As cloud services become more widely adopted by companies around the world, the scale of impact that cloud usage has on the environment has also been increasingly important. With the announcement of the general availability of the Microsoft Emissions Impact Dashboard, Microsoft customers using Azure are able to view, track, report, and analyse their carbon emissions as a result of their usage of cloud services.

Track your environmental impact

The Emissions Impact Dashboard first released in January 2020, as a tool for Microsoft Azure customers to gather meaningful data to help them make informed business decisions about sustainable computing. The tool allows organisations to view emissions data sorted by month, service and data centre region to get more in-depth emissions information. 

 The easy-to-use platform also enables users to input un-migrated workloads to get an estimate of emissions savings from migration to Microsoft cloud services. The tool shows Microsoft’s third-party validated calculation methodology to provide accurate and measurable data across scopes.

New functionalities

The tool is continually updated by Microsoft to ensure the latest emissions information is widely available for customers. New security tools added by Microsoft means administrators can now control who can access and view company emissions data for enhanced data protection. 

Furthermore, as part of Microsoft’s commitment to reduce carbon emissions, the tool now has enhanced capabilities of calculating Scope 3 emissions associated with Microsoft cloud usage. Scope 3 emissions are indirect emissions linked to the product value chain, this includes material extraction, manufacturing, transport, usage and hardware disposal.

Reducing your environmental impact

As Microsoft continues to provide solutions that help customers be aware of and take action on their impact of the environment, we are also helping our customers do the same. We offer bespoke development and always try to use PaaS Azure services to ensure resources are correctly sized. This in turn leads to clients not overpaying for services required and that they don’t use more resources than necessary, which directly and indirectly impacts the environment. We previously used PaaS to build a Severe Weather Impacts Monitoring System (SWIMS) for Kent County Council as part of our drive to be more involved in climate initiatives.

Here at Influential Software, we’re conscious about the waste we produce and how the way we work has an impact on the environment. As part of our commitment to reducing an impact on the environment, we actively help local charities, promote sustainability and recycling, offer a Cycle To Work scheme and encourage staff to work from home to reduce the impact of transport emissions.

Experts in cloud technologies

We’ve helped many clients migrate to the cloud in order to become more sustainable and you could benefit massively if you’re not currently using cloud services. We can also help you get started with the Emissions Impact Dashboard, so get in touch with our cloud solutions experts today.