Exclusive video: Cloud and Clean Energy at Cloud & 5G LIVE
Closing day one of Cloud & 5G LIVE, Brian Marrs graced the virtual stage to talk the event’s audience through the future of data centre sustainability design in light of Microsoft’s data centre energy and carbon negative strategies.
The Senior Director of Energy & Carbon Removal at Microsoft, based out of the company’s Redmond, Washington headquarters, has more than 15 years of global commercial experience in the cloud and energy industries, drives efforts to execute Microsoft’s data centre energy and carbon negative strategies, and has led teams focused on energy infrastructure planning, energy supply agreements, utility partnerships, and most recently, carbon removal.
Cloud and Clean Energy Tech Innovation and Sustainability Impact for the Future of Data Centre with Susanna Kass, Co-Founder of InfraPrime and Brian Marrs, Senior Director, Energy & Carbon Removal at Microsoft
Guest hosted by Co-Founder of InfraPrime and Energy Fellow at Stanford University Susanna Kass, Marrs joined Cloud & 5G LIVE for the closing session to discuss Microsoft's data centre energy and carbon negative strategies, achievements in carbon removal, and the future of data centre sustainability design.
“I’m really excited about carbon removal,” he stressed, highlighting how this, he anticipates, the next generation approach to sustainability, calling it the “missing piece” in the run up to net zero — or in Microsoft’s eyes, going above that. Microsoft is the biggest company worldwide undertaking carbon removal, he said.
Marrs also looked across the entire supply chain when it comes to reductions in a bid to reach net zero, calling for Microsoft’s lengths of suppliers to pull together to solve what he summarised as a “collective action problem”.
Emphasising the importance of partner collaboration and pilot projects, Marrs highlighted Microsoft’s deals in carbon removal technologies, clean energy procurement, and supply chain emissions reduction.
“Scope three in supply chain emissions is the final frontier in terms of reductions towards net-zero,” he proclaimed. “It's a massive collective action problem where we need suppliers to coordinate across large geographic boundaries.”
With AI being a hot topic of the moment, Marrs also touched on the potential role AI can play in advancing carbon removal technology and its impact on the wider data centre industry.
“I'm hopeful and bullish that AI can be a powerful tool to help unlock innovation in battery chemistries, carbon capture, and more,” Marrs shared. “We're in the early days of AI, but it can play a role in decarbonisation and carbon removal.”
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