Microsoft is rolling out details of its third sustainability focus area: waste reduction. It is setting a goal of reaching zero waste by 2030 for its direct waste production. The initiative includes efforts on multiple fronts:
- Building “circular centers” for data centers that provide Azure and Microsoft 365 cloud services. The circular centers will facilitate sorting, reuse and recycling of electronic equipment, keeping it onsite at server farms.
- A $30 million investment with Closed Loop Partners, a firm that funds research and companies working on waste reduction through greener design, manufacturing and recycling of goods.
- Eliminating single use plastics in Microsoft packaging within 5 years; making Surface devices recyclable by 2030.
- Continuing efforts to digitize information on the materials that go into products to track their life cycle and aid with reuse and recycling.
“We hope that what were doing here inspires the broader sector in the same way that our carbon negative impact has,” said Lucas Joppa, Microsoft chief environmental officer, in an interview. “The world needs to achieve a net zero carbon economy by 2050. To do that everybody’s got to do their part. Microsoft and our peers are capable of doing much more.”
For the circular centers initiative, Microsoft built a pilot project in Amsterdam to test the idea and is now constructing a facility in Boydton, Va. Servers in data centers have a 5-year average lifespan, Joppa said, and due to security issues, it can be challenging to repurpose equipment outside of a facility. With the circular design, engineers get around that issue by reusing the materials onsite or within other company facilities. “Those data centers house an incredible amount of electronics, and what we are putting in place, moving forward, is a first-of-its-kind approach in the industry, to site these new circular centers,” Joppa said.