The company is pledging to remove more carbon from the atmosphere than it emits by the next decade, and to remove all carbon it has emitted since its founding in 1975, across its operations and supply chain, in 30 years. It will invest US$1 billion to develop carbon-removal technology and release a “sustainability calculator” for its cloud customers. (The Logic)

Talking point: This takes Microsoft a step beyond its major competitors. Amazon pledged to be carbon neutral by 2040; Apple uses 100 per cent renewable energy for all its stores, offices and data centres, while Google bought enough clean energy to offset its annual usage. Facebook said it would achieve that marker this year and reduce its carbon footprint by 75 per cent from 2017 levels next year. Microsoft said it’s been carbon neutral since 2012, mainly by purchasing offsets, but now plans to have its facilities running on 100 per cent renewable energy by 2025 and to completely electrify its campus vehicle fleet by 2030 to reduce the 16 million metric tons of emissions it will produce in 2020. The company has faced criticism from its employees over its links to the oil and gas industry after it struck deals with Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Schlumberger to move their data into the cloud.