Amber Hickman |
Microsoft has introduced Project ESG Lake, a data platform that will enable customers and partners to analyse data and build custom applications that help organisations to keep track of progress towards their environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals.
Users will also be able to leverage Microsoft Fabric, the firm’s new artificial intelligence-powered analytics platform, to help them predict the emissions of their business operations.
The preview for Project ESG Lake will be available in July 2023. Microsoft also plans to introduce a new anomaly detection feature later this year which will help users to find outliers and correlations between activity data and calculated emissions.
In addition, the corporation is developing a ‘what-if analysis’ to allow Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability users to use information from the data model and Project ESG Lake to derive forecasts related to sustainability goals. For example, an organisation would be able to evaluate materials emissions and waste projections based on their recycled content and long-term durability.
Microsoft Cloud for sustainability will also be updated in July with an integration of EcoVadis, the business sustainability ratings provider. The integration will help suppliers to track their progress on their sustainability programmes with considerations for environment, labour, human rights and ethics.