Microsoft and Wood are delivering sustainable solutions for their clients

Sustainability is about survival. We want our businesses and communities—our species and planet—to carry on without running out of essential resources. Sustainability drives such important outcomes for business and society that it has become a compelling organizational priority.

Microsoft has ambitious plans around sustainability. We want to create a future where every person, and every organization, no matter where they are in the world, to do and achieve more. That’s why we’ve committed that Microsoft will be carbon negative by 2030 and will remove the company’s historical carbon emissions by 2050.

We can’t achieve our sustainability goals alone. Microsoft will be collaborating across industries, governments, and the public and private sector and working with innovative partners to put our plans into action.

 

Collaborating with Wood, a global leader in sustainability

Wood delivers consulting, projects, and operations solutions in energy and the built environment. Their team of 45,000 operates in more than 60 countries, with revenues around $10 billion, and they run key elements of their business with Microsoft technology.

“While Wood started as a Microsoft customer, it quickly became clear to Satya and our senior leadership team that partnering together would have the most impact for our customers, our partners, and our customers’ customers,” says Jacky Wright, Chief Digital Officer at Microsoft.

Wood is helping clients navigate toward a sustainable energy future through optimized operations, low-carbon production systems, and pioneering renewable projects.

“We are working with our clients on reducing carbon emissions on their projects and assets,” says Darren Martin, Group Chief Technology Officer at Wood. “Solutions range from modifying offshore installations to connect to floating wind farms, developing a master plan for carbon capture and storage (CCS) from industrial clusters, assessing the feasibility of hydrogen-powered ferries, and providing software to monitor asset emissions.”

 

Exciting solutions to increase productivity for energy and heavy industry

Microsoft is actively collaborating with Wood to help customers position themselves well for this energy transition. “Together, with Wood’s energy expertise and Microsoft’s technology, we will continuously expand our portfolio of technology-enabled, Azure-based suite of Microsoft and partner tools to monitor, track, and advise clients on their asset performance, empowering our clients around the world to be future ready,” says Darren Martin.

Every organization has a decisive role and responsibility to play in achieving sustainability for their business and the communities they operate in. There is an urgent need to develop and implement a sustainability strategy with industrial decarbonization and emissions monitoring as central elements. But no single company can do this on their own—who they partner with is key.

The pace of innovation and technological solutions have a major part to play in decarbonization, from the technologies to generate and deliver new energy sources to the digital innovations that will transform how we use them, to optimize operational performance, target energy production, and minimize waste. Together, Microsoft and Wood are at the forefront of that work.

The first cotreated solution, ENVision, focuses directly on the Internet of Things (IoT) and sensor-driven real-time carbons/emissions monitoring by standardizing diverse types of data to provide a clear, auditable, and accurate view of an asset, organization, or city.

Now is the time for companies to create sustainability strategies

Wright emphasizes that, “Sustainability has become a major priority for large and small organizations in retail, manufacturing, healthcare, transportation, and more. Around 49 percent of the world’s GDP is now under net zero goals. Corporations want and need to show progress, not only because of investor pressure, but also social pressure.”

Right now, national emissions targets, carbon pricing, operational efficiency, corporate reputation, and investment trends are driving the development of sustainability strategies.

“Simply put, sustainability is a business approach to creating long-term value by considering how a given organization operates in the ecological, social, and economic environment. Developing such strategies fosters company longevity,” says Darren Martin. “The quest for sustainability is already starting to transform the competitive landscape, which will force companies to change the way they think about products, technologies, processes, and business models. The key to progress, particularly in times of economic crisis, is innovation.”

See more of the collaboration between Wood and Microsoft.

Learn more about ENVision on Azure Marketplace.

Explore the Microsoft commitment to sustainability.

See how Wood is helping customers meet the goals of energy transition.

For more information, or to explore how to engage with Microsoft on sustainability, email us at USSustainability@microsoft.com.