As part of its long-term sustainability goals, Microsoft has announced plans to drastically reduce the amount of waste it produces and eliminate single-use plastics in its packaging by 2025.
"The plastics problem is just part of a broader waste problem," Lucas Joppa, chief environmental officer for Microsoft, told Cheddar. "The world creates too much waste. Microsoft creates too much waste, and we need to fix that."
This is the third major announcement in 2020 from the tech giant detailing its sustainability plan. In January, Microsoft announced its goal to become carbon negative by 2030. Then in July, it released the details of that plan, which includes switching its data centers to renewable energy, issuing a request for proposals for carbon removal solutions, and developing a de-carbonization playbook that it plans to share with other firms to help catalyze the corporate sector.
While waste reduction is just one component of Microsoft's efforts to fight climate change, Joppa stressed that it's an important one.
"Last year, 11 billion tons of waste was sent to the landfill," he said. "We went from, in 1950, producing one and a half million tons of plastics to last year producing 300 million tons of plastic as a society, and over half of that was intended for single-use."
For Microsoft consumers, this initiative means more of their tech purchases will be recyclable, from the packaging that products arrive in, to the devices themselves once they've outlived their use.
"We want the packaging itself to have zero single-use plastic," Joppa said. "We also want the device that's hopefully coming in that package to be recyclable as well."
Microsoft is also building what it calls "Circular Centers" to control the flow of waste out of its 160 data centers across the globe. These centers will sort and decommission parts used for servers, which currently last on average about five years, and then recycle or repurpose them.
In the process, the company hopes to learn more about its products and work to extend their life cycle and reduce e-waste.
Microsoft has already tested this concept in Amsterdam and shown that it increases the availability of server and network parts for reuse or buy-back from suppliers. The goal is to increase the reuse of components by up to 90 percent by 2025.
"What we're really looking to do is do everything we possibly can to divert waste from landfills," Joppa said.
Microsoft is expected to report financial results for its second fiscal quarter of 2022. It comes after the company beat on its top and bottom line in its previous four quarters. John Freeman of CFRA Research explains what investors will be keeping an eye out for as Microsoft continues to expand its domain.
High-speed connectivity solutions provider Credo went public on the Nasdaq on Thursday, raising $200 million in its IPO. CEO Bill Brennan, joined Cheddar to discuss its entry into the capital markets and the next chapter for the company. "We're going to be focused on what we have been focused on, which is really creating, creating innovative connectivity solutions that really pushed the edge on efficient power as well as very effective cost," he said.
BD Veritor is a variation of the at-home COVID test that uses a smartphone to interpret the results. The test is taken via a nose swab test strip that is then scanned by your phone’s camera with the result clearly displayed as positive or negative. James Walker, vice president of integrated diagnostics USA for BD, joined Cheddar to discuss how the test hopefully takes the "guesswork out of testing." Walker also went into what BD is doing to deal with the surging demand for at-home tests amid the omicron spread. "While we don't disclose how much we produce, we have capacity to manufacture up to 12 million rapid antigen tests per month and are delivering on our commitments to distributors and retailers," he said.
Low-code app development platform Crowdbotics raised $22 million in a Series A funding round led by Jackson Square Ventures. Crowdbotics has helped more than 14,000 customers launch apps without having to learn how to code. The company can offer a team of expert developers to help companies launch custom apps, or provide the means for companies to develop apps themselves. Crowdbotics CEO Anand Kulkarni joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Nathan Harding, CEO of Luum, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss the process of having a robot put on eyelash extensions, and how automation is making its way into the beauty industry
Kevin Yu, Founder and CEO of Sidechef, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss how it's building a platform to make recipe shopping easy, and how its features help you discover new recipes with the same ingredients to fight the massive problem of food waste.
