The growth at the Breakneck Center challenges sustainability goals from Microsoft Microsoft

The new sustainability report from Microsoft, which was released late last week, explains how carbon heavy economy can weigh to the company that wants to be carbon light.

Since 2020, carbon emissions have increased by 23.4 %, most of which are the result of a fracture Data Center Building To support the growing cloud operations and AI. Buying enough clean electricity is actually the easy part-it is the same facilities loaded with intensive carbon materials and products, including steel, concrete and computer slices.

“We reflect the challenges that the world must overcome to develop and use green concrete, steel, fuel and potatoes,” a Microsoft spokesman told Techcrunch via email. “This is the largest driver for our challenges 3.”

Domain 3 emissions are those outside the direct control of the company, including raw materials, transportation, commodities and purchased services. Romant -3 emissions represent all the carbon fingerprint of Microsoft approximately, slightly more than 97 % for the fiscal year 2024, which is covered by the sustainability report 2025.

Capital commodities dominate 3 Microsoft, to the goods and services that have been purchased, as the two contribute in about three quarters of the total carbon emissions in the company.

The construction of the data centers was the main engine behind the stubborn microsoft emissions 3. The steel used in the buildings from the supply chain that depends on the son -in -law that is heated by fossil fuels comes, and the concrete used in the first place is the product of its supported chemical interaction and the carbon dioxide product. Some startups work to remove carbon alike steel and cementAnd microsoft Investor In space, but it will be years before these bets have a great impact.

Carbon emissions in computer chips are also embodied in the data center. Stone printing of semi -conductors depends on chemicals that have highly warming capabilities. For example, hexafluoroethane, which is used to dig on chips, is a strong greenhouse gas, with 1 ton generates a lot of warming 9200 tons From carbon dioxide.

Even in green electricity, which is easy to find, obstacles appeared as data centers have not always been built near the abundant clean energy sources. For this reason, Microsoft has faced difficulty finding sources close to carbon zero electricity, forcing her to rely on elsewhere. “Our consumption of electricity grew faster than the networks in which we work,” the spokesman said.

In general, Microsoft emissions for 2024 decreased slightly compared to 2023, indicating that the company is improving in building low climate effects. However, he has a long way to fulfill the year 2030 represented in removing more carbon pollution. Through its own expectations, Microsoft will have to reduce its emissions by more than half, while increasing the carbon removal efforts significantly.

There are signs that Microsoft makes some progress on both fronts. She was one of the pioneers Investors in and Buyer Solar energy is now in recent months, and carbon zero electricity wallet is now 34 GB of capacity. In addition, some recently occurred very big The deals that promise to remove millions of carbon metric tons.

2030 just a few years away, and pushing the company to artificial intelligence and notice may be profitable – but it has made access to sustainability goals more difficult.