Microsoft cares about more than the quality of its virtual Windows. The company on Tuesday announced it would become carbon netural — or offsetting as many carbon emissions as it creates, leaving zero carbon footprint — beginning July 1, when it kicks off its fiscal year 2013.
As Microsoft chief operating officer Kevin Turner wrote in a blog post: “We recognize that we are not the first company to commit to carbon neutrality, but we are hopeful that our decision will encourage other companies large and small to look at what they can do to address this important issue.”
In fact, Microsoft may be one of the largest tech companies yet to claim carbon neutrality. Apple and Facebook haven’t made such claims, although Google and Dell previously have, only to have those claims contested by analysis firms, who point out that the companies may not take into account their entire supply chain’s emissions.
Microsoft’s Turner explained in his post that the company achieved the eco-friendly milestone by using its own software to make its offices more energy efficient, also working with the company CarbonSystems to monitor environmental data and purchasing green energy to the tune of 1.5 billion killowatt hours annually, enough to make it the third largest purchaser of green energy in the U.S.
