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Microsoft Corp has adopted CarbonSystems’ cloud base software as its new global standard for managing its energy, efficiency and environmental-performance reporting, underpinning its commitment to the environment and a sustainable low-carbon economy.

CarbonSystems, a global provider of environmental and energy management solutions, was selected based on its ability to use cloud computing to simplify and streamline Microsoft’s global greenhouse gas management and reporting to stakeholders. 

CarbonSystems’ software will be implemented across Microsoft’s global operations, which comprise over 600 facilities across 110 countries.

Analyst firm Verdantix says Microsoft’s adoption of a single software platform to manage its sustainability performance underscores a global trend to standardize the capture and management of disparate nonfinancial data such as energy, emissions, and other environmental metrics.

"Microsoft’s adoption of a single software platform to manage its sustainability performance underscores a global trend."

Verdantix CEO David Metcalfe said: “Many organizations struggle to capture and integrate sustainability data sourced from different localities as they strive for a single version of the truth. By adopting the CarbonSystems’ solution Microsoft will have one platform for managing and reporting non-financial sustainability.”

CarbonSystems' software is a cloud-based data management engine that allows global electronic data interchange (EDI) with internal systems and third party suppliers. Its deployment will deliver important benefits to Microsoft, including:

• Automating energy and sustainability data collection to support CDP reporting
• Cutting the time and cost of managing corporate environmental information by automating the capture and tracking of energy, water and other environmental data from utilities and third party suppliers.
• Providing up to date, auditable business and compliance reports via dashboards summarizing energy, emissions and other environmental data.
• Informing efficiency and cost-saving decisions by providing a wide range of environmental performance analytics such as benchmarking, forecasting and marginal abatement cost analysis tools. 
• Verifying the impacts, return on investment and payback from efficiency initiatives. 

Adopting CarbonSystems' colution complements Microsoft’s goal of leveraging technology to reduce its energy use, emissions, and waste by harnessing data to make more informed decisions about the company’s resource use. CarbonSystems’ chief executive David Solsky said:

“Our business offering will mature as we collaborate with Microsoft to advance the value that data and cloud computing provides our customers. The scale and reach of their diverse, global infrastructure – from corporate real estate to data centers – will drive ongoing enhancements in our software platform.”

“More broadly, I think there are opportunities to jointly foster greater efficiency in the business sector by bringing data-centric applications like ours to address issues such as enterprise resource accounting, energy optimization, and smart building technology.”

“We view CarbonSystems as a key part of our effort to achieve Microsoft’s business and environmental sustainability goals." ~ Rob Bernard, Microsoft.

“Microsoft is committed to measuring, transparently reporting, and minimizing the carbon footprint of our operations,” said Rob Bernard, chief environmental strategist at Microsoft.

“We view CarbonSystems as a key part of our effort to achieve Microsoft’s business and environmental sustainability goals. CarbonSystems' ESP will enable us to efficiently collect, analyze and share environmental data, delivering new levels of understanding about the resources we use.”

Deployment of CarbonSystems’ solution will allow Microsoft to track key environmental indicators and performance across its portfolio of real estate and data center assets. This will enable the company to accurately assess the impact, payback period and return on investment of its efficiency initiatives in the built environment.

See David Solsky speak about the deal's market significance.