The business case for sustainability is clear. We’re all experiencing unprecedented weather events in our daily lives and becoming more acutely aware of the need to better protect the planet and people through continual change. There’s no doubt that organizations are increasingly recognizing their responsibility to take urgent climate positive action. Over the course of this year, we’ve seen a significant uptick in requests from clients to help them take advantage of digital technologies to accelerate towards net zero.

Transparency is trust
For most organizations, the initial priority is to use digital to set and meet environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals to become more sustainable faster. Transparency is critical, as customers, employees and partners will spurn organizations that don’t consistently deliver on and demonstrate their ESG commitments. Not making enough progress – or greenwashing – is now a reputation risk.

The launch of the Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability will equip your organization to go beyond capturing data to generating impactful sustainability insights, so you can more quickly identify and take climate positive actions. This new cloud offering is designed to help you set responsible sustainability goals and effectively record, report and reduce carbon emissions, providing the transparency required to build and maintain stakeholder trust.

Rethink sustainability to repeatedly renew and grow
However, achieving ESG goals can’t be the endpoint. If sustainability doesn’t become core to how you do business, it won’t endure. Beyond making a positive impact on the planet and people, you need to rethink sustainability to be a driver of profitability and growth. Digitally mature organizations know that becoming more inclusive, responsible and sustainable inspires innovation to keep business models resilient and diversify revenue streams across multiple ecosystems securely. For example, SSE Renewables is using cloud, data and AI to generate insights to reimagine its operations so it can remain resilient through change and develop renewables services that positively contribute to the United Kingdom’s net zero targets.

How Avanade can help
The Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability provides a platform for you to make sustainability core to how you do business, so your organization can repeatedly renew and grow through continual change. As one of a select group of global Microsoft sustainability partners and a member of the Green Software Foundation, we bring insights and expertise to help you rethink sustainability and drive maximum business value from the Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability.

Learn more about Avanade’s own ESG commitments and how we’re partnering with clients to accelerate positive impacts for people, the planet and profitability with digital.