In an October update to Microsoft’s sustainability study, 89 per cent of partners stated that they were trying to guarantee that their organisations would not contribute to the number of greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere by, or before, 2050.
The new research, titled “Partnering on the Road to Net Zero,” investigates the role that the Microsoft UK Partner Network may play in expediting the UK’s journey to net-zero, given its extensive reach (the group represents almost 1 per cent of all UK VAT registered companies).
According to the data, 94 per cent of Microsoft partners believe technology will be crucial in assisting organisations in reaching net zero.
“Today’s research demonstrates that Microsoft’s UK partners are keen to play a role in the UK’s transition to a greener and more prosperous future,” said Orla McGrath, Global Partner Solutions Lead at Microsoft UK. “With their significant expertise in offering new technology and consulting solutions, Microsoft partners are well-positioned to expedite both their own and their clients’ journeys to net zero.”
In addition to their own efforts to decrease their carbon footprint, over half (44 per cent) of Microsoft partners reported that their customers are already requesting technology that would assist them in reducing their own negative climate effect.
The study also identifies important areas where Microsoft’s partners may assist UK organisations in meeting net-zero ambitions. They are as follows:
- Connected sustainability – To assist clients in embedding sustainability throughout their organisations, leverage in-house sustainability objectives to exhibit expertise, build use cases and give proof of ideas.
- Decarbonisation – Provide clients with tools for properly calculating, tracking, and reporting scope one, two, and three emissions, assisting them in determining where to focus carbon reduction efforts and how to assess their impact.
- Innovation – Meet rising consumer demand for innovative technology and analytics to give insights that improve performance and expedite the journey to net-zero emissions.
- Funding and expertise – A major challenge to long-term viability for UK organisations is a lack of in-house capabilities. Recognize current talent and skill gaps and invest in the appropriate in-house training to enable employees to give consultancy solutions that suit the upskilling needs of other organisations.
- Collaboration and the supply chain – Many CEOs are battling to guarantee that their supply chains run in a sustainable manner. Collaborate with suppliers, customers, and each other to identify substantial risks and opportunities for improvement through company operations and upstream/downstream activities.
- Solutions – Partners should deploy cutting-edge sustainability technologies such as Cloud for Sustainability, Emissions Impact Dashboard, and Microsoft AppSource, which provide organisations with tried-and-true, repeatable, transformative solutions that allow them to meet their sustainability targets – all in one place.
Elastacloud is a Microsoft Gold Partner that specialises in data science and cloud computing. It has established a specialised department to advance the environmental agenda through customised goods and solutions. To improve digital skills, it has extensively invested in its Sustainability Studio team, which provides training programmes on the fundamentals of climate science and climate AI modelling. The workforce may then apply this fundamental understanding to daily choices, customer offers, and the value proposition. It also contributes to the development of solutions that employ artificial intelligence to measure, monitor, and analyse carbon emissions, helping customers to understand how they compare to their industry, market cap, and peers in terms of environmental, social, and governance parameters.
“You need to put sustainability at the core of your business, or you will be outcompeted,” stated Darshna Shah, Lead Data Scientist and Sustainability Strategist at Elastacloud. Consumers, investors, and even rivals will not see you favourably.”
“Partnering on the Road to Net Zero” is an update to Microsoft’s sustainability study from the previous year, “Accelerating the Journey to Net Zero – A UK Blueprint for Carbon Reduction.” The majority of UK organisations, according to the data, are on course to fall short of the government’s goal of net-zero carbon emissions.
It also highlighted how thousands of organisational leaders and employees are aware that they are under pressure to make their organisations more sustainable, yet the majority are unaware of how to do it. This is attributable, in part, to a failure to transform strategy into implementation and a lack of internal competence.
Both experiments were carried out in collaboration with Dr Chris Brauer of Goldsmiths, University of London.
They come after Microsoft made ambitious pledges on carbon, waste, water, and biodiversity, and claimed that by 2050, it will have removed from the environment all of the carbon released by the corporation, either directly or through electricity use, since its founding in 1975.
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