ABB Announces Microsoft Joining its Energy Efficiency Initiative
The cooperation highlights our shared focus on reducing carbon emissions from operations and enhancing the capacity of industry to decarbonize

ABB announced that Microsoft has joined its #energyefficiencymovement. The Energy Efficiency Initiative is a stakeholder initiative launched by ABB in March 2021 to raise awareness and action to address climate change. ABB is also inviting other companies to participate in the program and make public commitments to inspire more businesses to take action. Microsoft is currently one of the largest corporate partners involved in the initiative.

With soaring energy costs and pressure from customers, employees and governments on sustainability, companies are actively looking for decarbonization opportunities, and energy efficiency is becoming more urgent across industry. A recent survey commissioned by ABB found that energy efficiency has become a top concern for executives around the world. According to the survey, 89 percent of industry leaders surveyed said they will increase investment in energy efficiency over the next five years, and 54 percent plan to achieve Net Zero carbon emissions over that period.

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“The greenest energy is the energy that is not being used,” said Mehta, president of ABB’s Motion Control division. With 45% of the world’s electricity used to drive electric motors in buildings and industry, increasing energy efficiency is an inevitable strategy to combat climate change. “Digitally connected energy efficient solutions are critical to accelerating this progress, and I am excited that Microsoft and ABB are working together to further improve the energy efficiency of our own operations and those of our customers.”

Elisabeth Brinton, vice president of sustainability at Microsoft, said: “Microsoft’s participation in ABB’s Energy Efficiency initiative will accelerate global progress in energy efficiency and emission reduction. Microsoft’s goal of achieving net negative carbon emissions by 2030 and 100% renewable electricity by 2025 is fully aligned with ABB and its Energy Efficiency initiatives, and will further their existing collaboration to better enable manufacturing, transportation and cities to optimize decisions at scale and significantly improve efficiency. ”

In 2021, ABB’s own greenhouse gas emissions from its operations will be reduced by approximately 28% year-on-year. Under the 2030 Sustainability Strategy, ABB will become carbon neutral in its own operations by 2030 and has committed to supporting customers to reduce more than 100 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year, equivalent to the annual emissions of 30 million fuel cars. Through partnerships with companies such as Microsoft, Deutsche Post DHL and Alfa Laval, ABB’s Energy Efficiency Initiative brings together a group of like-minded industry leaders to build an ecosystem and accelerate decarbonisation.

ABB and Microsoft have successfully worked together for five years on ABB Ability™ digital solutions, and their collaboration on the Energy Efficiency Initiative reinforces their joint efforts to push the boundaries of technology and empower customers for sustainable development. Using Microsoft Azure Platform as a Service (PaaS) capabilities, as well as analytics, cloud and edge computing based on artificial intelligence and machine learning, ABB Ability™ solutions are used across a wide range of industrial sectors to help users optimize energy use in their powertrains, facilities and other fixed assets.