This needs to change. That’s why we’re announcing an
ambitious commitment for Microsoft to be water positive for our direct
operations by 2030. We’re tackling our water consumption in two ways: reducing our
water use intensity – or the water we use per megawatt of energy used for our
operations – and replenishing water in the water- stressed
regions we operate. This means that by 2030 Microsoft will replenish more water
than it consumes on a global basis.
As with our other environmental commitments, we hope these
steps will help contribute to a growing movement to address the world’s
sustainability needs.
More momentum is clearly needed. Today, according to United
Nations Water, more than two billion people lack access to safe drinking
water. And climate change is only intensifying this water shortage. The U.N.
estimates that one in four people may live in a country affected by chronic
shortages of freshwater by 2050. According to the World Bank, this
climate-induced reduction in freshwater availability, coupled with increased
demand, could reduce water availability in cities by more than 66% by 2050.
Getting ahead of the world’s water crisis will require a
reduction in the amount of water humans use to operate economies and societies,
as well as a concerted effort to ensure there is sufficient water in the places
it is needed most. This will require a transformation in the way we manage our
water systems and a concerted effort for all organizations to account for and
balance their water use. As a global technology company Microsoft is prepared
to act on both accounts, taking responsibility for our own water use and
partnering on technology platforms to help others do the same.
Over the past year we have committed Microsoft to becoming a
carbon negative, zero waste company that is building a new planetary computing
platform to transform the way we monitor, model, and ultimately manage Earth’s
natural systems. Our pledge today to become water positive by 2030 adds a
fourth pillar to this work. And as in our other areas, we’re committed not only
to setting ambitious goals for ourselves but using technology to better help
our customers to do the same.
Water positive by 2030
By 2030 we will be water positive, meaning we will replenish
more water than we use. We’ll do this by putting back more water in stressed
basins than our global water consumption across all basins. The amount returned
will be determined by how much water we use and how stressed the basin is.
Our replenishment strategy will include investments in projects
such as wetland restoration and the removal of impervious surfaces like
asphalt, which will help replenish water back into the basins that need it
most. We will focus our replenishment efforts on roughly 40 highly stressed
basins where we have operations. This reflects a science-based assessment of
the world’s water basins. The majority of the world’s freshwater is divided
into 16,396 basins, each of which has been assigned a “baseline water stress”
score by the World Resources Institute (WRI), a leading nonprofit global
research organization that focuses on natural resources. A basin is considered
“highly stressed” if the amount of water withdrawn exceeds 40% of the renewable
supply. Globally there are 4,717 basins that fall into this category.
All of this work will build on our ongoing investments, and
advances water reduction and replenishment across our operations. This includes
a sustainability design standard across Microsoft that requires water
conservation at all locations globally. These include:
·
Our
new Silicon Valley campus, opening later this year in California, features an
on-site rainwater collection system and waste treatment plant to ensure 100% of
the site’s non-potable water comes from onsite recycled sources. An integrated
water management system will manage and reuse rainwater and wastewater. By
recycling our water, the campus will save an estimated 4.3 million gallons of
potable water each year.
·
Nearly
halfway around the world, our new Herzliya, Israel campus features
water-efficient plumbing fixtures that drive up water conservation by 35%. In
addition, 100% of water collected from air conditioners will be used to water
plants on-site.
·
In
India, our newest building on our Hyderabad campus will support 100% treatment
and reuse of wastewater on-site for landscaping, flushing, and cooling tower
makeup.
·
At
our headquarters redevelopment in Puget Sound, all new office buildings will
reuse harvested rainwater in flush fixtures and low-flow systems, which is projected
to save more than 5.8 million gallons annually.
·
At
our new datacenter region in Arizona, available for use in 2021, we are
innovating ways to reduce our water use intensity and replenish water in this
highly stressed region. We will use zero water for cooling for more than half
the year, leveraging a method called adiabatic cooling, which uses outside air
instead of water for cooling when temperatures are below 85 degrees Fahrenheit.
When temperatures are above 85 degrees, an evaporative cooling system is used,
acting like a “swamp cooler” that you find in residential homes. This system is
highly efficient, using less electricity and up to 90% less water than other
water-based cooling systems, such as cooling towers. We are also partnering
with First Solar to provide solar energy rather than traditional
electricity generation, which is expected to save more than 350 million liters
of water annually.
Our reduction in water use intensity and our replenishment
commitments address the key issue of water availability, which is
the amount of water that can be used to meet demand. That, however, is only
part of the challenge. Equally important is the issue of accessibility,
which is the supply of safe drinking water and sanitation. That is why we are
partnering with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to ensure more than 1.5
million people have access to clean drinking and sanitation water. We’ll focus
this work in seven countries. We’ll start by partnering with Water.org, a
leading global nonprofit focused on underserved communities, to help people in
Brazil, India, Indonesia and Mexico. We’ll then expand this work with partners
in China, Malaysia and South Africa.
Digitizing water data
We will also use our technology to better understand where
water stress is emerging and optimize water replenishment investments across a
region. Through our AI for Earth program we are supporting projects in each of
these areas:
·
Vector
Center works with governments and companies around the world to better
understand the impact of water availability and accessibility. One of the
challenges it addresses is water risk and scarcity in urban communities where
data is still often analog, printed and stored in stacks. It is digitizing data
and has developed a platform called the Perception Reality Engine on Azure to
collect, correlate and analyze data and produce an overall picture of what’s
actually happening in real time, to better see how to forestall the threat of
when water may not be available. It also can provide a historic view of water
in a particular area. The Perception Reality Engine uses data on rainfall,
surface water amounts, plant growth and more to map water availability around
the world and flag where crises are occurring or may soon occur. It also
overlays this information with news sources and social media to determine where
the public perception is different than reality so governance, education and behavior
changes can be made before water runs out in a region.
·
The
Freshwater Trust, a nonprofit that protects and restores freshwater ecosystems,
and Upstream Tech, a company that develops technological solutions for
water conservation, worked together to develop a tool called the BasinScout
Platform. It uses satellite data, data about crop growth and farming practices,
and applies machine learning to assess field-level agricultural practices and
their impact on water resources at scale, including scenarios about how to be
more water- and cost-efficient. This helps conserve and protect the water
basins that are main sources of the public’s water supply.
·
Leadership
Counsel for Justice and Accountability is a California nonprofit focused
on land use and transportation in underserved communities. It is working to
address the challenge of drinking water availability in California’s Central
Valley. About 1.5 million people in the region rely on private domestic wells
for drinking water, and many of these wells often fail during drought or due to
groundwater management issues. The Leadership Counsel is using AI to predict
domestic well failure resulting from groundwater changes and resulting drinking
water shortages. They’re providing that information to local agencies that can
use this information to prevent well failure and improve water resource
management and planning.
Climate Innovation Fund investment: Emerald Technology
Ventures
Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund is investing $10 million
in the Emerald Technology Ventures’ $100 million Global Impact Fund, whose
investors also include Temasek, Ecolab and SKion. The fund will partner with
early- to expansion-stage companies from around the world, driving innovation
and its adoption in water technologies. It will focus on pressing challenges,
including conserving water resources, improving water efficiency and quality,
avoiding carbon emissions in water treatment, and adapting to climate change.
This fund is one of the few funds solely focused on water strategy.
This is the third investment the Climate Innovation Fund has
made in one of company’s four sustainability focus areas. The first was focused
on carbon and the second on waste.
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