Elly Yates-Roberts |
Microsoft has reduced its carbon emissions by 6 per cent from 11.6 million tonnes in January 2020 to 10.9 tonnes in January 2021.
One year ago, Microsoft pledged to become carbon negative by 2030 – an effort that would see the organisation remove more carbon from the environment than it emits. Since then, it has been making further efforts in this area, having invested in 26 projects to remove 1.3 million metric tons of carbon.
The company has also published a new sustainability report which reviews its commitment to become carbon negative, water positive (creating more water than it uses), zero waste, and to create a “planetary computer” which Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, says “will help improve the world’s biodiversity”.
“When it comes to the carbon crisis, knowledge is the ultimate power,” said Smith, in a recent blog post. “We all have so much to keep learning. During the next three decades we will need technology breakthroughs on a par with those that propelled humanity to the moon a half century ago. This will require new investments and collaboration.”