Organizations driving towards net-zero often face a major impediment—the lack of an efficient, scalable technology solution. To calculate their organization’s overall carbon footprint, build a robust decarbonization plan, and execute it with confidence and transparency, leaders need technology that can rival the challenge.
To address this, Microsoft and McKinsey have joined forces to create an integrated solution that combines sustainability data intelligence from Microsoft Sustainability Manager with decarbonization planning and an execution engine using McKinsey Sustainability’s Catalyst Zero. This technological collaboration will enhance companies’ sustainability transformations by integrating their data from activities that produce emissions with initiatives to abate them.
Powered by Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, this combined solution uses Sustainability Manager to automate and scale the collection of companies’ sustainability-related data and support establishing an emission baseline. Following that, McKinsey’s Catalyst Zero solution, which draws on our sustainability expertise and proven transformation experience, provides a holistic understanding of emissions at company, product and value chain levels, and helps leaders create a detailed decarbonization plan by leveraging a vast proprietary library of decarbonization levers.
Creating value beyond the hype
During execution, the ongoing data feed between Microsoft’s and McKinsey’s solutions regularly monitors whether the impact forecasted in the decarbonization plan is happening as planned. This creates confidence in the decarbonization impact achieved and transparency for all stakeholders, including clients, consumers, shareholders, and regulators.
The joint solution is powered with tens of thousands of emission factors and decarbonization levers across 70+ industry sectors to rapidly quantify baseline emissions, generate a company-specific Marginal Abatement Cost Curve (MACC), and finally plan and track granular decarbonization initiatives.
“We are focused on accelerating progress to achieve a more sustainable future, and our collaboration with McKinsey, to deliver innovative Cloud for Sustainability solutions will help customers unify their data intelligence, build robust IT infrastructure and gain insights into their overall carbon footprint in order to help them develop and execute robust decarbonization strategies to achieve their sustainability goals.” says Elisabeth Brinton, Microsoft Corporate Vice President for Sustainability.
Catalyst Zero: Accelerating decarbonization transformations at scale
“Urgent and decisive action to curtail emissions is needed if we are to reach net zero by 2050,” says Tomas Nauclér, senior partner at McKinsey and global co-leader of McKinsey Sustainability. “By combining our tech and sustainability expertise and experience, Microsoft and McKinsey will help businesses accurately and swiftly measure and reduce their overall carbon footprint.”
By combining our tech and sustainability expertise and experience, Microsoft and McKinsey will help businesses accurately and swiftly measure and reduce their overall carbon footprint.
Microsoft and McKinsey have a long and successful history of collaborating to accelerate and scale client impact. Over the past three years alone, the two organizations have worked together to help clients de-risk transformations, redesign business processes through data and analytics, and build new digital businesses. These collaborations span across industries and include, for example, a technology transformation for a wireless-equipment manufacturer that achieved a 125 percent increase in output and tripled build speed, or technological innovations for a real estate company to mitigate COVID-19 risk for employees returning to the office.
Our two companies look forward to building on this history of collaboration of proven successes as we enter the next horizon of this alliance.