As we move towards COP26 and awareness of the need for full-scale climate change mitigation it’s imperative that businesses and consumers understand the environmental impact of their IT services. With this in mind, we are excited to see the general availability of the Microsoft Emissions Impact Dashboard, a tool that helps Microsoft cloud customers understand, track, report, analyse, and reduce carbon emissions associated with their cloud usage. The Emissions Impact Dashboard is part of Microsoft’s commitment to address their environmental impact and help their customers do the same.
The Emissions Impact Dashboard was first introduced in January 2020 as the Microsoft Sustainability Calculator. It was designed to help customers gather meaningful, shareable information; the Emissions Impact Dashboard takes this a step further and provides critical insights to help organizations make more informed, data-driven decisions about sustainable computing.
The Emissions Impact Dashboard provides transparency into greenhouse gas emissions associated with using Microsoft cloud services and enables a better understanding of the root causes of emissions changes. Organizations can measure the impact of Microsoft cloud usage on their carbon footprint, and they can drill down into emissions by month, service, and data center region. The tool also enables customers to enter theoretical workloads and get an estimate of emissions savings from migrating to the Microsoft cloud.
We are even more pleased to see the ability to calculate Scope 3 emissions associated with Microsoft cloud usage. These emissions are indirect and occur across the product value chain—from materials extraction and manufacturing to transport, usage, and hardware disposal.
Scope 3 emissions are in most cases the largest source of emissions, but up until now have been very difficult to measure. Microsoft uses a third-party validated methodology for carbon accounting, the Emissions Impact Dashboard provides a broad understanding of the carbon impact of cloud workloads across scopes. This allows for complete and more accurate emissions reporting and better decisions about sustainability. The Emissions Impact Dashboard is already being used by customers one such example is The Bühler Group, a leading developer of grains and food solutions, consumer foods, and advanced materials that contribute to the production of energy-efficient vehicles and buildings. To reach its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2030, Bühler saw the need to track Scopes 1, 2, and 3 emissions. With the Emissions Impact Dashboard, Bühler has determined Scope 3 emissions associated with its Microsoft cloud services in a format that’s easy to track and compile, adding to a more accurate view of their overall Scope 3 emissions.
