Data-Driven Sustainability: Microsoft’s Path to a Greener Future
One of the topics on everyone’s minds is sustainability. There are many public initiatives focused on it, and it’s gained a lot of popularity over the past several years. With that in mind, I had the pleasure of speaking with Gina Kirby, Senior Sustainability Specialist for the Americas at Microsoft, to better understand the challenges enterprises face with their sustainability initiatives, as well as Microsoft’s approach to addressing sustainability. This article contains the full transcript of our conversation.
Sustainability Challenges
Gina:
I think some of the challenges that enterprise face is that when we talk about sustainability, there are various perspectives. There’s a variety of levels of interest. And there’s a variety of goals across corporations. And I think each of those things is formed by the role that anybody sits in within a given company. Some of the challenges also are, what are we reporting on? How much information do we share? And what are our goals that align with our values as companies? And trying to figure out how they can intersect those two things as they look toward their own futures.
Data as Key to Attaining Sustainability Goals
Avrohom:
Putting that into perspective, what are some of the ways businesses go about attaining their sustainability goals?
Gina:
A lot of it has to do with data. It’s focused on trying to figure out “I can’t set a goal until I know where I stand”. And that makes sense, right? It’s important to understand how much work you have ahead of yourself, as well as establishing those really strong and concise baselines as best you can, so you have a starting point. You know how much progress you need to make and where you’re headed. Those are some of the key challenges. Some of the key challenges are that the information that it takes to create baselines, set goals and understand things like an ROI and where to invest or mitigate — those are unfortunately, not all in one spot. It sits in a variety of different systems. And sometimes some of those systems are in fact human capital, right in people’s minds and understandings of knowing their own business very closely. And so, some of it is already recorded and written down. Some of it is also in knowledge. In addition, as we continue to see the need for improvements and specifically Scope 3 insights, this will require dramatic improvements in the shared transparency of information across value chains. And so combining all of those things becomes the initial challenge before companies are trying to step forth on their path to progress.
Avrohom:
It’s so true. I come from the telecom world. And in the olden days, when we were working with contact center managers, we used to have a saying that you’ve got to measure it in order to manage it. And if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. So, just like what you’re saying, the data and information are all over the place. Some of them are on paper, and now we have IoT devices capturing information from all over the place. And we just need to process all of that.
Gina:
Yes, absolutely. It feels like we’re in an interesting moment where we have a richness of information. But being able to take advantage of all that information is really our challenge.
Microsoft’s Approach to Addressing Sustainability
Avrohom:
What is Microsoft’s approach to addressing sustainability?
Gina:
Our approach to looking at sustainability as a company for Microsoft is really to evaluate ourselves in a number of key areas. So, we’re constantly evaluating and assessing key areas like carbon, water, waste, and biodiversity. Now, when we look at those things, we are assessing those from a variety of different areas of our business as well. We have divisions like Xbox. We also have our cloud services teams. And then we also have all of the facilities in real estate that it takes for us to enable our employees and to deliver all the work that we do. And so, we constantly are assessing those things, understanding where our starting points are and where we can start to make investments for improvements. Constantly with a lens of trying to come from an informed position, we’re making really data-driven insights.
Real-World Case Studies
Avrohom:
Gina, can you share some case studies about that? That sounds exciting.
Gina:
At Microsoft, we release an annual report, and that’s our annual sustainability report. For us as a company, part of what’s important is that we acknowledge with transparency that this is a journey and also that we don’t always get it right. We make efforts in a variety of different areas, and some will pay off in dividends, and it will happen on a different timeline than it will for others. But we’re committed to making our goals and to continuing to make progress.
Some of the case studies that we’ve done with some of our customers are across a variety of different industries and areas. Now, we have the work that we’re doing with our cloud for sustainability. And you might have seen some information out there already with our customers like Grupo Bimbo, who is a grocer. You might have seen our work with the BBC, or potentially Ingredion Incorporated or FLSmidth. They are leveraging our cloud for sustainability platform to help them on their journey with obtaining additional insights and more enriched insights as they plot their path forward on their own climate journeys.
Other things that we’re doing across a variety of industries that are more focused might be related to, for example, a fleet management organization might be looking at things like Route Optimization or how EVs will play a role in their future. We might be leveraging digital twins for organizations who are trying to get a better handle on what their real estate and facilities are consuming from an energy perspective and how they can make improvements. Sometimes it’s related to agribusiness or retail and really optimizing the supply chain and understanding what that looks like. Or it could be things as simple as we’re trying to make assessments of what is the feasibility for us to move from plastics to recycled packaging? And what insights can we derive from those things?
So, it’s really a lot of different areas across a variety of industries. We continue to work with our customers and our partner ecosystem. Again, we don’t purport that we know or that we’re the experts in everything. And so, we have a really enriched partner ecosystem that we work with to help support and supplement all the things that we do.
The Importance of Collaboration
Avrohom:
They say about any kind of progress; you can’t do it alone. You need to have a network of partners. So how can people connect with you to learn more about Microsoft’s sustainability initiatives? And I’m also interested in hearing more about the partner ecosystem.
Gina:
Absolutely. So, our partner ecosystem has a number of sustainability offerings. You can find those either on AppSource or on our general sustainability website. You can also connect with us on our cloud for sustainability pages, or by looking up our annual climate innovation report and our sustainability report. We release it every year. And although it’s lengthy, it’s detailed on purpose. And there are a lot of references both to the work that we’re doing, as well as who we’re working with on those initiatives.
Final Thoughts
Avrohom:
Gina, do you have any parting words of wisdom you’d like to share with the audience?
Gina:
I think the parting words of wisdom would really just be that we are at such a critical moment in environmental sustainability, and it’s so important that we are moving from assessments into action. And so, if you do nothing else, get started today. We firmly believe there is a critical role for data to play at the intersection of technology and sustainability, and that means whether your company has set forth pledges and goals or not, improving data quality, data hygiene, and data transparency will set you up on the path to making progress on your journey.
Learn how new features for the Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability deliver enhanced levels of insight (including Scope 3 waste data), data access and management, reporting, and customization to help organizations meet their goals and make progress faster.
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Watch the full conversation here: https://youtu.be/Nj-XMDjSxD0
Listen to this conversation on Soundcloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/S5ChJ
About the Author
Avrohom Gottheil is the founder of #AskTheCEO Media, where he helps global brands get heard over the noise on social media by presenting their corporate message using language people understand.
Avrohom presents his clients as Thought Leaders, which challenges his audience to reimagine their own mission and vision, delivering actionable insights, and leaving them passionate, motivated, and with the necessary tools to take immediate action.
Avrohom comes from a 20+ year career in IT and Telecom, where he helped businesses around the world install and maintain their communication systems and contact centers. He is a Top-ranked global expert in IoT, AI, Cloud, and Cybersecurity, followed worldwide on Twitter, and a frequent speaker on leveraging technology to accelerate revenue growth.
Listen to him share the latest technology trends, tools, and best practices for IoT, AI, Cloud, Cybersecurity, and more on the #AskTheCEO podcast — voted as the #1 Channel Friendly Podcast 2019 by Forrester.
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