Will Microsoft ever support sustainability? They’re the black sheep of tech companies, still directly funding and increasing the damage caused by climate change.
Microsoft’s long-standing partnerships with the fossil fuel industry and its use of technology like machine learning and Azure to facilitate oil and gas extraction have finally garnered significant criticism. Concerns are mounting over the company’s role in exacerbating the climate crisis through its continued support of environmentally damaging practices.
Kudos to Google and Amazon, who refuse to allow their technologies to be used to damage our environment.
Former Microsoft employees are breaking their silence about their efforts to push the tech giant to sever ties with the fossil fuel industry. Despite Microsoft’s ambitious sustainability goals, these employees argue that its continued work with oil and gas companies, providing them with cloud computing and AI tools to boost production, is undermining its climate commitments.
Alpine and her colleagues formed a worker-led sustainability group that grew to nearly 10,000 members, advocating for change from within. They successfully pushed for company-wide climate goals and policy support but struggled to convince leadership to abandon lucrative oil industry contracts.
The group’s concerns escalated as Microsoft continued to announce partnerships with fossil fuel companies, seemingly contradicting its sustainability pledges. Internal memos and meetings with executives led to some policy changes, but employees remained unsatisfied with the lack of transparency and meaningful action on the issue.
Alpine’s resignation in January 2024, along with another colleague, was a direct result of this disillusionment. She hopes that speaking out will put additional pressure on Microsoft to address the emissions it enables through its work with fossil fuel companies.
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