Microsoft Singapore: Driven by Purpose

 |   Singapore News Center

Singapore: Balancing profit and purpose for a better world

From its regional headquarters in Singapore, Microsoft has been deploying innovative technology that empowers every organization and person on the planet to achieve more. 

With support from Microsoft’s deep ecosystem of partnerships across the public and private sector, Singapore is using technology in areas like cybersecurity and sustainability to narrow the gap between skilling and employability. This serves to improve the lives of those around us while building a resilient and digitally inclusive nation. 

Partnership for sustainability

Microsoft has collaborated with Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) to address climate related issues and improve sustainability outcomes for digital technologies. This partnership will encourage the adoption of sustainable technology solutions for SMEs, allowing them to measure, track and report their carbon emissions so they can manage and optimise their resources in a frictionless manner.

Microsoft also opened our first Circular Center in Asia located in Singapore last year as part of our unwavering commitment to sustainability. Our Circular Center will ensure that hardware components are tracked and deployed in an optimised manner, from procurement to decommissioning, thereby reducing waste and carbon emissions. The Microsoft Circular Centers are working towards our goal of 90% reuse of servers and components by 2025, currently processing 12,000 servers per month for reuse. Microsoft is also working with companies like REC Group, Sembcorp, and EDPR APAC to create innovative, sustainable solutions for Singapore and the region in the pursuit of a green economy. 

Creating a better world

Datacenter Academy – A five-year commitment to empower over 300 students, with a focus on building applied datacentre skills for them to thrive in a growing ICT sector.

#GetReadySG – A Microsoft-Singapore government partnership to upskill, place and fill demand for tech-enabled jobs for Singaporeans.

Let’s Skill Up – This programme was designed specifically to help our SME partners and customers acquire critical industry-relevant skills to thrive and meet the fast evolving needs of the technology industry.

Digital for Life – A programme enabling people with disabilities to narrow the digital divide and participate in the workforce.

The pandemic accelerated digital transformation across almost every sector, but healthcare was a critical area due to the increase in number of people with complex care needs and chronic illnesses. Microsoft partnered with IMDA and other organisations to launch Virtual Digital Clinics as part of its digital inclusion efforts. This helped seniors get advice from volunteers and access essential digital services from home. As a small city state, Singapore is acutely aware of the need to balance economic development and environmental sustainability.  

Singapore has already laid the groundwork for building an advanced circular economy infrastructure that can help it take advantage of those opportunities, thanks to its strong commitments from the public and private sectors and a flexible policy environment. 

Given the right mix of progressive thinking, unshackled innovation, collaboration between governments and the best minds of academic and private-sector institutions, and access to pools of investment capital, solutions can become a reality. Singapore is tackling many of these pressing challenges head-on, through its resolute commitment to driving Business for Good. By stimulating a rich, open ecosystem where the hotbed of ideas can thrive in the greenhouse of opportunity, Singapore has created a place where like-minded companies, from the biggest multinationals to the smallest startups, can accelerate the journey toward a better future for all. 

Find out more about EDB’s Business for Good campaign and download their E-book here

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