With a focus on developing solutions to help organizations transform their operations, products, services and value chains and accelerate the transition to net zero emissions, Accenture, Avanade and Microsoft broaden their focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) challenges.
Companies invest in developing innovative solutions – designed to emit less carbon throughout their life cycle – and offering advisory services to help reduce polluting emissions, accelerate the transition to emerging energy sources and reduce or even eliminate the waste of limited resources such as water, food and raw materials.
Combining Accenture’s sustainability services, Avanade’s people-centric digital experience, Microsoft’s cloud, and the data and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities of all three, expanding their strategic partnership will address both general and sector-specific sustainability challenges to drive impact and deliver new value.
Will combine Accenture’s sustainability services, Avanade’s people-centric digital experience and Microsoft’s cloud
“Increasingly, as all stakeholders expect companies to move from commitment to action on environmental challenges, companies that embed sustainability into their businesses can become a major force for change.“, points out Julie Sweet, President and CEO of Accenture. “Our partnership with Microsoft and Avanade will help organizations find new value at the intersection of technology and sustainability – from adopting green software development principles and sustainable migrations to the cloud, to adopting technology of digital twins – to drive stronger performance and competitiveness, and advance its decarbonization goals“.
“Operating sustainably has become a competitive advantage, allowing organizations to increase efficiency, accelerate growth and lead with purpose“, Explain Judson Althoff, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer of Microsoft. “By combining our experience with Accenture and Avanade, we have the opportunity and responsibility to deliver innovative solutions that enable organizations to achieve their sustainability goals and drive lasting environmental change.“.
Through the expansion of their strategic partnership, the three companies will collaborate to expand existing capabilities and develop new joint offerings in four areas:
- Transition to digital manufacturing: Manufacturing companies need to rapidly establish and expand the digital foundation of individual production sites and factory networks. Joint offerings will help improve asset utilization and deploy business models that enable circularity. They will also apply digital twin technology to reduce emissions, waste, consumption of materials, water and other resources in production and operations, and improve transparency throughout the value chain.
- Low carbon energy transition: 73% of CEOs stated in the Accenture study and the UN Global Compact that they feel increased pressure to act on sustainability in the next three years. To do this, companies need to transform operations across the energy value chain. The joint offerings will help companies transition to decarbonization by connecting and integrating energy infrastructure to develop carbon intelligence.
- Sustainable IT with Microsoft Azure and Green Software Engineering: Organizations are looking for an infrastructure that is characterized by energy efficiency, greater workload flexibility and business agility. New solutions in Microsoft Azure span strategy development and assessment of current IT infrastructure; solution architecture; a carbon-conscious approach to green software migration and engineering; and the continuous improvement and transformation of the business with the low-carbon cloud as a foundation.
- ESG Measurement, Analysis and Performance with Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability: Joint solutions will focus on providing sustainability intelligence for value chains, helping to break down silos and providing data-driven insights so that customers can not only record and report on sustainability metrics, but what even more importantly, take action. Companies that consistently demonstrate high ESG performance score 2.6 times higher in total shareholder return than their peers, according to an Accenture study.
“The world is at an inflection point where companies are expected to play an active role in addressing sustainability issues“, says Pam Maynard, ceo de Avanade. “Now more than ever, technology is key to accelerating environmental, social and governance goals and enabling organizations to be sustainable through change. We are excited about the opportunity to help leaders harness the power of people and technology to take practical sustainability actions that have real impact.“.
This expanded strategic partnership builds on Accenture, Microsoft and Avanade’s joint efforts on sustainability, including their pioneering role in the Green Software Foundation, a nonprofit organization that is building a trusted ecosystem of people, standards, tools and practices for green software development. Through a joint initiative called Project Amplify, Accenture and Microsoft have also supported startups focused on social impact and sustainability.providing access to emerging technology and expertise to help extend your solutions.
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