Elly Yates-Roberts |
EY and Microsoft are accelerating their partnership to develop environmental, social and governance (ESG) data management solutions and help businesses achieve decarbonisation and net-zero goals.
Through the collaboration, the firms will address a host of sustainability needs, including improving carbon tracking and reporting, facilitating value chain traceability of carbon, and developing enterprise carbon management solutions that support carbon capture businesses.
“Climate change is no longer a risk event on the horizon, it is happening here and now,” said Dr. Matt Bell, climate change and sustainability services leader at EY Global. “Many organisations set ambitious targets to get to net-zero by 2050, or earlier, but face significant challenges to get there. This strategic EY-Microsoft Alliance expansion will accelerate the pace of innovation needed for clients to meet ESG requirements. It is underpinned by the 20-year proven sustainability and ESG service history of the EY Climate Change and Sustainability Services EY teams.
“Leveraging leading-edge digital technology platforms (including Cloud for Sustainability) and the engineering prowess of Microsoft, this deepened relationship is well-positioned to assist some of the world’s largest companies in tackling their biggest sustainability hurdles.”
Through solutions such as the EY Decarbonization Management Platform, the partnership will help users understand their current state and manage, monitor and report against it. They can enhance visibility into carbon footprints to and accelerate clients’ sustainability journey, helping them to model ESG strategies and support planning, management and roll-out of end-to-end decarbonisation.
Microsoft and EY have also delivered EY ESG IQ, an accelerator that standardises and enriches company rating data, calculates score gaps and makes rating improvements faster and easier, which are critical for end-to-end monitoring of supply chains.
“The inherent flexibility of the Microsoft Cloud combined with deep EY sustainability experience and development of business applications will allow clients to rapidly adapt and implement solutions that help them to meet their sustainability goals,” said Elisabeth Brinton, corporate vice president of sustainability at Microsoft. “This modular solution approach provides a highly scalable platform that utilises artificial intelligence, machine learning and predictive analysis.
“This will help clients to meet ESG requirements as they evolve and address them through a life cycle of services for end-to-end decarbonisation, transforming their operations to not only reduce their environmental impact and address regulatory requirements but also seize opportunities along the way.”