The company’s journey to becoming carbon negative by 2030 has seen Microsoft commit to using 100% renewable energy in all its data centres and facilities by 2025.
The new data centre region is expected to create over 100 permanent jobs across a variety of functions, including mechanical engineers, electrical engineers and data centre technicians, when the facilities are fully operational, and more than 1,000 construction jobs over the initial building phases.
Once the data centres are operating, they are expected to have an annual economic impact of approximately $20 million across communities in Arizona.
Microsoft announced its commitment to be water positive for its direct operations by 2030.
“We’re tackling our water consumption two ways: reducing our consumption and replenishing water in the regions we operate,” said Brian Janous, General Manager, Energy and Sustainability, Microsoft.
“Since we announced our plans to invest in solar energy in Arizona to build more sustainable data centres last year, we have been working with the communities of El Mirage and Goodyear on water conservation, education and sustainability projects to support local priorities and needs.
“Our data centre design and operations will contribute to the sustainability of our Arizona facilities.”
In Arizona, Microsoft is pursuing a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification, which the company has said will help conserve additional resources including energy and water, generate less waste and support human health.
“We’re also committed to zero waste-certified operations for this new region, which means a minimum of 90% of waste will be diverted away from landfills through reduction, reuse and recycling efforts,” added Janous.
Microsoft’s new data centre region will deliver cloud services. The company’s construction partner, Nox Innovations is helping to build sustainable data centres with the assistance of Microsoft HoloLens 2, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist and Microsoft mixed reality partner solution VisualLive.
