Microsoft has announced new cloud tools that will make gathering and reporting on ESG data easier. This comes as businesses prepare for a new swathe of ESG regulations from the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
Microsoft Launches Project ESG Lake
The company will be expanding their Microsoft Sustainability Manager, in order for customers to see their environmental impact with respect to carbon, water and waste. They say the new tools will allow businesses to predict risk, measure, manage and track their impact, across every department and even down their supply chain.
It’s important that every business makes sustainability a priority and perhaps with help from Microsoft, it can be made a simpler process. By using cloud storage in a purposeful way, businesses may also be able to reduce their carbon emissions.
Microsoft’s Project ESG Lake, will help businesses get a proper detailed understanding of their overall effect on the environment, whether that be positive or negative, in regard to their consumption or production.
The tool includes 400 tables that gather information about “carbon, water, waste, social, governance, biodiversity, and general business areas”. Ultimately Microsoft aims to simplify the complexity of calculating your ESG score.
Conclusion
Since the idea of an ESG score was first popularised, business leaders have been struggling with managing and calculating all the data relating to their carbon footprint or general environmental, social and governance impact.
Countless businesses and solutions have sprung up over the years claiming to have the answer. So far, no dice. Let’s hope that Microsoft’s attempt will make some headway because we need to be way past the stage of calculating and well and truly into making action. Do you think Project ESG Lake has what it takes?
