Wiwynn adopts Microsoft Sustainability Cloud to align with the international decarbonization initiatives

21st June 2023, Taipei—It’s a commitment to reaching net zero. To get there, Taiwan's leading cloud data center infrastructure provider, Wiwynn, is collaborating with Microsoft Taiwan. Wiwynn is implementing Microsoft's sustainable cloud services, to achieve its vision of "Unleash the Power of Digitalization, Ignite the Innovation of Sustainability”.

Wiwynn’s race towards green transformation involves responding to supply chain changes while meeting end customers' demands for carbon footprint reduction. With its mission to consistently develop sustainable products along with its participation in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and Taiwan Climate Partnership, Wiwynn has set goals to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040. It’s also aiming for 100% green energy usage by 2030.

As cloud computing becomes more integral to industries across the world, Wiwynn's operations have expanded to Asia, Europe, North America, and South America. They provide customers with tailored, diverse, and global-scale data centers and cloud IT infrastructure solutions. However, the company’s growing reach can also pose challenges in collecting and integrating carbon emission data across different information system architectures.

Wiwynn's Chief Sustainability Officer, Harry Chen states Microsoft solutions can help address those growth issues. "In response to global sustainability awareness and action, Wiwynn is actively engaged in carbon reduction initiatives. Since 2020, we have conducted organizational carbon inventories and implemented carbon reduction measures in our production and business procedures. This includes the use of renewable energy and recycled materials, adopting low-carbon manufacturing practices, and collaborating with supply chain partners for supply chain carbon inventories. The adoption of Microsoft Sustainable Cloud by Wiwynn is based on its data integration and analysis capabilities, as well as its comprehensive solutions, which enhance our core sustainability capabilities."

Microsoft Taiwan's General Manager of the Enterprise Commercial, Dylan Li emphasizes the wider environmental benefits of the initiative, "As Taiwan holds a crucial position in the global industry, it is imperative for us to drive low-carbon transformation on the path to a green supply chain. Microsoft Taiwan has collaborated extensively with industry partner Wiwynn in the past, leveraging technology and sustainability to drive mutual development. We are delighted that Wiwynn is able to address the challenges of integrating complex carbon emissions data through sustainable cloud services, effectively achieving our carbon management goals and aligning with international sustainability standards."

Accelerating Wiwynn’s comprehensive supply chain carbon inventory project and creating a cross-border sustainable supply chain with Microsoft Sustainable Cloud

Wiwynn initiated its supply chain carbon inventory in 2022 and launched supply chain carbon questionnaires and training for 236 suppliers in April 2023. The goal was to increase awareness and understanding of carbon issues within the supply chain. This year, they intend to further integrate supply chain carbon data through a carbon platform, enabling automated and digitalized carbon emissions management for greater efficiency while laying the foundation for future net-zero emissions.

In February of this year, Wiwynn leveraged Microsoft Sustainable Cloud services to create the Wiwynn Carbon Management Platform. It’s expected to officially launch in the second half of the year with three major modules: Organizational Carbon Inventory, Supplier Carbon Management, and Product Carbon Footprint. Through more efficient data collection and analysis, the aim is to increase the frequency of inventories from once a year to once a month, enhancing carbon management capabilities.

Wiwynn's Chief Information Officer, James Wen explains "In the past, Wiwynn faced challenges in obtaining the necessary data sources for carbon inventories. Data was scattered across different locations, making it difficult to extract, calculate, store, and analyse. With the deployment of Microsoft Sustainability Cloud, which covers data elements from Scope 1 to Scope 3 of carbon inventories, Wiwynn can directly import and connect with internal systems, integrating carbon emission data from various stages of the supply chain, identifying key areas for analysis and significantly enhancing carbon inventory efficiency."

Wiwynn will connect 6 internal systems and 15 external data sources with the Sustainable Cloud platform. The data collection and integration are primarily enhanced through solutions such as Microsoft Sustainability Manager and Power Platform, which provide scalability. The main elements include:

• Microsoft Sustainability Manager, a highly integrated subscription-based SaaS service that includes the Emission Impact Dashboard. By simply importing data, organizations can instantly view various indicators of their carbon inventories, significantly reducing the barriers for Wiwynn in the initial development and implementation of carbon management data systems.
• The Common Data Model for Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability which defines carbon-related data entities and effectively simplifies the complexity of carbon data governance. Future upgrades will expand the scope of the existing data structure, allowing Wiwynn to directly utilize the information without the need for custom definitions.
• Microsoft Power Platform which integrates with Wiwynn's existing Azure data hub and other Microsoft services. It supports Low-Code/No-Code development methods, enhancing platform flexibility and future scalability.
• Leveraging digital tools such as Power Pages and Power Apps to develop a carbon management module for suppliers. This enables automatic data integration into Microsoft Sustainability Manager for calculation after survey distribution on the platform. This in turn enhances the efficiency of upstream supplier carbon emissions data collection and achieves automation in the data management process.

Microsoft is deeply committed to a greener and sustainable technology advancement. That is evidenced by data from the "Microsoft 2022 Environmental Sustainability Report," which shows that total emissions decreased by 0.5% in 2022, despite global business growing 18% that year. Emissions in Scope 1 and Scope 2 were reduced by 22.7%. Microsoft aims to lead by example and inspire upstream and downstream partners to take collective green action. The Sustainable Cloud service introduced by Microsoft is based on its own carbon reduction and supply chain management experiences. The service empowers businesses to drive sustainability-focused digital transformation while strengthening their competitive edge in sustainability.

Microsoft Taiwan's Business Application Lead Yifan Chen, states that "Microsoft is committed to helping customers improve operational efficiency and achieve net-zero goals. According to statistics, nearly 90% of greenhouse gas emissions from most businesses occur in the areas upstream and downstream of the value chain. Microsoft Sustainability Manager released a preview in June providing emission calculation models for all 15 categories in Scope 3, enabling customers to store, calculate, and generate relevant data reports, with future potential for AI-based data analysis. The Sustainable Cloud also assists businesses in collecting data on quantified emissions, water resources, waste, and other metrics compliant with ESRS standards, while tracking progress according to the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi), thus addressing challenges faced by businesses in their green transformation and supporting the creation of sustainable supply chains."

Wiwynn also plans to leverage the Microsoft Sustainable Cloud to develop a dedicated sustainability roadmap, expanding carbon management from the enterprise level to product-level. They are committed to providing IT solutions that optimize efficiency and energy usage, aligning with Wiwynn's vision of creating a cross-border green supply chain while driving innovation in the ICT industry's sustainable wave.