On October 21st, Microsoft released its annual Citizenship Report. This report details our assessment of Microsoft’s global citizenship work over the past fiscal year. This year’s report contains a look at , among other things, our environmental commitments, including our commitment to carbon neutrality and our work to measure, report, and reduce the environmental impact of our operations and the services and devices we offer.
As part of the report, we note that in the past year we’ve:
- Purchased more than 3.2 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of renewable energy (equal to 100 percent of our global electricity use);
- Became the second largest user of green power in the U.S., according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency;
- Offset more than 600,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions through our portfolio of innovative carbon offset projects; and
- Partnered with governments, policymakers, and NGOs around the world to address key environmental issues that affect our business, employees, and the communities we serve.
The report includes in-depth information on trends in Microsoft’s energy use and carbon footprint. We recognize that climate change is a serious problem that poses risks to society, the environment and our business and we have a responsibility to do as much as possible to control our impact on the environment. Microsoft’s environmental commitment remains strong, and in the next fiscal year the company will continue working to evolve its environmental practices to drive even greater impact.
We encourage you to read more about this year’s Citizenship Report in this post on the Official Microsoft Blog.