'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean?
ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing.
When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or service, we may earn affiliate commissions. This helps support our work, but does not affect what we cover or how, and it does not affect the price you pay. Neither ZDNET nor the author are compensated for these independent reviews. Indeed, we follow strict guidelines that ensure our editorial content is never influenced by advertisers.
ZDNET's editorial team writes on behalf of you, our reader. Our goal is to deliver the most accurate information and the most knowledgeable advice possible in order to help you make smarter buying decisions on tech gear and a wide array of products and services. Our editors thoroughly review and fact-check every article to ensure that our content meets the highest standards. If we have made an error or published misleading information, we will correct or clarify the article. If you see inaccuracies in our content, please report the mistake via this form.
Microsoft invests $50 million in LanzaJet for sustainable datacenter fuel
Microsoft's Climate Innovation Fund has invested $50 million in LanzaJet, a sustainable fuels company. The money will go toward the construction of the Freedom Pines Fuels Plant in Soperton, Ga., which LanzaJet says is the world's first alcohol-to-jet sustainable fuel production plant.
Microsoft is interested in sustainable fuels as a way to make its cloud datacenters less dependent on diesel fuel. LanzaJet says it will bring lower-cost sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel to the global market. LanzaJet says its plant will use waste-based ethanol feedstock as the source for its converted fuel.
Microsoft officials have said the company is committed to being carbon-negative by 2030 and removing from the environment all the carbon it has emitted to date by 2050.
Microsoft currently is on track to build between 50 and 100 new data centers every year. It is working to reduce concrete-and steel-embodied carbon in its building materials by 30% to 60%. It is working to invest in new sustainable materials for building foundations, structures, and enclosures. It is researching how low-carbon materials like earthen slabs, algae-grown bricks/panels, mushroom structural tubes, and agricultural waste panels can help reduce carbon emissions. Additionally, the company has signed power-purchase agreements for renewable energy.
In 2020, Microsoft officials said they were testing hydrogen fuel cells as a potential replacement for diesel fuel in its data centers.