Technology titans, service providers, and consumer giants converged online for New York City’s ninth annual Climate Week event, unveiling a flurry of environmental commitments in wake of the European Union’s updated climate target announcement calling for an emissions reduction of at least 55% by 2030. Here’s a Climate Week cheat sheet of the news on our radar.

Google Cloud Drives Unilever’s Sustainable Sourcing

Unilever announced a new partnership with Google Cloud to improve its product sourcing strategy and advance sustainable business practices. 

The two companies are working on the first commercial application of Google Cloud and Google Earth Engine to raise sustainable commodity sourcing standards using cloud computing with satellite imagery and AI to build a more holistic view of the forests, water cycles, and biodiversity that intersect with Unilever’s supply chain. The new partnership will also take Unilever and its technology partners one step closer to its goal of achieving a deforestation-free supply chain by 2023. 

Google Cloud and Unilever said they will work with a range of technology partners on building a centralized command center to paint a more complete picture of the ecosystems connected to Unilever supply chain. The goal is to “create a better mechanism” for detecting deforestation, that Unilever said will “lead to greater accountability” while “simultaneously prioritizing critical areas of forest and habitats in need of protection.” 

The consumer giant said the initiative will first focus on sustainable palm oil but will also extend to other commodities in the future. 

Microsoft Takes Water Positive Dive

Microsoft announced plans to become “water positive," meaning it will replenish more water than it consumes, by the end of the decade.

It’s latest eco-promise comes just a few months after Microsoft and other major companies launched the Transform to Net Zero Coalition. The partnership will help Microsoft meet its goal of shifting to 100% renewable energy by 2025 following its January promise to be carbon negative by 2030 and wipe out its carbon footprint by 2050. 

In that light, the new pledge of becoming water positive will see tech giant deploy a twofold strategy to tackle its water consumption: reducing water use intensity, and replenishing water in the water-stressed regions it operates in.  

Climate-induced reduction in available clean drinking water, coupled with increased demand, could reduce water availability in cities by more than 66% by 2050, according to the World Bank. To combat the water crisis, Microsoft’s water replenishment strategy will include investment in projects such as wetland restoration and the removal of impervious surfaces like asphalt to help replenish water back into the basins that need it most. 

Microsoft plans to introduce a company-wide sustainability design standard across its operations including 100% treatment and reuse of wastewater on-site at the Hyderabad campus for landscaping, flushing, and cooling tower makeup. The company also committed to digitizing water data to help better understand where water stress is emerging and optimize its replenishment investments. 

Verizon Grants $1M to We Mean Business

Verizon signed a $1 million grant to We Mean Business, a global coalition of nonprofit organizations working with the world’s most influential businesses to take action on climate change. 

Funding will enable the We Mean Business coalition to provide 1 million small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) globally with tech-enabled carbon footprint quantification tools and the education to help SMEs reduce remissions.

The announcement follows the carrier’s recent pricing of its second $1 billion Green Bond offering earlier this month, with net proceeds primarily funding long-term renewable energy purchase agreements to support the construction of solar and wind facilities that will bring new renewable energy to the grids that power its networks.

Earlier this year, the carrier joined The Climate Pledge – a joint initiative between Amazon and Global Optimism to meet the Paris Agreement 10 years early. To get there, Verizon has set sustainability goals to source or generate renewable energy equivalent to 50% of its total annual electricity consumption by 2025 and be carbon neutral in its operations by 2035. 

Equinix Issues $1.35B in Green Bonds

Equinix announced that it priced $1.85 billion in bonds, $1.35 billion of which will be included in its inaugural green bond offering. According to the vendor, the green bonds will be used to advance the company’s commitment to sustainability leadership and reducing its environmental impact. 

In stride with the green bond offering, Equinix also developed a Green Finance Framework based on the Green Bond Principles and Green Loan Principles, a set of guidelines that promote transparency and integrity in green debt disclosures. As outlined in the framework, an amount equal to the net proceeds of the green bonds will be used to fund or refinance eligible green projects that provide “clear environmental benefits.” Eligible green projects include green buildings, renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainable water and wastewater management, waste management, and clean transportation. that are expected to deliver benefits to Equinix and its shareholders. 

The colocation provider also received the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2020 Green Power Partner of the Year award this week. As of the end of 2019, Equinix used more than 2.3 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power annually in the U.S., powering more than 100% of the organization's national electricity use, the vendor claims.  

Other Climate Week Callouts

The Climate Pledge, a joint initiative between Amazon and Global Optimism, received five more signatures during Climate Week from the likes of Best Buy, McKinstry, Real Betis, Schneider Electric, and Siemens. This commits them to reaching a net-zero carbon footprint by 2040, one decade before the deadline for the Paris Agreement. 

Intel added its name to the list RE100’s list of over 260 companies committed to using 100% renewable power. This comes just a week after the chip manufacturer’s Oregon Water Recycling Facility surpassed the 1-billion-gallons recycled mark.

The Science Based Targets Network announced a new guidance during Climate Week for companies interested in setting goals for land and freshwater use, biodiversity or ecosystem impacts using science-based principles, as many are doing to set emissions reduction targets. 

CyrusOne announced a pledge to become carbon neutral by 2040 through the reduction of carbon emissions across the company’s global data center portfolio. To hit its target, the company will focus on using renewable energy to power data centers, designing energy-efficient new buildings, and upgrading existing facilities.

Vodafone vowed to add purpose commitments to its supply chain. 20% of supplier selection criteria will be based on commitments to diversity and the environment beginning in October 2020.

Microsoft and Shell formed an alliance to advance progress toward net-zero emissions that will support the oil and gas company’s ambition to be a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050, or sooner. On the flip side, Shell’s supply of renewable energy will help Microsoft reach its 2050 carbon negative goal.