Microsoft’s net zero

What I expected at Microsoft’s sustainability event yesterday was a strengthening of the company’s commitment to being carbon neutral, probably through an improvement to the offsets and other tools it’s been using for a while. I was also hoping to see some kind of tool to allow customers to track their carbon emissions from the Azure services they use. You know, good stuff, but keeping in line with what’s come before.

What was announced yesterday is far and away beyond that. It addresses the scope of emissions by the company’s value chain, including the life-cycles of its products – including the electricity that customers consume using those products. And it aims to address them with something way beyond the offsets the company has been using.

The magic in what was announced yesterday comes down to two very important, yet simple-sounding words: Net zero.

Net zero means going beyond relying on the promises of offsets and moving to actively remove the carbon from the atmosphere. And, for a company the size of Microsoft, it at means using technology that isn’t yet commercially viable. Yes, the technology exists. It’s still too expensive, however, to deploy at scale. That needs to change.

That can change. And it will require large companies and governments to do something on the scale of what Microsoft is doing. I hope every company joins Microsoft on this commitment. And, even if I don’t work at Microsoft in 10 years, I hope to be celebrating its accomplishment in meeting its goals. And I hope to celebrate my 80th birthday by seeing Microsoft follow through on its commitment to remove all the carbon it has ever put into the atmosphere. And I hope that work makes it feasible for me to remove all the carbon that I’m responsible for emitting in my life by my 80th birthday.

Imagine that.

Back to the present, the question that’s on my mind right now is what individual action can I take, especially as an individual that works at a company that just made this audacious announcement.

The answer in Brad Smith’s blog post about the announcement where he makes a call for employees to participate in this initiative:

Finally, we’ll capitalize on the energy and intellect of our employees by inviting and encouraging them to participate in our carbon reduction and removal efforts. As we’ve found with Microsoft’s accessibility efforts, we believe that sustainability is a cause that is not only important to our employees, but an area where they can generate important insights and innovations across the company.

I work at Microsoft for Startups, which means it’s my job to help startups. Over the last few months, I’ve been thinking about and talking with my management and teammates about how to focus on helping startups that are helping fight the climate crisis. That discussion will continue over the weeks to come.

Thanks to Brad’s call, it’ll be getting even more emphasis.