Preservation of Energy & Atmosphere
Sustainability Thickness Score
Microsoft Azure Data Center. © Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft sells data technology based from its cloud infrastructure, which consumes all four sources of natural capital. Its Azure business operates over 300 data centers throughout the world. The company has committed to preserve natural capital by increasing the efficiency of its energy use and serving district systems with waste energy, relying on renewable sources of energy where possible, minimizing its use of potable water, recycling its materials to eliminate waste, and increasing the habitat in the communities in which it operates.
ENTITY:
Microsoft Corporation (MSFT)
ATTRIBUTES:
Management of natural capital at data centers.
SUSTAINABILITY GOALS:
- Carbon negative by 2030.
- Water positive by 2030.
- Zero-waste by 2030.
- Protect and restore more land than used by 2025.
SUSTAINABILITY ATTRIBUTES:
- Increasing use of renewable energy for operations, investing in renewable generation through power purchase agreements, acquiring carbon credits to offset emissions.
- Recycling water and using more effective liquids to cool data centers.
- Recycling all materials in data centers.
- Purchase new habitat to replace habitat used for operations.
BENEFIT/ COST:
Strongly positive
SCALABLE:
Yes
Thickness Score
Natural Capital Benefits
Sustainability Thickness Score
Thick commitment to increase reliance on renewable energy, but just beginning to install renewable sources on-site. Currently finance renewable energy projects through Power Purchase Agreements, which indirectly increase renewable energy supply.
6
Use of water to cool data centers increases with growth in demand. Investing in Thick solutions to manage water use including recycling water and development of two-phased liquid immersion cooling.
6
Increased demand for data centers is increasing emission of CO2. MSFT offers innovative approaches such as its data center region in Finland in which MSFT captures waste heat and distributes it for use to the local community, saving 400,000 tonnes of CO2 annually.
3
Thick commitment to preserving habitat company-wide and within cloud business segment. Corporate goal of achieving zero-waste by 2030. Established five “circular centers” to enable 90% waste recovery in products, developed four zero-waste data centers.
7
Investment Attributes
Dividend Yield:
0.71%
Price/Earnings:
36.67
Market Capitalization:
$3.15 trillion
Sector:
Energy, Water, Atmosphere, Habitat
Additional Info
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