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News hardware & software 24 September 2019, 19:17

author: Barth Faryna

Microsoft and Xbox Go Carbon Neutral

Microsoft joins the fight for a better future for our planet and becomes part of the „Playing for the Planet” initiative. In addition, the company announces the creation of the first consoles completely neutral in terms of carbon dioxide emissions.

Microsoft is going to fight for a better tomorrow for our planet.

Microsoft is joining other big brands fighting for a better tomorrow for our planet. The company has undertaken to take additional measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. Among other things, a pilot programme to produce 825,000 carbon neutral consoles was launched. They will be the first devices of this type in the world.

In the information on the company's blog we read:

"Microsoft’s business operations have operated carbon neutral since 2012. Today we are beginning the journey of extending that to our products and devices with a pilot to make 825,000 Xbox consoles carbon neutral. These are the first gaming consoles to be carbon neutral."

Unfortunately, at the moment we do not know which generation of devices the information concerns. It might as well be about the upcoming Xbox Scarlet as Xbox One or Xbox One X.

But that's not all. The company also intends to focus on reducing CO2 emissions in its supply chain by at least 30% before 2030. Microsoft wants to go even further and do more for the environment than was agreed at the UN climate summit.

At the moment it is not known which consoles will be completely neutral in terms of CO2 emissions / Source: Microsoft.

It is also worth mentioning the "Playing for the Planet" initiative, which was joined by 21 companies, including Microsoft. According to the announcement, all these manufacturers intend, among other things, to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere by 30 million tonnes by 2030, plant millions of trees, improve energy management in game design and implement better solutions for packaging products and reprocessing the materials used for their production.

All this information is the result of an open letter published by Microsoft employees last week. They demanded more green business from the company and called for the cancellation of contracts with companies producing fossil fuels.

The video game industry is a major contributor to the worsening of climate change in the world. The latest report showed that consoles alone emit the same amount of CO2 into the atmosphere every year as 2.3 million cars - 12 million metric tonnes. Another report from a few years ago showed that the gaming industry is responsible for emissions of 2% of total CO2 produced by mankind on Earth.