Most major companies are promising to become “net-zero” in terms of carbon (GHG Greenhouse gas) emissions across business operations. Timelines for those goals vary from org to org, whether through using tech innovation, reducing waste, getting green credits, of a combination of all those options. Microsoft has gone further than its rivals by setting up a major operation that is solely focused on achieving its environment/carbon commitments. Not only is the company aiming for net-zero across operations, it also plans to atone for all emissions it has ever released since Microsoft was founded.
Scores
This and other factors mean As You Sow gave Microsoft an A grade in its scoring, one of only two companies to achieve the top score (the other being food heavyweight PepsiCo). Alphabet, the company behind Google, managed a B grade, while Apple took a B-. Facebook parent Meta Platforms did not fair so well, getting a low D grade. Tesla, the EV champion with lofty pledges but not sufficient see through on those goals, was bottom of the pack with an F. I think that means a big fail on Tesla’s part, especially considering it even fell below oil corporations like Exxon. While the report is not entirely conclusive and does not suggest companies will miss their commitments or not, it does shine a spotlight on the issue of climate change. More specifically, it shames companies who are perhaps not doing enough, even though they claim they are. It seems Microsoft is one of the few major organizations that takes its green pledges seriously. Tip of the day: Did you know that your data and privacy might be at risk if you run Windows without encryption? A bootable USB with a live-linux distribution is often just enough to gain access to all of your files. If you want to change that, check out our detailed BitLocker guide where we show you how to turn on encryption for your system disk or any other drive you might be using in your computer.
