Accenture and Microsoft expanding joint venture focused on C&I Energy Transition

Global consulting firm Accenture and tech giant Microsoft are expanding on long-term joint venture Avanade, by providing solutions for organisations to transform their value chains, operations, products and services and accelerate their transition to net zero.

The focus will expand to the broader environmental, social and governance challenges faced by companies in the future. Specifically, the firms will deliver innovative solutions to reduce carbon emissions and offer advisory services to help the companies reduce emissions and eliminate wastage of resources, like water, raw materials and food.

These they plan to deliver by combining Accenture’s Sustainability Services, Avanade’s human-centered digital experience and the Microsoft Cloud as well as their data and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. Horizontal and industry-specific sustainability challenges will be addressed.

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“Increasingly, as all stakeholders look to business to move from commitment to action on environmental challenges, companies that embed sustainability across their enterprises can become a powerful force for change,” said Julie Sweet, chair and chief executive officer of Accenture. “Our partnership with Microsoft and Avanade will help organizations find new value at the intersection of technology and sustainability – from embracing green software development principles and sustainable cloud migrations, to digital twin technology adoption – to drive stronger performance and competitiveness, and make progress on their decarbonization goals and their journey to net zero.”

The firms will co-develop offerings across four areas:

·        Digital Manufacturing Transition

·         Low Carbon Energy Transition

·         Sustainable IT with Microsoft Azure and Green Software Engineering

·         ESG Measurement, Analytics and Performance with Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability

The joint offerings for Digital Manufacturing Transition will improve asset utilisation and business models to ensure circularity. Digital twin technology will be used to help reduce material consumption, waste and emissions and enhance value chain transparency.

Joint offerings for Low Carbon Energy Transition will connect and integrate energy infrastructure, build carbon intelligence and transform customer offers and business models to deliver such low carbon experiences.

As Accenture research shows that shifting to the public cloud can reduce energy usage by 65% and emissions by over 84%, the firms will develop new solutions on Microsoft Azure, spanning strategy development and evaluation of existing IT infrastructure, developing and piloting solutions, adopting a carbon aware approach to green software engineering and migration and business transformation.

The firms will also build data and develop sustainability intelligence for value chains to provide actionable data-led insights.