Collective action and concrete results for sustainable datacenter innovations

New York Climate Week is always a highlight for me—a place where determination and fresh thinking converge. This year, I left inspired by the shared drive to accelerate progress despite the challenges we face. I saw leaders from business, finance, government, and the broader climate community come together to navigate challenges and accelerate progress to meet growing energy needs while advancing global sustainability goals.  

Throughout the week, I had the opportunity to speak at several events that showcased the breadth of work Microsoft teams are delivering to advance our sustainability goals. At the Energy Transition Summit hosted by Dynamo Energy, I joined DBL Partners, JPMorganChase, and Chestnut Carbon to spotlight our landmark carbon removal agreement: 7 million tons over 25 years, the largest nature-based carbon removal deal ever signed in the U.S. It’s a powerful example of how collaboration can drive impact at scale.  

Later in the week, I joined David Gelles at the New York Times Climate Forward panel to discuss how we’re working across our value chains to reduce emissions. It was a fitting moment to highlight our first-of-its-kind partnership with Stegra to integrate near-zero emission steel into our datacenter construction. The partnership also leverages environmental attribute certificates for steel to help scale green steel production across our value chain and globally. 

Every conversation and meeting reinforced that meaningful climate progress takes more than ambition—it demands partnership across sectors, groups, and communities. No single company can solve these challenges alone, but together, our actions open new markets, deliver benefits for both communities and the planet, and help drive the transformation needed for a resilient future. 

That exact sentiment is at the heart of our new milestone: the launch of the world’s most powerful AI datacenter, designed from the ground up with sustainability and communities in mind. With that, I'm pleased to hand the spotlight to Noelle Walsh, President of Microsoft Cloud Operations and Innovation, to share how this vision is coming to life in Wisconsin. 

Microsoft’s datacenters are more than buildings—they’re long-term investments in the places where we operate. I’m grateful to Melanie for the close partnership with her team, which helps us ensure that sustainability is built into every stage of our datacenter lifecycle—from designing and constructing new sites to managing our daily operations.  

Responsible stewardship of resources like energy, water, and land is critically important. Details from our recent announcement of a new $4 billion investment in Wisconsin—bringing our total commitment in the state to $7.3 billion since last May—exemplifies how my team and I are prioritizing sustainability at every step. And Wisconsin is only one of over 400 global datacenters where we are advancing these efforts. Through innovation, partnerships, and operational excellence, we are thoughtfully sourcing and using energy to support today’s demand for digital services. This, in turn, is empowering people and organizations to build the AI tools that we believe will unlock the sustainability solutions of tomorrow. 

• Energy: Demand for electricity is growing globally, not just from datacenters but also from new factories, electric vehicle infrastructure, higher demand for cooling, and many other sources, all of which are driving up electricity rates. Even if datacenters only account for 1.5% of global electricity demand today—a figure that will grow to 3% by 2030—that portion can be much more significant at the scale of a local community. We are committed to ensuring that local household electricity rates do not increase because of our needs. In Wisconsin, I’m proud of our partnership with the local utility, WE Energies, to ensure that we bear responsibility for all the costs of energy and new related infrastructure serving our datacenter operations. My team is also working to ensure that every kilowatt-hour consumed from a fossil fuel source will be matched with carbon-free energy we put back on the regional grid. This includes a new 250 megawatt (MW) solar project in Portage County, Wisconsin. Beyond generating clean power, the solar project includes a $20 million community fund that will support local initiatives.  

• Water: Our innovation in closed-loop liquid cooling systems has fundamentally changed how datacenters use water. We fill the system once when we build the facility, and that same water circulates continuously, cooling over 90% of our servers without evaporating or needing replenishment. As a result, our annualized water use matches that of a typical restaurant. On the hottest days, we use water cooling only as a backup for the few servers that normally rely on outside air, keeping our environmental impact low. We’re also investing in local restoration projects to minimize our footprint and support local ecosystems. 

• AI Innovation: Our new datacenters in Georgia and Wisconsin will constitute the world’s most powerful supercomputers. We need datacenters to power the AI revolution that’s underway, and I’m most excited about the societal benefits that AI itself can deliver. Already, AI is helping optimize electricity grids, discover novel materials that support renewable energy adoption, and measure and protect biodiversity. These benefits will accumulate as we grow the infrastructure to support novel use cases, as well as the skilled workforce we need to innovate atop that infrastructure. That’s why we are partnering with local schools, universities, and organizations to provide AI training and datacenter career pathways. We want communities where we operate to be among the first and greatest beneficiaries of these investments. 

I am proud to lead a team that delivers not just datacenters—but the foundation for the next era of innovation. Rarely has a team had to grow and learn so quickly while maintaining industry-leading safety, reliability, availability, and of course sustainability. We’re listening, learning, and working alongside our neighbors to ensure that our partnership brings lasting, outsized value.  

You can follow our progress and learn more at datacenters.microsoft.com.  

To improve sustainability for next-generation AI chips, Microsoft has successfully tested a new cooling technology that relies on microfluidics. This approach brings liquid coolant directly inside the chip and removes heat up to three times better than traditional cold plates.  

We’re kicking off a new newsletter feature to share insights from peers and partners in sustainability. This month, we’re highlighting Jim Andrew , PepsiCo’s CSO, reflections on New York Climate Week and the power of collective action for systems change. 

“Real change happens when we transform the systems that shape our world. To accelerate climate action...we need bold, collective shifts—across industries, sectors, and governments. That’s why gatherings like Climate Week in New York matter so much—it is an opportunity to bring key players together to spark actionable conversations on how to scale progress faster.” 

Across Microsoft, partners and teams are leading the way for a more sustainable digital future. Beyond our work to advance datacenter innovation, here are a few of the stories that are inspiring us this month:  

🎮 Greener Gaming: Xbox’s Sustainability Toolkit is empowering developers to build energy-efficient games.

🔋Turning Waste into Power: EEW is leading the way in waste-to-energy innovation, using Microsoft’s cloud to boost efficiency and reduce emissions.

🎓Minecraft – Outflow Order: Minecraft Education with UNESCO brings lessons on climate science to life for students around the world.