On the Microsoft Green Blog, Robert Bernard, chief environmental strategist at Microsoft, takes a look at where the company’s partners and customers are investing in sustainability in 2014 and put together five top themes “that are likely to dramatically transform the role of ICT [information and communications technology] in sustainability.”
As robust as 2013 was for sustainability at Microsoft (from signing its very first power purchase agreement for renewable energy, to developing novel software tools for ecosystem modeling, to improvements in how the company manages and reports its carbon emissions, to expanding the types of offset projects the company invests in), Bernard says, “We are still just scratching the surface.”
On the blog, Bernard targets five areas where he expects to see progress in the coming year. First, he sees the “beginning of the transition from early adoption to mainstream use of ICT-based solutions.” Next, he predicts that “demand for green energy will only continue to grow” as “operating teams within large companies see green energy as an opportunity for controlling costs.”
Also, he forecasts that a number of major real estate management and ownership companies and cities will “begin deploying smart building management systems at a much more rapid pace.” He also expects better ways to measure and see the value in natural capital, such as the “ecosystem modeling being developed by Microsoft Research and others.” Finally, he foresees “the start of a transformation in agricultural and food production processes.”
To get all the details on Bernard’s predictions, check out his post on the Microsoft Green Blog.
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Athima Chansanchai
Microsoft News Center Staff