Group items tagged

Microsoft has achieved the U.S. Zero Waste Business Council's Gold Level of Zero Waste Certification for its Redmond corporate campus by diverting at least 90% of onsite waste from landfills. Microsoft is the first technology company in the country to achieve this certification.

Microsoft's zero waste efforts have earned it the US Zero Waste Business Council's highest certification level at its Redmond, Washington campus, making Microsoft the first technology company to achieve zero waste facility certification.

Tech giants Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon have submitted a joint brief to the Washington, D.C. Circuit Court in support of the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan.

Microsoft became the first company to purchase carbon credits generated by the Makira conservation project in Madagascar, which intends to preserve 320,000 hectares of forests and prevent 32.5 million metric tons of carbon emissions.

Microsoft's internal carbon pricing has helped the company recoup $10 million a year in energy savings and has reduced companywide emissions by the equivalent of 7.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. "Microsoft has been a pioneer in facing the facts, which are that climate change is happening and is going to mean a certain amount of change in the economy," said Paula DiPerna, a special adviser to the Carbon Disclosure Project. "Companies need to know what the hidden costs are."

Facebook and Microsoft partnered with investment company Allotrope Partners to "mobilize" $50 million for sustainable energy efforts in poor communities through a finance facility. By pulling in grants and loans, the Microgrid Investment Accelerator program will fund renewable microgrid projects in India, Indonesia and Africa between 2018 and 2020.

Elsewhere, a number of high-profile companies, including Apple, Disney, Microsoft and PepsiCo, are experimenting with small renewable energy projects fueled by biogas generated through organic waste. General Electric is another vocal advocate - mainly because it provides a line of industrial generators and combined heat and power systems that can operate using this fuel source.   

What do tech giants Apple, Google, Intel and Microsoft, retailers Kohl's, Whole Foods and Wal-Mart, the U.S. Energy and Veteran Affairs Departments, and the cities of Houston and Washington, D.C. have in common? According to recently updated data in the Environmental Protection Agency's Green Power Partnership, they are the most prolific users of renewable energy in the United States.

some of the biggest public companies in the United States -- including Wal-Mart, Walt Disney Co., Microsoft and many energy giants -- recently have gone public with strategies to set an internal price on their carbon pollution.

The bond, launched by World Bank-backed International Finance Corporation, will fund climate smart projects.

New innovations from the tech giants will allow businesses to make their cloud computing more environmentally sound.

All of these high-profile technology companies are harvesting new revenue out of discarded and end-of-life gadgets, rather than looking at them just as liabilities that require responsible recycling. What's more, all three are among the roughly 100 organizations using Hong Kong's Li Tong Group (aka LTG) to get the job done.

IKEA just bought the Hoopeston Wind farm, comprising 49 turbines in Vermillion County, Ill. This is its first wind farm investment in the U.S. and its largest renewable energy project. Set to become operational in 2015, Hoopeston will generate 380 GWh per year ­- nearly 1.5 times the energy needed to operate all of IKEA's U.S. operations.

Corporations interested in sustainability have become a major driver in the renewable energy industry, said experts at the North American Energy Markets Association meeting in Florida last month. "There is about 15 GW of latent demand for renewables that wants to be built by 2020 in order to meet the targets of Fortune 500 companies that have committed to some degree of renewable energy in their supply portfolios," said Invenergy Vice President of Sales and Marketing Craig Gordon. 3M, Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft are among the companies seeking power purchase agreements with renewables in the US.

The Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30) founder is joined by some of the world's richest people in supporting a 20-year fund called Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Investors include Amazon (AMZN, Tech30) founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, and Alibaba (BABA, Tech30) Executive Chairman Jack Ma. Gates will serve as the chairman of the fund, which is the venture arm of the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, a group founded last year to accelerate research and investment in clean energy.

For the seventh year in a row, Intel is at the top of the heap when it comes to commercial buyers of clean energy, according to the Environmental Protection Agency's annual Green Power Partnership report. Kohl's, Microsoft, Whole Foods and Google round out the top five in this year's ranking.

Internal carbon prices used range from $6-60 per metric ton, according to the report. In their 2013 CDP filings, the Walt Disney Company notes a price of $10-20, Google $14 and Xcel Energy $20. Other companies included in the report include: Wal-mart Stores Inc, Delta Airlines, Microsoft and PG&E Corporation.

A group of 29 companies and organizations launched collectively.org, a website designed to engage millennials on environmental issues by showcasing examples of sustainability in art, culture, food, and technology. CEF members involved in the initiative include Coca-Cola, Dow Chemical, Facebook, Google, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Nike, Salesforce and Unilever.

Internal carbon fees are becoming increasingly popular with companies as varied as Shell, Microsoft and Disney. But rather than use some or all of these funds to buy carbon offsets, a new solution called "onsetting" is emerging that enables businesses to increase employee engagement, support their local communities, and amplify their philanthropic giving while building awareness and action around climate change.