As world sustainability progress turns into extra urgent, organizations want tangible, transformative options to assist them transfer ahead quicker. Most haven’t progressed as a lot as they’d like. Whereas 85% of executives report that sustainability is strategically necessary to their firm, solely 16% have built-in sustainability into their enterprise methods.
Immediately, we’re introducing new information and AI options in Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability that present capabilities organizations have to progress of their sustainability journey. These embody quicker environmental, social and governance (ESG) information analytics and insights, an AI assistant to assist speed up impactful decision-making and reporting, and different superior capabilities — all designed to assist organizations transfer the needle quicker.
Microsoft Cloth: A single analytics platform for sustainability information
In Might 2023, we unveiled Microsoft Cloth, an end-to-end, analytics SaaS platform that brings collectively all of a company’s enterprise information, together with ESG information that the corporate might not have had entry to earlier than. With Microsoft Cloth, your groups can connect with information from anyplace, uncover insights utilizing AI-powered analytics instruments in a unified expertise, and embed these insights within the purposes your individuals use daily to drive motion and enhance decision-making.
Now in preview, sustainability information options in Microsoft Cloth permits organizations to speed up their time to insights and sustainability progress by offering out-of-the-box ESG information mannequin, connectors and reporting. By connecting your ESG information with Microsoft Cloth you possibly can flip volumes of sustainability information into significant insights and progress.
Copilot and clever insights: AI help for higher, quicker selections
With centrally managed information and Copilot in Microsoft Sustainability Supervisor, now in preview, organizations can use highly effective generative AI and pure language queries to achieve quicker strains of sight into and solutions out of information. Organizations can ask Copilot questions, and Copilot will work throughout Microsoft Sustainability Supervisor to:
- Rapidly analyze environmental information and floor discount alternatives in areas like carbon and water use, saving work and time.
- Speak to sustainability information — ask questions and retrieve solutions shortly.
- Draft sustainability preparatory reviews, decreasing time and releasing up assets to give attention to different priorities.
With clever insights in Microsoft Sustainability Supervisor, additionally in preview, organizations get an built-in and interactive AI mannequin enabling deeper evaluation of calculated emissions information. Utilizing it, they will:
- See the place their information wants cleansing or the place extra full information is required.
- Scan the group’s information to establish each short- and long-term discount alternatives.
- High quality-tune selections based mostly on historic tendencies, seasonality and information anomalies.
Södra, Sweden’s largest forest-owner affiliation with 52,000 house owners of responsibly managed forests, processes sustainable uncooked supplies from members’ forests into renewable merchandise. Utilizing Microsoft Sustainability Supervisor with new AI capabilities, Södra has improved sustainability practices like reporting by automated flows that allow workers to extra simply gather detailed data.
“With the AI capabilities in Microsoft Sustainability Supervisor, we will be extra productive, which is our final aim,” shares Cristian Brolin, Chief Digital Officer at Södra. “We discovered the Copilot function very simple to make use of and my imaginative and prescient and ambition is that this may assist speed up the best way we work. We’re excited to see how this resolution helps speed up our sustainability progress.”
ESG worth chain resolution: Working with suppliers to drive reductions
For many organizations, provider actions can account for upward of 80-90% of their emissions footprint. Getting a deal with on this information is crucial to assembly discount targets and reporting necessities.
ESG worth chain resolution in Microsoft Sustainability Supervisor, now typically accessible, permits organizations to simplify information assortment and gives a seamless and safer course of for suppliers. Organizations can run superior analytics on ESG worth chain information in a single place and discover emissions discount alternatives inside their worth chain.
At Microsoft, our procurement staff has discovered that getting information out of siloed reviews, spreadsheets, and methods into one information property and sharing learnings with others is essential to advancing our personal progress in addition to others’ progress. By means of extra automated information gathering and administration, akin to by ESG worth chain resolution, we cannot solely extra simply share information but in addition reply extra nimbly to altering regulatory necessities.
Driving sustainable enterprise towards new progress alternatives
In accordance with analysis by the United Nations and Accenture, 98% of CEOs see sustainability as a core to their position, and two out of three are forming partnerships and taking motion on sustainability. Many are additionally translating these actions into new enterprise fashions and progress.
Allegiant Stadium, house to the Las Vegas Raiders, is utilizing Microsoft Sustainability Supervisor to assist a state-of-the artwork and vitality environment friendly facility that hosted the 2024 Tremendous Bowl. Allegiant obtained LEED Gold certification, is 100% powered by renewable vitality from native photo voltaic farms and is utilizing Microsoft options to assist arrange information to tell selections about useful resource utilization.
Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability is designed to be extensible by companions, together with specialists working on the intersections of sustainability and AI. For instance, Avanade’s copilot for ESG takes the friction out of regulatory compliance reporting, producing audit-ready reviews in opposition to new and current ESG frameworks.
We’re proud to have a rising, world ecosystem of sustainability resolution, advisory and implementation companions working carefully with us, to construct and deploy capabilities that may tackle the broad, multifaceted and sophisticated challenges in sustainability.
On the intersection of sustainability and AI, the chances are huge for any group to refocus enterprise round reworking operations, reinventing manufacturers and exploring new enterprise alternatives. Microsoft AI delivers on this potential and the wants of our prospects with a accountable method to AI that’s based mostly on strong analysis, verification and validation.
Utilizing the facility of information and AI, sustainability progress isn’t simply attainable however tangible. Organizations can achieve effectivity and accuracy in decision-making and reporting in addition to new methods of doing and rising enterprise — on an thrilling, shared path to a transformative future.