Microsoft as sustainability buyer zero: Managing Scope 3 emissions

At present’s organizations are at a crossroads. Confronted with rising stress to fulfill sustainability expectations from clients and stakeholders together with rising reporting necessities, enterprise leaders are more and more recognizing the necessity to rework versus merely carrying on with “enterprise as regular.”

At Microsoft, we see this shift as a constructive improvement for our planet’s future.

For our personal half, we’ve taken a scientific method to embedding environmental, social, and governance (ESG) concerns into our enterprise for years, and we’re now working to allow different organizations to do the identical. Not solely will we use our personal information options to assist us measure progress towards our environmental sustainability targets, however we’re participating with our price chain suppliers to assist additional cut back our emissions.

The truth is that our firm can’t attain our bold carbon destructive targets with out the assistance of our price chain companions and suppliers. We estimate that 75% or extra of our complete carbon footprint comes from Scope 3 emissions, outlined as emissions that aren’t produced by the corporate itself, that not directly accrue up and down the worth chain from different organizations as they do enterprise with us. A large quantity of our complete carbon footprint comes from Scope 3 emissions, which is why our Scope 3 dedication is our strongest alternative to assist speed up international decarbonization efforts by participating suppliers and clients in our price chain and partnering to scale back emissions related to the enterprise we do collectively.  

On this second a part of our Buyer Zero weblog sequence, we share a few of the challenges and successes we’ve confronted on this effort—from how we’ve used know-how to advance our Scope 3 progress to how we’ve engaged with our suppliers to drive their very own accountability and progress.

Microsoft Sustainability Supervisor

Flip environmental information insights into motion

Microsoft Oblique Procurement spearheads new ESG worth chain answer

The Microsoft Procurement group manages 1000’s of oblique (services-based) suppliers globally. After saying our carbon destructive ambition in 2020, we examined our Scope 3 emissions and added language to our Provider Code of Conduct requiring an annual carbon emissions disclosure. Since then, we’ve partnered with our suppliers to coach them on carbon accounting, improve the standard of information, and drive emission discount progress for providers delivered to Microsoft.

Figuring out the place our largest Scope 3 discount alternatives exist—and how you can take motion—requires entry to granular emissions information. When contemplating how you can accumulate extra detailed information from suppliers, it rapidly grew to become clear that present merchandise have been unable to fulfill our wants. The most important difficulty was that our earlier platform didn’t enable us to customise the questions we requested suppliers.

As an alternative of attempting to make a third-party answer match our wants, Microsoft Procurement partnered with engineering groups inside Microsoft to develop “built-for-purpose” options. High of thoughts for Microsoft Procurement was a easy instrument that was extra collaborative, featured versatile reporting, and would higher help suppliers.

This collaborative crew labored collectively so as to add new capabilities inside Microsoft Sustainability Supervisor, together with:

• A streamlined emissions survey course of by which questions will be custom-made for suppliers, giving the procurement crew the pliability so as to add, take away, or alter questions as rules and methodologies evolve.
• Self-service options already constructed into Sustainability Supervisor that allow suppliers to simply edit their emissions information in real-time, view their buyer particular compliance standing (together with causes for non-compliance), and resolve non-compliance points to enhance the standard of emissions information. 
• Low-code improvement and residential web page customization, which implies that Microsoft Procurement can simply create a provider touchdown web page particular to its program, together with a central web page for provider sources, help, and an outline of provider sustainability necessities.
• A connection to Energy BI, the place sustainability choices and program progress are measured by turning our provider emissions information into visible insights and analytics, refreshed in actual time as provider emissions information is up to date, past the out-of-the-box experiences that Sustainability Supervisor helps.

These progressive applied sciences are actually obtainable to our clients within the new ESG worth chain answer in Sustainability Supervisor, now in preview. Suppliers that participated in the Microsoft Procurement sustainability program have been early testers of the ESG worth chain answer, the place their suggestions helped affect this early model.

PureRed, a Microsoft provider, supplied early testing of the aptitude earlier than being launched throughout Microsoft’s provider inhabitants.

“We have been thrilled to take part within the Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability pilot program, permitting us to interact in efficient methods to trace and cut back environmental affect. This platform is lighter to handle, with concise questions and fewer modules than different business references, making the disclosure course of extra intuitive. As a worldwide distant firm, we challenged ourselves to completely perceive our GhG [greenhouse gases] emissions and Microsoft was a implausible companion to streamline and validate our outcomes.”

—Natalia Sánchez Herrera, managing sustainability at PureRed

Outcomes and classes realized

Microsoft’s journey in direction of reaching our bold Scope 3 carbon emissions discount objectives has been a studying expertise and can solely proceed to evolve as rules are up to date and methodologies change.

On this course of, we’re as soon as once more reminded of the significance of managing information. Microsoft is aligning with the Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability information mannequin. Utilizing information collected and reworked inside Sustainability Supervisor, Microsoft has prolonged our personal answer to additional analyze provider sustainability info. Because of this, Microsoft Procurement can accumulate and analyze provider emission info to glean beneficial insights associated to outliers, traits, and correlations. As well as, reporting and aim alignment enhancements being made in Sustainability Supervisor will assist procurement groups accumulate all 15 carbon scopes for emissions, water, and waste information.

No matter success we’ve achieved is because of embedding sustainability into our tradition. The Procurement crew had early entry to progressive options and the flexibility to affect product improvement. All that is enabled by a company tradition that fashions management and empowers folks to make the modifications they want. Our sustainability journey is an ongoing course of, and we’re excited to be creating progressive know-how options for our suppliers and clients that may proceed to evolve.

Study extra about sustainability options with Microsoft