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Microsoft Wants Your Poop to Offset Its AI Data Center Emissions | | | | |
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| Today: Tech giant Microsoft has announced a deal to purchase 4.9 million metric tons of durable carbon dioxide removal from a startup that injects sludgy human and farm waste thousands of feet underground. Plus, new technologies are paving the way for farms to run themselves, with minimal human input; and a forestry investor is selling woodland biomass to a fuel maker in an effort to boost sustainability—and profits. | |
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| |  | | Vaulted Deep's Great Plains facility in Hutchinson, Kan. Photo: Vaulted Deep | | | | |
| Welcome back: Microsoft's carbon footprint is huge. It thinks storing human waste underground might help solve that problem, WSJ Pro Sustainable Business's Yusuf Khan reports. The tech giant's insatiable appetite for power to feed its AI habit is causing a rise in its emissions. To stop its carbon footprint from ballooning, the company is betting on a variety of greenhouse-gas-removal technologies. One of these involves buying human and farm waste and piping it thousands of feet underground through a pump that acts like giant syringe. It is just one of a number of new ways of offsetting carbon that Microsoft is backing, betting that these technologies will help to combat climate change by stopping carbon dioxide and methane from entering the atmosphere. | |
| | | Content from our sponsor: Deloitte |  | | Reporting Season Recap: Financial Disclosure Trends | | A study of three disclosure requirements shows how Fortune 500 companies addressed new rules on segment expenses, cybersecurity, and executive compensation. Read More | | | | | | |
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Drones, AI and Robot Pickers: Meet the Fully Autonomous Farm | |
| |  | | A drone is deployed to take multispectral images of a field to document drainage and the amount of weeds. Photo: Dan DeLong/Microsoft | | | | |
| Imagine a farm where autonomous tractors, drones and harvesters are guided by AI that tweaks operations based on soil and weather data. Sensors would track plant health across thousands of acres, triggering sprays or irrigation exactly where needed, William Boston writes for the WSJ. Farmers could swap long hours in the cab for monitoring dashboards and making high-level decisions. Every seed, drop of water and ounce of fertilizer would be optimized to boost yields and protect the land—driven by a connected system that gets smarter with each season. Much of the technology to power an autonomous revolution in agriculture already exists or is nearly ready for market launch. | |
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Qarlbo Biodiversity Aims to Reshape Timber Production | |
| |  | | Qarlbo Biodiversity's forest holdings in Louisiana. Photo: Qarlbo Biodiversity | | | | |
| Qarlbo Biodiversity has agreed to sell as much as 500,000 tons of wood and other material harvested through forest thinning—removing trees and underbrush to improve health and growth—to a biofuels company in Canada in an effort to improve sustainability in timber production while also benefiting the environment and profits, WSJ Pro's Luis Garcia reports. The investment and forestry management business is seeking to make forest operations more supportive of biodiversity. That includes preserving native species and creating more diverse woodlands that provide richer wildlife habitats. For example, Qarlbo is planting native longleaf pine trees in areas of its Louisiana forest currently populated with the more common loblolly and slash pine, while also seeking to support a threatened woodpecker. Timber producers often reject management methods like those used by Qarlbo because they are more costly and reduce output, the company said. Qarlbo's goal is to demonstrate that its biodiversity-focused strategy can generate additional sources of revenue that compensate for higher costs. | |
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| | | 87% | | Share of U.S. companies who say they've quietly increased sustainability spending this year, according to research out this week by sustainability-ratings company EcoVardis. | | | | |
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- Shares in Asia-Pacific battery-material producers rise as U.S. moves to impose tariffs on Chinese graphite. (WSJ)
- Catastrophe bond sales hit record as insurers offload climate risks. (FT)
- HSBC hit by backlash from green clients after net zero exit. (Bloomberg)
- Palo Alto Networks signs deal for 10,000 tons of carbon removal with Occidental's 1PointFive. (ESG Today)
- Does sustainability matter to oil and gas companies? (Forbes)
- No, corporate sustainability is not dying. (Trellis)
- Spain's Zelestra aims to power Peru mines with $1 billion renewables investment. (Reuters)
- Petrobras appoints Angélica Laureano as energy transition chief. (ESG News)
- Gas flaring created 389 million tonnes of carbon pollution last year, report finds. (Guardian)
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