Microsoft announced new capabilities and the upcoming general availability of its cloud offering focused on sustainability and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting.
The Sustainability Manager platform will be released in GA on June 1 and includes new features explicitly tailored to ESG data and reporting. The cloud giant claims organisations of any size using its sustainability cloud will be able to unify data intelligence, build a sustainable IT infrastructure, reduce the environmental impact of their operations, and improve the sustainability of value chains with increasingly automated data connections and actionable insights.
Microsoft initially announced its cloud sustainability offering last July. The cloud service connects to data sources in real-time, increases the speed of data reporting, accurately counts carbon, and utilises intelligent insights to help organisations take effective environmental action. Using this cloud service, enterprises will be able to report on IT greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that result from the cloud, devices, and applications. Data from various emissions sources can be compiled into one report for a comprehensive look at carbon emissions.
Collecting and connecting IoT sensor data from devices combined with cloud and edge services allows the platform to monitor and measure activities at scale.
“This extensible Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability solution centralises previously disparate data in a common data format and offers organisations an increasingly comprehensive view into the emissions impact of their entire operations and value chain,” said Microsoft.
The cloud service specifically addresses transparency and accountability throughout the supply chain, from raw materials to product manufacturing to distribution. Like what Microsoft says its sustainability cloud offers, a data-first approach will help organisations maintain data integrity and the visibility needed to increase efficiencies, eliminate emissions, and design out waste using circular principles.
