Microsoft started 2020 with a bold plan: become carbon negative by 2030. Now it's announced a new coalition of global companies with the goal of catalyzing the shift away from fossil fuels.
"This has to be about much more than just Microsoft," Lucas Joppa, chief environmental officer at Microsoft, told Cheddar. "This has to be about leading companies across the private sector coming together to work on this challenge."
The industry and continent-spanning coalition, dubbed Transform to Net Zero, includes Maersk, Danone, Mercedes-Benz AG, Microsoft, Natura & Co, Nike, Starbucks, Unilever, and Wipro.
"What we're focusing on is going beyond making commitments," he said. "We need all companies to make meaningful, significant climate commitments. But those of us that have made those commitments, now it's time to get to work."
One shared goal of the group will be to develop playbooks based on their experiences decarbonizing, which they can then share with other companies unsure of how to proceed.
Microsoft's short-term goal is to remove 1 million metric tons of carbon from the environment within the year. It began the process this week by issuing what it calls a "groundbreaking" request for a proposal to source technology and nature-based carbon removal solutions from other firms.
Another piece of Microsoft's climate plan is switching its data centers to renewable energy sources. The company is partnering with Sol Systems, energy developer and investor, to build that capacity in communities that have been disproportionately impacted by pollution.
This will be the first major investment from the company's $1 billion Climate Innovation Fund that launched in January.
The partnership aims to add 500 megawatts to Microsoft's renewable energy portfolio, which already has approximately 1.9 gigawatts, according to Joppa. Microsoft says 500 megawatts would provide enough energy to power 70,000 U.S. homes.
Joppa said Microsoft is shooting for 100 percent renewable energy by 2025.
As Microsoft attempts to drive change in the corporate sector, Joppa is still banking on the public sector to step up with new regulations to combat climate change.
"It can't just be about us," Joppa said. "I believe that we need a much more level playing field. We need everybody to be required and incentivized to go and operate in this space, to move everybody's business practices to net zero by 2050. Ultimately we're going to need regulation and policy to get us there."
Social media has helped fuel massive opportunity in the travel industry, but with opportunity, comes cutthroat competition, Trivago CEO Rolf Schrömgens said Wednesday. "People are really traveling in general more. They want to experience stuff, they don't want to buy stuff anymore," Schrömgens told Cheddar.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Wednesday, Feb, 6, 2019.
Abra, a five-year-old crypto company that has historically been focused on remittances, is starting to look like a fintech app itself; it will soon give users the ability to use their bitcoin to invest in traditional assets “like Apple, Amazon, gold and the S&P 500," according to a customer email it sent late Tuesday.
Amazon may have met the David to its Goliath in the epic battle for Long Island City ー provided that Gov. Cuomo doesn't stand in his way. State Sen. Michael Gianaris, who represents New York's 12th district, including Amazon's planned Long Island City outpost, said the tech giant's plan ー promising 25,000 jobs in exchange for billions in city funds ー doesn't even merit negotiation.
Shares of Disney jumped after the bell on Tuesday, boosted by revenue growth in its television and parks divisions. The report was good news for investors looking to gauge Disney’s strength as it deepens its direct-to-consumer offerings in an effort to compete against rivals like Netflix and Apple.
Shares of embattled social media company Snap soared more than 16 percent in extended trading on Tuesday, after beating Wall Street's expectations for its fourth-quarter financial results and reporting relatively stable daily active users year-over-year. Wedbush's Dan Ives said the results showed signs of progress.
Viacom CFO Wade Davis says the company's recent acquisition of Pluto TV gives it a competitive advantage as it vies for consumers in a saturated market."The market for video products has been segmenting for some time now," Davis told Cheddar Tuesday. "With this segmentation, consumers have become a lot more value conscious, and we think that that underscores the opportunity in what we talk about as the free price point."
Blue Hexagon, a company focused on protecting companies from cyberthreats, has raised $31 million from Benchmark Capital and Altimeter Capital, which called the startup's deep learning technology a "game changer" in cybersecurity.
Google parent company Alphabet slipped in extended trading on Monday after the FAANG stock beat Wall Street expectations on its top and bottom lines, but cost-per-click ー or the amount Google charges advertisers when an ad gets clicked ー fell 29 percent on Google properties.
Facebook has made its first acquisition in the blockchain space. The social network has quietly hired the team behind Chainspace, a small blockchain startup founded by researchers from University College London, Cheddar has learned. Chainspace was building a decentralized “smart contracts” system that could facilitate payments and other services through blockchain technology.
