By Lee Hui Li, Managing Director, Microsoft Singapore
As we look forward to celebrating World Environment Day (5 June), we know that protecting the planet is critical, and we are committed to creating a more sustainable future. For Microsoft, sustainability isn’t just an ambition — it’s part of our culture.
Our commitments and actions on sustainability are far-reaching and are some of the most ambitious out there. Our goal isn’t just to become more sustainable though, we want to help every organization on the planet to do the same.
Organizations around the world need to transition to a net zero, environmentally sustainable future in a short period of time, and our partners are leveraging the Microsoft Cloud for sustainability, data and AI to build innovative applications, solutions and services to help customers transform their operations, products, services and supply chains, to achieve their sustainability goals.
Together we can deliver solutions and services that are good for the planet, and good for business. This World Environment Day, we are proud to celebrate some of our customers and partners who are working to build a more sustainable future.
Partnership for sustainability
Globally, our Microsoft #BuildFor2030 Initiative aims to accelerate innovation and collective impact with our partner ecosystem, helping to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In Singapore, we built deep, robust ecosystem partnerships with our Singapore GreenTech Challenge, part of the Microsoft Innovation Center for Sustainability Solutions (MICSS) to foster collaboration between digital natives and start-ups. Together with ecosystem partners including Carbonless, Interseed, Avanade, EcoLabs, FINLAB by UOB, and NCS, MICSS worked with participants to develop innovative sustainability solutions for businesses that can be operationalized in line with the Singapore Green Plan.
Optimizing technology for a more resilient future
Our customers and partners are working together to understand, minimize and manage environmental impact, gain operational efficiencies, and achieve more responsible supply chain practices:
- REC Group, a solar panel manufacturer, is building a solid foundation to address demand for renewable energy in the pursuit of a green economy and help users reduce their carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions. Together with Microsoft and T-Systems, REC Group transitioned to S/4HANA on Azure to generate reports and perform analytics much faster, leading to higher efficiency while minimizing operating costs.
- Sembcorp Industries, one of the largest energy players in Singapore seeks to meet the rising global demand for sustainable solutions while ensuring safe and flexible workspaces. The company used the Microsoft Cloud to enable better connectivity and collaboration, and automated processes for smarter monitoring systems on its solar farms.
Sustainable solutions from systems integrators and advisory partners
Our systems integrator and advisory partners are working with companies around the world, applying their deep industry expertise to deliver Microsoft Cloud-powered sustainability solutions and innovative services that help customers drive operational efficiencies, enable business transformation and achieve their sustainability goals:
- Accenture, Avanade and Microsoft are driving joint sustainability efforts including their pioneering role in the Green Software Foundation, a nonprofit that’s building a trusted ecosystem of people, standards, tooling and practices to enable green software development. And, through Project Amplify, Accenture and Microsoft support dozens of startups that focus on driving social impact and sustainability by providing access to emerging technology and expertise to help them scale their solutions.
- New PwC solutions for smart stadiums utilize digital twins, IoT sensors and AI to promote a more modern, more rewarding experience for everyone entering a stadium or sports facility. These solutions provide a safer, healthier environment for both customers and staff by removing barriers and helping people get where they need to go faster, and behind the scenes, facility managers can realize reduce costs through centralized core functions, smarter resource planning and predictive analytics to monitor, predict and manage equipment status, waste removal and climate control.
- TCS Clever Energy is an enterprise energy and emission management system that helps commercial and industrial organizations be more sustainable, ensures energy and cost efficiencies, decrease carbon emissions, and achieve their carbon neutral goals. The solution accelerates customers’ journey towards neutrality by reducing energy and CO2 consumption by up to 15%, and typically produces a ROI within a year. Over the next five years, TCS expects that the Clever Energy solution will save the company and its customers more than $200 million dollars, and up to 170 tons of CO2 emissions.
Reducing the environmental impact of data centers
As more people and businesses rely on technology to stay connected, informed, and productive, digital needs in Singapore are growing — that means the need for hyperscale data centers is growing too. Microsoft Cloud services offer customers an energy efficient and carbon neutral alternative to running their own private data centers. Research shows that Microsoft Cloud services are up to 93 percent more energy efficient than traditional enterprise data centers. As part of our commitment to building a sustainable future, Microsoft strives to empower the communities where our employees live, work, and operate our data centers.
Giving new life to older devices through the Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher program
Reusing and recycling has always been important to Microsoft, and increased demand for PCs to meet work and learn-from-anywhere needs has made bringing old devices back to life critical.
Millions of PCs and other electronics are being repurposed through the Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher (MAR) program, in which partners decommission and refurbish PCs and servers and install the latest Windows software.
In 2021, 4,855,068 Windows licenses were issued with refurbished computers, equalling enough electricity to power 1,441,524 houses each year.
To help support digital inclusion, MAR partners provide the refurbished PCs to non-profit organizations, businesses, schools, and homes.
Working together to accelerate progress toward a more sustainable world
It will take all of us working together to drive the changes needed to ensure the future of the planet.
The first step is to understand impact, and the Emissions Impact Dashboard can help measure emissions related to Microsoft cloud services. Purchasing partner or Microsoft devices built with sustainability in mind can help people begin to reduce their environmental impact, and Microsoft Sustainable Partners can help organizations measure, model and manage their global operations at scale.
No matter where an organization is in the sustainability journey, Microsoft and our partners can help organizations minimize environmental impact, deliver new value, accelerate business transformation and achieve sustainability goals.
In line with this year’s World Environment Day theme “Only One Earth”, let’s commit to protecting our planet today and every day.
Together, our collective efforts will help to build a resilient, digitally inclusive, and sustainable Singapore.