The REP Wrap: Emissions up at Microsoft as it achieves other targets
Microsoft’s emissions were 23.5% higher last year than in 2020, despite the firm remaining saying it is “steadfast” in its commitment to be carbon negative, water positive, and waste free by the end of the decade. In its 2025 sustainability report, published this week, Microsoft said AI and cloud expansion had driven the emissions, but that it was “encouraged by the fact that this increase has been modest compared to the 168% increase in energy use and 71% revenue growth that has taken place over the same period”. The company has surpassed some of its 2025 targets, including protecting more land than it uses, and diverting construction and demolition waste.
The transaction value of the voluntary carbon market contracted by 29% last year, according to the latest annual overview from Ecosystem Marketplace. Total market transaction volume declined by 25% from 2023, and the average price of a carbon credit stopped 5.5%. The findings point to a continued but slowing decline since 2022. Credits generated by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere accounted for 5% of those traded in 2024, and were 381% more expensive credits generated by removing emissions.
The UK Government has launched a consultation on mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting for companies with more than 250 employees. The proposals include the introduction of a framework similar to the one already used in the UK for reporting on the gender pay gap. It closed on June 10th.
Cisco, Costco Wholesale and Nestle have been praised for their leadership in tackling slavery in their supply chains. CCLA Investment Management published a global benchmark looking at how large companies with operations in the UK were managing modern slavery. Most are meeting the minimum legal requirements, it found, but it concluded than more than a third were taking insufficient action. Cisco, Costco and Nestle were the only ones pursing best practice.
It could take up to 30 years for recycled plastic to reach cost parity with virgin production in Europe, predicts Bain & Company. A report on the subject said the process could also cost more than €400bn in cumulative global capital expenditures. “The question for plastics producers is no longer whether chemical recycling will scale. It’s who will own the critical positions in the value chain when it does,” said Bain, suggesting that firms have so far hesitated to “invest meaningfully” in chemical recycling.
The EU’s corporate reporting body, EFRAG, is hiring a firm to conduct a cost/benefit analysis of planned revisions to the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). A preliminary report based on the draft proposals will have to be delivered by the end of September, followed by a final version in December. EFRAG also released the first version of its VSME digital template and tagging taxonomy this week, and its draft comment letter on the IASB’s planned amendments to IFSR S2.
The Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance has launched a platform to connect buyers of sustainability aviation fuel certificates with sellers. The alliance, launched in 2021, said the project could facilitate $30m of transactions. Initial participants are Alaska Air, Future Energy Global, International Airlines Group, JetBlue, Targray, and Valero, Bank of America, Boeing, Boston Consulting Group, Deloitte, JPMorgan Chase, McKinsey & Company, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix and Salesforce). The platform provides buyers with information about particular certificates, and they can contact the sellers directly.