Microsoft CSO, Melanie Nakagawa: “Sustainability is a team sport”

Over the last 20-years, my sustainability career has intersected three industries at the centre of climate action: policy, finance, and technology. Much like a team, these sectors work together, each with their unique strengths to drive climate progress at scale. But before I entered the field professionally, I began learning about sustainability and environmental protection in college and those lessons have remained at the heart of my work – humans can both harm and help our natural world, and I believe we have a responsibility to help. There are tangible actions each of us can take, but together our impact can be so much greater.

It is this belief that collaboration and teamwork can unlock progress that brought me to Microsoft in December 2022, where I currently serve as Chief Sustainability Officer. The opportunity to use technology to accelerate sustainability, both through Microsoft’s own ambitious commitments and by helping thousands of customers and partners do the same, was a unique and compelling prospect. I’m thrilled to be in a role where I can continue to apply my skills and experience to a cause I’m deeply passionate about – our environment. From my background in government at the highest levels, to working in the private sector as a tech investor, to building partnerships with nonprofit advocacy groups, each step of my journey has been a privilege, and this role allows me to work alongside world-class teams at Microsoft to drive forward initiatives that tackle climate change.

At Microsoft, we’re working around the clock on a wide range of cutting-edge sustainability projects. One area where we’ve made significant progress since I joined is our commitment to becoming water positive by 2030. At Microsoft, becoming water positive means reducing water use intensity across our global operations, replenishing more water than we consume, and increasing access to water and sanitation. Additionally, we’re driving innovation to scale water solutions and advocating for effective water policies.

Melanie Nakagawa, Chief Sustainability Officer, Microsoft.

Water is vital not just to our organization, but to life itself, and we recognize the role we can play in addressing water stress where we operate. A major part of our focus has been our data centres. As Microsoft’s data centre footprint grows, we’re committed to reducing water use intensity and replenishing more than we consume. For example, our new data centre designs are optimized to support AI workloads while consuming zero water for cooling, achieved by transitioning to chip-level cooling that precisely targets where cooling is needed without requiring evaporation.

Our replenishment efforts are making a global impact. Since launching our water replenishment programme, we’ve invested in projects estimated to provide over 61 million cubic metres of water benefits – enough to fill 24,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Through this programme, we’re supporting projects like protecting native grasslands and forests to prevent erosion and runoff, improving irrigation management, and detecting and repairing leaks in major cities. I’m also proud that we’ve helped provide more than 1.5 million people with access to clean water and sanitation in countries such as Brazil, Chile, India, Indonesia, and Mexico, surpassing our original target.

Water is just one aspect of our sustainability journey. We’ve also committed to becoming carbon negative by 2030, addressing our energy consumption, accelerating the clean energy transition, and driving the development of lower-carbon materials. We have increased our contracted portfolio of renewable energy assets to over 34 gigawatts (GW), including projects in 24 countries, making us one of the largest corporate buyers of renewable energy globally. This includes a groundbreaking agreement with Brookfield to develop over 10.5 GW of new renewable energy capacity by 2030.

But we’re not stopping there. We’ve committed to removing all the direct historical emissions of the company by 2050, and we’re investing in science-based carbon removal projects, from reforestation efforts in Brazil with Mombak, to Climeworks’ Direct Air Capture facility in Iceland, which sequesters carbon in rocks.

We’re also working on innovative material solutions, like the use of net negative embodied carbon limestone as an alternative to traditional concrete, which has achieved a 65% reduction in embodied carbon compared to conventional concrete. Additionally, we’ve invested in Stegra, a company developing steel with 95% lower carbon emissions than traditionally produced steel.

As optimistic as I am about the future, I’m also a realist. The world is not currently on track to meet critical climate goals, and many of the global challenges we face are reflected in our own sustainability journey.

For me, sustainability is truly a “team sport.” At Microsoft, our work to become carbon negative by 2030 is a collaborative effort, with teams across the company playing a role. Leaders across Microsoft have stepped up to sponsor and drive this work, and we’re actively collaborating with our customers, partners, and other key stakeholders to amplify our efforts.

This journey towards our 2030 vision requires all of us, and I invite everyone – inside and outside of Microsoft – to join us in this vital mission.