Microsoft plans to make 825,000 Xbox consoles carbon neutral

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Let's hope it has a major impact.

What you need to know

  • The climate crisis is real and consumers and companies must work together to tackle it.
  • Microsoft just announced plans to reduce its carbon emissions and much more.
  • It's even going to make 825,000 Xbox consoles carbon neutral.
  • You can read about some of its other environmental plans below.

The climate crisis is a massive problem that not only consumers, but large companies have to tackle. Today, Microsoft announced that it was going to take substantial steps to make its productions and operations more environmentally friendly. While the company has a number of initiatives it's going to push, it also plans to make 825,000 Xbox consoles carbon neutral. You can read about the major programs below.

  • Microsoft is aligning its operations with a 1.5C climate scenario. This means that the company will take an even more aggressive approach in making sure its actions don't have a detrimental impact on the planet.
  • Microsoft will extend carbon reduction work into our supply chain when it comes to its products.
  • Going forward, Microsoft will make 825,000 Xbox consoles carbon neutral. It's unclear if these are Xbox One devices or upcoming Project Scarlett units. These are the first gaming consoles to be carbon neutral when compared to Nintendo and Sony.
  • Microsoft will put technology in the hands of others for the good of the planet. Through various software initiatives, the company will, hopefully, enable certain individuals and companies to solve the greatest climate crisis issues facing us right now.

You can read about what Microsoft plans to do in great detail here (opens in new tab). It's great to see that the company is taking the climate crisis seriously.

Xbox (opens in new tab)

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Asher Madan
Asher Madan

Asher Madan handles gaming news for Windows Central. Before joining Windows Central in 2017, Asher worked for a number of different gaming outlets. He has a background in medical science and is passionate about all forms of entertainment, cooking, and antiquing.
17 Comments
  • I'm all for this. 👍
  • Who wouldn't really ? 👌
  • There are some people who have convinced themselves that climate change is some elaborate hoax manufactured by some nonexistent elite (that would actually suffer from doing something about it). Most of the world believes climate change must be done something about but the US made it into a partisan issue. All for short term economic gains by the real elite.
  • Sad but true. If only those people would just listen more to the majority of scientists / scientific research, but no they prefer to listen to media and politicians just spewing nonsense based on nothing.
  • Funny how it went from global cooling... to global warming... to Climate Change... excuse me if I'm a little bit leery to believe governments around the world. And a bunch of meaningless non-binding resolutions passed and signed for a dog and pony shows that no signing member intends to follow-though on because of the immense cost and loss of jobs... Not to mention I could never get behind this so-called Climate Change movement that calls for the prosecution of "Climate Change Deniers" That actually sounds extremely dangerous to me. But, yes I do like alternate sources of energy... But they are nowhere near ready to replace fossil fuels. Good on MS for starting to make the Xbox carbon-neutral though.
  • But isn't that how a capitalistic society works? Profits ahead of everything else.
    Healthcare, Prisons, Food, Schools, Airlines etc.
  • @CW
    It's amazing how these major companies have so much power. It's amazing how lobbyist have the power and influence to make people think a certain way. And how they managed to make this into a political issue.
    It's not a stupid right vs left thing. This goes beyond political parties and national political.
  • What does this mean? Does it mean the xbox units will each be able to produce as much power as they consume or does it mean that the manufacturing process will not consume more than it produces? The wording seems rather ambiguous.
  • Climate crisis? Like right now? I don't think there's a climate crisis. There's a potential problem that people are getting 50 to 80 year advance warnings about. The consensus of climate scientists is about humans causing warming that began in the latter part of the 20th century and will continue through the 21st century. There's no consensus about a "crisis" – that feels like hype. If anyone knows of a survey of climate scientists that asked about a crisis, please link it.
  • There's snow in the forecast this week where I'm at. Second year in a row in September. Climate change is real.
  • If this article from the BBC is to be believed, and I assume measures such as sea level rises and temperature increases are facts rather than opinions; https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49773869 then perhaps we should be taking it a little more seriously. From a personal perspective, I'm wondering why we seem to get 'once in a lifetime' storms and other serious weather patterns happening so frequently now, that perhaps we should be starting to get worried.
  • @SolarOne
    How do you define crisis? We can already see the changes. Looks at trends and model. Changes have to be done sooner rather than later. Here is a consensus:
    https://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/
    They are talking of urgent action needed to be taken. You say "There's a potential problem that people are getting 50 to 80 year advance warnings about".
    Can you tell how did you come to that conclusion? Anyway here is an article that may be interesting.
    https://climate.nasa.gov/faq/16/is-it-too-late-to-prevent-climate-change/
  • So their entire sales of xbox one will be carbon neutral. Nice!
  • The climate change is real always has been. It is not a cricis, a change of less than a degree over the next 100 years and sea levels increaseing under a foot in that same 100 years. This is just Microsoft trying to make people feel good about doing nothing. Good marketing though, most powerful marketing tool is emotionally appeal. That is why politicians love to do it pull on people's emotions to gain power, wealth and that is what politicians/Marketing does. Just lick and tool it can be used for good or bad. Although People who tell me how I should live or want too tell me how I should live at the same time note living like that but gaining power from it I do not see them using this tool for good, it is self serving.
  • Article with no substance. The link to "about what Microsoft plans to do in great detail" just leads to Microsoft Store. I dont believe Microsoft could make the Xbox carbon neutral even using 100% recycled materials and recycling. Perhaps they intend to use some of the profits to protect the Amazon. Why not tell?
  • I agree about the article. From what I've seen, it's pilot programme that is aimed to certify these consoles as carbon neutral.
    What does this mean? What are the actions taken? I didn't find any details of that. ofc these certifications like always can be so many things.
    I think it's a step in the right direction even though I also think it's mostly communication and for the goo image.
  • I think it's a step in the right direction. But even though MS have communicated a lot about how "green" they are and want to be, there are a lot of contradictions with this company. They have been associate members and help fund the State Policy Network (SPN). Some of the policies of that organisation include cutting taxes, opposing climate change regulations, advocating reductions in labour protections and the minimum wage, privatising education, restricting voter rights and lobbying for the tobacco industry.
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/14/facebook-microsoft-rightwi... They are also members of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), which has worked for decades to delay action on climate change and has been so proactive in anti-climate action projects. Then they joined Climate Leadership Council, a conservative-led group that demands fossil fuel companies be granted legal immunity from attempts to claw back damages from the climate change they helped cause.
    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/may/01/microsoft-joins-group... Then they supported a conference that promoted climate change denialism.
    https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/23/18194432/facebook-google-microsoft-li...