Thanks to inspirational activists such as Greta Thunberg and a growing global movement, sustainability and countering the climate crisis is rightly at the top of peoples’ agendas, says Faith la Grange, Director for Local & Regional Government, Microsoft
Local and regional authorities are responding to the concerns of their staff and citizens and increasingly acknowledging their responsibilities when it comes to sustainability and carbon neutrality. And they are beginning to look for innovative solutions to improve both sustainability and the quality of life of their citizens.
Many have declared a climate emergency and announced initiatives. But there needs to be a recognition that there is no single solution: rather, there are multiple elements to sustainability and it is a factor that must be taken into account in a wide range of public services and responsibilities.
It also requires embedding sustainability into broader digital strategies. Indeed, the two should go hand-in-hand, with factors for each feeding into the major decisions on the other. It will take a combination of innovation and a commitment to using evidence from the data – with the political will to push through radical changes in the organisation’s operations and policies. This gives local and regional authorities the chance to build sustainable futures for both their operations and their communities.
Microsoft is heavily committed to sustainability, both in the way it runs its own business and in its engagement with partners and customers.
Since 2012 our operations have been carbon neutral, due largely to an internal carbon tax that funds reductions, clean energy and offset projects, and we are now on track to reduce our emissions by 75% by 2030. This has involved cutting energy use by more than 20% at our facilities, heavy buying of green energy, using cloud and AI technology to reduce emissions, and working with suppliers to encourage them to report and reduce their own emissions. Our use of data has made a significant contribution to this, tracking and reporting emissions and energy across 1,200 facilities in 110 countries.
But we also place a premium on supporting the sustainability of our customers, with those in local and regional government figuring prominently. Our cloud services are up to 93% more energy efficient and 98% more carbon efficient than traditional enterprise data centres – all due to investments in IT efficiency and renewable energy.
Beyond this is a growing range of innovative solutions emerging from our partners, many of them built on the Azure cloud - capabilities of which are increasing daily with the expansion of the IoT and advances in machine learning and AI.
This report explores how green local and regional government’s technology is today and how partners and authorities are harnessing technology to deliver not just efficiency, but sustainability. I hope that you find inspiration and ideas in these pages to help your organisation on its own journey - playing its part to solve this climate crisis facing us all.
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To discuss how Microsoft can help you exploit digital technologies to further your organisation's green agenda contact Ellen Wilson, Industry Solutions Executive for Local and Regional Government, Microsoft UK: elwilson@microsoft.com
