Put Microsoft
Water is essential to life. We depend on it for our survival. This basic need has shaped how human societies have advanced over time. Explorers from pre-Columbian and ancient times to NASA explorers have followed the motto “follow the water” as they have sought and continue to seek to discover new opportunities for the expansion of human civilization.
While water is abundant—covering 70% of the Earth’s surface—97% of that water is salty, located in our oceans, and is not suitable for drinking or growing crops. The world’s freshwater is not equally distributed or accessible, and is disproportionately found in places where people do not live. And as human civilization has expanded, we have reached the global point where humanity is depleting the available freshwater supply at a rate of 4.3 trillion cubic meters each year—most of which goes to agricultural and industrial uses.
This needs to change. That’s why we’re announcing an ambitious commitment for Microsoft to be water positive across our direct operations by 2030. We’re addressing our water consumption in two ways: by reducing water intensity—or the water we use per megawatt of power used for our operations—and by replenishing water in the water-scarce regions where we operate. This means that by 2030, Microsoft will replenish more water than it consumes globally.
As with our other environmental commitments, we hope these steps will help contribute to a growing movement to meet the world’s sustainability needs.
More momentum is clearly needed. Currently, according to the United Nations Water (UN-Water), more than two billion people lack access to safe drinking water. And climate change is only intensifying these water shortages. The UN estimates that one in four people could live in a country affected by chronic freshwater scarcity by 2050. According to the world Bank, this climate-induced reduction in freshwater availability, coupled with increased demand, could reduce water availability in cities by more than 66% by 2050.
Overcoming the global water crisis will require reducing the amount of water humans use to operate economies and societies, as well as a concerted effort to ensure there is enough water where it is needed most. This will require a transformation in how we manage our water systems and a concerted effort to hold all organizations accountable and accountable for their water use. As a global technology company, Microsoft is poised to address both issues by taking responsibility for our own water use and partnering with technology platforms to help others do the same.
Last year, we committed Microsoft to becoming a carbon-negative, zero-waste company, building a new planetary computing platform to transform how we monitor, model, and ultimately manage Earth’s natural systems. Our water pledge today adds a fourth pillar to that work. And as with our other businesses, we’re committed not only to setting ambitious goals for ourselves, but to using technology to better help our customers do the same.
Water positives by 2030
By 2030, we will be water positive, meaning we will replenish more water than we use. We will do this by putting more water back into scarce basins than we use globally across all basins. The amount returned will be determined by how much water we use and how scarce the basin is.
Our replenishment strategy will include investments in projects such as wetland restoration and the removal of impervious surfaces such as asphalt, which will help replenish water in the basins that need it most. We will focus our replenishment efforts on approximately 40 highly scarce basins where we have operations. This reflects a science-based assessment of the world’s water basins. Most of the world’s freshwater is divided into 16,396 basins, each of which is assigned a “water scarcity benchmark” score by the World Resources Institute (WRI), a leading global non-profit research organization focused on natural resources. A basin is considered “highly scarce” if the amount of water withdrawn exceeds 40% of renewable supply. Globally, there are 4,717 basins that fall into this category.
All of this work will build on our ongoing investments and advances in water reduction and replenishment across our operations. This includes a Microsoft-wide sustainability standard that requires water conservation at all locations around the world. This includes:
- Our new Silicon Valley campus, set to open later this year in California, features an on-site rainwater collection system and wastewater treatment plant to ensure that 100% of the site’s non-potable water comes from recycled on-site sources. An integrated water management system will manage and reuse stormwater and wastewater. By recycling our water, the campus will save an estimated 4.3 million gallons of potable water per year.
- Almost halfway around the world, our new campus in Herzliya, Israel, features water-saving plumbing that increases water savings by 35%. In addition, 100% of the water collected from air conditioners will be used to water plants on site.
- In India, our newest building on the Hyderabad campus will support 100% of on-site wastewater treatment and reuse for landscaping, discharge and the cooling tower.
- In our Puget Sound headquarters redesign, all new buildings will reuse collected rainwater in flushing facilities and low-flow systems. The site is projected to save more than 5.8 million gallons annually.
- In our new datacenter region in Arizona, available for use in 2021, we are innovating to reduce water intensity and replenish it given that water in this region is highly scarce. We will use zero water for cooling for more than half the year, leveraging a method called adiabatic cooling, which uses outside air instead of water for cooling when temperatures are below 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29 degrees C). When temperatures are above 85 degrees, an evaporative cooling system is used, acting like a “swamp cooler” that you find in homes. This system is highly efficient, using less electricity and up to 90% less water than other water-based cooling systems, such as cooling towers. We are also partnering with First Solar to provide solar power instead of traditional electricity generation, which is expected to save more than 350 million liters of water annually.
Our water intensity reduction and replenishment commitments address the key issue of water availability, which is the amount of water that can be used to meet demand. However, this is only part of the challenge. Equally important is the issue of affordability, which is the provision of safe drinking water and sanitation. That’s why we’re partnering with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to ensure that more than 1.5 million people have access to safe drinking water and sanitation. We’ll focus this work on seven countries. We’ll start by partnering with Water.org, a global nonprofit focused on underserved communities, to help people in Brazil, India, Indonesia, and Mexico. We will then expand this work with partners in China, Malaysia, and South Africa.
Digitizing water data
We will also use our technology to better understand where water scarcity is emerging and optimize water replenishment investments in a region. Through our AI for Earth program, we are supporting projects in each of these areas:
- O Vector Center works with governments and businesses around the world to better understand the impact of water availability and affordability. One of the challenges it addresses is water risk and scarcity in urban communities where data is still often analog, paper-based, and stored in piles. So it’s digitizing data and developing a platform called Perception Reality Engine on Azure to collect, correlate, and analyze data to produce a big-picture picture of what’s actually happening in real time to better identify how to prevent the threat of when water might no longer be available. The system can also provide a historical view of water in a given area. Perception Reality Engine uses data on precipitation, surface water levels, plant growth, and other variables to map water availability around the world and flag where crises are occurring or may soon occur. It then overlays this information with news sources and social media to determine where public perception differs from reality so that governance, education, and behavior changes can be made before a region runs out of water.
- A Freshwater Trust, a non-profit organization that protects and restores freshwater ecosystems, and the Upstream Tech, a company that develops technology solutions for water conservation, have worked together to develop a platform called BasinScout. It uses satellite and crop growth data, as well as agricultural practices, and applies machine learning to evaluate these practices at the field level and their impact on water resources at scale, including scenarios on how to be more water-efficient and cost-efficient. This helps conserve and protect watersheds that are the main sources of public water supplies.
- O Leadership Council for Justice and Accountability Leadership Council, Inc. is a California-based nonprofit focused on land use and transportation in underserved communities. It is working to address the drinking water challenge in California’s Central Valley. About 1.5 million people in the region rely on private domestic wells for drinking water, and many of these wells frequently fail during droughts or due to groundwater management issues. The Leadership Council is using AI to predict domestic well failures resulting from changes in the water table and resulting drinking water shortages. They are providing this information to local agencies that can use it to prevent failures and improve water resource management and planning.
Climate Innovation Fund Investment: Emerald Technology Ventures
Microsoft's Climate Innovation Fund is investing $10 million in Microsoft's Global Impact Fund Emerald Technology Ventures The fund, which totals US$100 million and whose investors also include Temasek, Ecolab and SKion, will benefit early-stage and scale-up companies around the world, driving innovation and adoption in water technologies. It will focus on pressing challenges including conserving water resources, improving water efficiency and quality, avoiding carbon emissions from water treatment, and adapting to climate change. The fund is one of the few funds focused exclusively on water strategy.
This is the third investment the Climate Innovation Fund has made in one of the company’s four sustainability focus areas. The first was focused on carbon and the second on waste.
Empowering our customers
Microsoft is also developing solutions to help customers understand water-related risks from climate change; use data to reduce water use and make smarter water decisions; and improve water quality and conservation. Technologies such as IoT and AI are playing a critical role in improving water quality and efficiency. For example, Azure IoT Central government application templates include remote and real-time monitoring of water quality and monitoring of water consumption aimed at reducing it.
- A ecolab, a leading global provider of water, hygiene and energy technologies and services, is a Microsoft customer and partner that is using data and technology to help its customers be more efficient and use less water in their operations. The data Ecolab collects from more than 42,000 connected smart water sensors around the world is used to make informed recommendations to improve processes and reduce water consumption. This leads to a “virtuous cycle” of less water, better results and significantly lower operating costs. Using Microsoft technologies such as Azure, Azure Machine Learning, Power BI and more, Ecolab is accelerating net-zero water use around the world in industries such as energy, agriculture, food and beverage, manufacturing and hospitality.
- A Schneider Electric (SE) provides digital energy and automation solutions for efficiency and sustainability; combining world-leading energy technologies, real-time automation, software, and services into integrated solutions. They have recently integrated solutions with Azure to improve water and wastewater management throughout their lifecycle, for optimized water and waste operations, energy, safety, and business sustainability. This includes recent work to help restore the water quality of the Bogotá River with the expansion of the Salitre II wastewater treatment plant. Working with Bogotá’s water treatment plant, the largest in Colombia and operated by Aqualia, new digital technologies are making it more efficient. The Bogotá River is polluted, threatening the environment and the health of the city’s 8 million residents. The wastewater treatment plant is an important part of the remediation efforts.
- A Grundfos Grundfos Water & Water Technologies, Inc. is a global water technology company headquartered in Bjerringbro, Denmark. They pioneer solutions to global water and climate challenges that improve people’s quality of life. Grundfos uses Microsoft to support the transformation of its business into digital and water solutions, with the expected results in improved customer satisfaction, increased innovation and operational excellence. Two ambitious water targets are to provide safely managed drinking water to 300 million people in need and to save 50 billion cubic meters of consumable fresh water by 2030, which is why many innovations are happening. Providing water also means reducing the amount of energy needed to heat our cities – this is where the Grundfos iGRID system built on Azure comes in. Azure services such as IoT Hub are used by iGRID to optimize heat distribution in cities to save energy. Grundfos can reduce heat losses by 20%, meaning iGRID on Azure will reduce energy use in our cities, improving the longevity of our existing networks and reducing costs for ordinary citizens.
- Seequent Seequent, Inc. is a Microsoft customer and partner based in New Zealand. They rely on Azure to power their geospatial and geoscience work, including important work addressing water quality and quantity with the Water Replenishment District (WRD), the largest groundwater agency in the state of California. WRD’s service area covers 450 square miles (1,087.8 km²) in southern Los Angeles County and is responsible for approximately half of the region’s water supply. WRD is using Seequent’s Leapfrog Works to create 3D models of local watersheds, creating a better understanding of groundwater flow and identifying contamination. These models are helping WRD sustain its Water Independence Now Program, which has made the region sustainable by using local resources, including advanced recycled water treatment, to replenish groundwater supplies.
Water Resilience Coalition
We understand that no single company or organization can solve the global water crisis. The private sector also has a significant opportunity to make a positive impact on the availability and accessibility of this resource: 150 of the world’s largest companies have the potential to influence one-third of global freshwater use. Launched earlier this year, the Water Resilience Coalition The Water Resilience Coalition is an initiative of the United Nations Global Compact’s CEO Water Mandate. Founded by seven companies, including Microsoft, the coalition has since grown to 16 industry-leading corporations, all of whom have committed to working collectively on water issues. We are working together to identify priority basins for collective action and to set targets to improve conditions in these basins. As part of our water goals, we will partner with Water Resilience Coalition members to co-invest in availability, affordability and quality projects in water-stressed basins, and we will actively recruit other companies to join us in this important coalition.
Policy
Governments also play a critical role in ensuring the availability of safe and clean drinking water, maintaining and expanding water infrastructure, protecting critical water ecosystems, and responding to water crises. We will use our voice at the local, national, and global levels to advocate for public policies that increase access to and availability of water and improve its quality.
Improving data in water scarce areas: We can’t solve a problem we don’t fully understand. Governments should develop a more accurate and up-to-date assessment of groundwater and surface water levels and how they are changing over time. This data can help local stakeholders calculate and forecast supply and demand balances; track water quality; facilitate disaster prevention and early warning systems; and ultimately develop innovative solutions. We are excited to see the European Union’s plans to create a database under the Common European Green Deal as part of the European Data Strategy, which aims to harness the potential of environmental data to help achieve the region’s ambitious climate goals. To support these efforts, Microsoft will work with partners to deploy tools that provide better hydrological data to enable better water management.
Upgrading Water Infrastructure: We need governments to invest in improving and expanding water infrastructure. This is critical to providing safe drinking water, treating storm and wastewater, managing water levels, and protecting against climate impacts, particularly in the most vulnerable communities. These investments can also create much-needed jobs. National governments should seek opportunities to integrate water infrastructure into COVID-19 recovery packages and promote innovative solutions. We applaud the EU for including water-related green infrastructure in the InvestEU Programme, as well as the recent bipartisan effort by the US Congress to consider reauthorizing critical water infrastructure funding. We will encourage national governments to prioritize these critical investments in the months and years ahead.
Integrating water into climate strategies: Water is the primary means by which climate change will be felt. As such, we need governments to address climate and water challenges in a more integrated way. One way to do this is through the long-term targets that countries set as part of their national climate plans or through Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) under the Paris climate agreements. As national governments work to update their 2030 climate plans ahead of COP26, the annual UN climate conference, in 2021, they should include an explicit water-related target in their climate mitigation and adaptation strategies.
To help advance these policy efforts, we will join the WaterEurope to promote smart water solutions and we will encourage our other trade associations and advocacy partners in the U.S. and the European Union to play a more active role in advocating for these policies.
Enlisting our employees
As we have done with each of our previous sustainability commitments, we will engage our employees by inviting them to participate in volunteer opportunities associated with the replenishment projects we will be investing in. Our employees have already volunteered with nonprofits we partner with on water replenishment projects, including the restoration of Lake Sembakkam in Chennai, India; restoration of Crow Creek in Cheyenne, Wyoming; and, habitat restoration along the Red River in Fargo, North Dakota. In regions without active replenishment projects, we will provide information about volunteer opportunities with nonprofits working on water projects in their communities.
While our commitments focus on freshwater, we recognize the need to protect the world’s oceans, which generate more than 50% of the world’s oxygen, absorb half of the carbon produced and are responsible for 80% of the planet’s biodiversity. Oceans are also critical to our global economy and food security, with more than 100 million households dependent on fisheries for their livelihoods, and 3 billion relying on seafood as their primary protein.
Protecting the world's oceans
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimates that by 2030, the value of the ocean economy could exceed US$3 trillion and support more than 40 million jobs. To realize this potential economic impact, the private and public sectors and civil society must work together to reverse the decline in ocean biodiversity resulting from climate change, pollution and overexploitation. This requires good data, governance and policies, and technological innovations such as smart sensors, autonomous robots, data analytics and AI to better monitor, model and manage the oceans.
That’s why we’re joining forces with the World Economic Forum’s Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Network for Ocean Innovation and Technology in Norway (C4IR Ocean). It is dedicated to using data, technology and governance frameworks to protect the world’s oceans and increase the sustainability of ocean-based industries.
Unlike roads, oceans have not been adequately mapped, so we are not making informed decisions. We are one of the organizations working with C4IR Ocean on their Ocean Data Platform. This global open-source platform gives data scientists, application developers and marine spatial planners access to data from historical and real-time sources to develop solutions to improve ocean health.
