere 2020 list of the World’s Most Ethical Companies. (March 2020)
Ranked #4 (.624 GW) on Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance “Deal Tracker,” which highlights thelargest corporate renewable energy purchasers in 2019. (Feb 2020)
Launched with Ecolab and Trucost the Update: Water Risk Monetizer to reflect current water trends. The Water Risk Monetizer is a free, web-based tool that calculates a water risk premium for a particular facility based on what water would cost if it were valued based on supply and demand, taking into account water’s full value to communities and the environment. (Feb 2020)
Included on CDP “Climate Change A List,” which recognizes companies for demonstrating leadership on climate risk management in 2019. (Jan 2020)
Ranked #3 on Fortune list of “World’s Most Admired Companies,”which ranks companies based on their performance against nine criteria, including investment value, quality of management, products, social responsibility, ability to attract talent, and more. (Jan 2020)
Microsoft announced plans to be a carbon negative company by 2030. The company also plans toremove all of the carbon that it has emitted, since it was founded, by 2050. (Jan 2020)
2019
Ranked # 5 on Newsweek “America’s Most Responsible Companies 2020” list, which ranks 2000 public companies based on their environmental, social, and corporate governance performance. (Dec 2019)
Ranked #1 on Forbes and JUST Capital 2020 JUST 100 list, which ranks U.S. public companies based on their corporate citizenship performance. (Nov 2019)
Joined a coalition of 17 companies to amplify the important role of business action in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. (Sep 2019)
Microsoft has signed a power purchase agreement with Engie to source 230 MW of solar and wind energy from two projects in Texas. (Sep 2019)
Ranked #6 on CR Magazine 2019 list of the 100 Best Corporate Citizens, which ranks Russell 1000 companies based on environmental, social, and governance performance. (May 2019)
Joined a group of 18 companies as part of the Plastic Leak Project, an initiative to “develop robust metrics to locate, measure and map plastic and microplastic pollution across the value chain and define effective actions to fix the problem of plastic leakage into the environment.” The initiative was co-founded by sustainability consulting firm Quantis and ecodesign center EA. (March 2019)
One of 120 companies — out of more than 5,500 companies analyzed — recognized on CDP’s Supplier Engagement leaderboard (“Global Supply Chain Report 2019”) for their work with suppliers to reduce emissions and lower environmental risks in the supply chain. (Feb 2019)
Recognized on CDP “2018 A List” for leadership on both climate change and water security. (Jan 2019)
Ranked #6 on Fortune's “World’s Most Admired Companies” list, which ranks companies based on their performance against nine criteria, including investment value, quality of management, products, social responsibility, ability to attract talent, and more. (Jan 2020)