Despite not being in the hardware business, the software firm plans to go carbon neutral. Here's how they will do it.
Starting this July, just as things get hot even in Seattle, Microsoft will launch a green initiative to make all of the company’s facilities, “including data centers, software development labs, air travel, and office buildings,” go carbon neutral.
The plan was announced by Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner in a blog post on Wednesday. Turner said Microsoft has created an accountability model which will make every Microsoft business unit responsible for the carbon it generates, so they will be more mindful of their carbon footprint and make more of an effort to use renewable energy.
“To put this into action, we’re creating a new, internal carbon fee within Microsoft, which will place a price on carbon. The price will be based on market pricing for renewable energy and carbon offsets, and will be applied to our operations in over 100 countries. The goal is to make our business divisions responsible for the cost of offsetting their own carbon emissions,” he wrote.
“We recognize that we are not the first company to commit to carbon neutrality, but we are hopeful that our decision will encourage other companies large and small to look at what they can do to address this important issue,” he added.
This is no easy task. Google set out to be carbon neutral back in 2007, but two years later admitted it couldn’t quite get there. But Microsoft is not new to this. Its environmental sustainability team has run the Software Enabled Earth blog since 2009, documenting the company’s efforts.
Turner noted three efforts already under way at Microsoft:
- A smarter buildings pilot on the Redmond campus that uses software solutions to make buildings more energy efficient. The company said it will save approximately $1.5 million dollars in fiscal year 2013 through this program.
- Microsoft is working with CarbonSystems to implement an Enterprise Sustainability Platform, which automatically captures and extracts environmental data from multiple sources to get a better read on the company’s carbon footprint.
- A white paper (PDF format) on how to improve power efficiency.
Some solutions are very simple. The company’s Puget Sound office offers free busses to the employees and has reduced “approximately 9.9 million miles of auto travel” each year.
This is a relatively easy undertaking, since Microsoft doesn’t have factories belching smoke. Still, it’s impressive that a company not in the hardware business can find ways to get the most power out of the least amount of power drawn.
