Microsoft announced the preview edition of Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability. The solution builds upon the company’s internally developed processes for capturing and visualizing sustainability data. The solution is designed to provide near real-time visibility into emissions metrics. Typically, these metrics are very difficult, ir not impossible, to report dynamically due to the highly manual processes most companies have for measuring sustainability. Using Microsoft’s visualization capabilities, the solution can calculate and report on Scope 11, 2, and 3 emissions. It does so by automatically gathering data from relevant enterprise business systems, such as energy management applications.
As part of it’s preview, Microsoft used a fictitious coffee company. It demonstrated how the company might use Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability to track the sustainability impact of products, factories and other built infrastructure, products, and business process against sustainability objectives. The solution provides an executive-level dashboard of aggregated data and a score against sustainability commitments. Microsoft hasn’t shared pricing information for the software. This foray by the company reflects a growing trend by software companies of packaging sustainability-centered applications for industrial companies to address growing ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) pressures.
