What you need to know
- Microsoft is investing in carbon vacuum cleaner technology.
- It's joining forces with Audi and Coca-Cola to do so.
- Not everyone thinks this tech is practical.
CO2 vacuum cleaners may be the way of the future. Microsoft and Audi are investing in the innovation, while Coca-Cola is buying the carbon caught.
As the Wall Street Journal outlines during its video on the topic, this technology is seriously expensive business, which is a barrier to widespread adoption. Energy requirements are also a concern, and between those two obstacles, the tech isn't really all that scalable at the moment. But that's where all those banking on the tech are hoping to change things.
This is just the tip of the (global warming ravaged, melting) iceberg when it comes to Microsoft's sustainability ambitions for both the planet as a whole as well as its own corporate activities. For example, Microsoft has invested heavily in geothermal technology to cool and heat its campus, opting to try to absorb the clean benefits of what's beneath the earth's surface rather than go for the traditional electricity wasting, gas-burning options that are air conditioners and furnaces.
And Microsoft's not hoarding its sustainability knowledge. Beyond investing in tech both within its own organization as well as externally, Microsoft's also made efforts to spread the wealth to industry peers. Recently, with its Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability package, the company gave others the tools they needed to keep tabs on their resource usage and adopt plans for a more sustainable tomorrow.
The CO2 vacuum tech and geothermal wells aren't Microsoft's only unconventional initiatives. The company's also recently dabbled with giving servers baths in an effort to reduce energy traditionally spent on cooling.
