2015 Citizenship Report shows how Microsoft is making a difference

[Guest Brad Smith]

Microsoft’s corporate citizenship commitments and actions support our company mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

 

In our 2015 Citizenship Report, which we published this week, you will find information about how these commitments and actions are implemented through our company policies, practices and products, as well as through our investment in communities.

 

During fiscal year 2015, Microsoft made progress on a number of fronts:

 

• Becoming the first major cloud provider independently verified for meeting the world’s first international standard for cloud privacy (called ISO/IEC 27018);
  
• Purchasing more than 3 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of renewable energy (equal to 100 percent of our global electricity use) and becoming the second largest user of green power in the U.S., according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency;
  
• Launching new policies to ensure that our U.S. suppliers provide paid leave to their employees who handle our work;
  
• Creating education, employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for millions of young people worldwide through our global YouthSpark initiative;
  
• Donating more than $922 million in software and services to more than 120,000 nonprofit organizations around the globe, including more than 1 million new Office 365 licenses for nonprofit workers and their strategic volunteers;
  
• For the second year in a row, surpassing $1 billion in total company annual giving.
  

 

As we work to create more personal computing, build the intelligent cloud and reinvent productivity and business processes, our citizenship commitments and actions play an important part in earning and keeping the trust of our customers, investors and others.

 

We recognize that there is always more that we can do, and we welcome ongoing feedback from our many stakeholders around the world. We look forward to hearing from you.

 

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