Microsoft announced the public preview of Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability as well as new progress and innovations inside its data centers to support customers on the path to net zero, and further Microsoft’s progress toward carbon negative by 2030. 

Below is a more detailed summary of each announcement: 

• Officially in public preview for its customers and partners today, Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability offers a comprehensive, end-to-end digital solution that helps organizations record their environmental footprint, report to stakeholders, and proactively reduce their emissions on a path to net zero.  
• Continued investments toward Microsoft’s pledge to be water positive by 2030, the company has a plan to reduce water use in its evaporative cooled datacenters by 95% by 2024. Additionally, the company is advancing research in liquid cooling to address the concept of overclocking, which not only supports sustainability goals but pivots to chip function and can increase the lifespan of a chip by 20%. Liquid cooling can be used to support sustainability goals and generate more performant chips operating at warmer coolant temperatures, without the use of water for cooling. 
• Research and development across ecosystems with the goal to adapt its datacenter designs to better fit the unique ecosystem it operates in. Microsoft is able to better understand how the datacenters impact the area and how they can be revitalized. Further, the company is exploring new, low-carbon materials for building design, and in partnership with Carbon Leadership Forum published a study on options like mycelium (mushroom) structural tubes to help reduce carbon emissions and change the climate profile of building constructions.  
  • Internally, Project Zerix is advancing research in biodegradable plastics, sustainable printed circuit boards and bio concrete materials to address all stages of the datacenter lifecycle. 
• Working with our cloud supply chain to reduce scope 3 emissions: In support of reducing our scope 3 emissions – or all the indirect emissions of operations – our top suppliers reported reducing their collective footprint by 21million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e), according to the 2020 Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) reporting cycle. In FY21, we have expanded the number of suppliers in the program and deepened our engagement level to ensure our emissions reductions are achieved.   

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