This year marks the inaugural year for Microsoft to present its Sustainability Partner of the Year Award.  The award recognizes exceptional partners who have delivered software and technology innovations built on the Microsoft platform that help people and organizations around the world reduce their impact on the environment. 

The results are in!  We are pleased to share the news that from among a highly competitive field of nominations from around the world, we have a Winner and two Finalists:    

Winner: 

OSIsoft is the developer of the PI System®, an enterprise infrastructure for management of real-time data and events. More than 8,000 customers in 110 countries use the PI System to drive continuous improvement in operational performance and resource efficiency.  OSIsoft has enabled customers to reduce and manage energy and water consumption, resulting in millions of dollars of cost reduction and revenue growth – real business and environmental value:  

• Alcoa - By exercising an Industrial Scale Demand Response strategy at the Warrick Operations Smelter, Alcoa was able to lower operating cost and help Midwest ISO deliver reliable power back to ten states and one province, thus becoming both a producer and consumer in the Midwest power market and constructing a more sustainable market.
• IBM Burlington - By using the PI System, IBM has achieved over $10M in annual savings, reduced water usage by 27%, reduced operating costs - minimizing environmental impact while increasing manufacturing capability by 30%.
• Halifax Regional Water Commission (HRWC) – By using the PI System, HRWC was able to reduce water leakage, and save $650,000 year which equates to saving $2/person per year. They practice “Sustainability on both sides of the meter” which means not only reducing their water loss but also providing their largest industrial customers with real-time water consumption data which in turn has reduced water demand by 15% for some customers.
• Water Corporation (Perth, Australia) – While incorporating weather data, they monitor their brine discharge from their desalination plant in real-time to ensure sea life in the surrounding area is unharmed. Using the PI System, Water Corp. has a KPI dashboard for 1000 wastewater pumping stations to forecast the next service required (work order) based on operating conditions (CBM). (By land area served, they are the largest water utility in the world.)

Finalist:

Johnson Controls is the developer of Metasys®, an enterprise building energy management and control system.  With Metasys, companies have better visibility to how their buildings are performing, make dynamic decisions that save money with less energy use, and reduce their carbon impact.  Some compelling examples of the energy and money saved by Johnson Controls’ customers are:

• The Empire State Building, expecting to reduce its energy use by 38%, save 105,000 metric tons of carbon over 15 years, and save $4.4M in annual energy costs.
• IDeAs, one of the first zero energy/net-zero carbon emissions commercial office buildings in the United States, consuming 60% less energy than a conventional building.
• University of Massachusetts Amherst, able to implement 38 energy conservation measures resulting in over $55M in energy savings over 10 years.

Finalist:

Power generation utilities today are confronted to the increase of intermittent renewable generation such as wind and solar. To help them face these challenges, Alstom Power, with strong support from Infosys, has developed an innovative application named ‘OptiPlant’. Based on latest Microsoft technologies, it allows power utilities to aggregate, consolidate and analyze the data of a single power plant or a fleet of power plants in real-time. Suited for all fuels (thermal, hydro, wind and solar), OptiPlant provides real-time decision support to optimize the control of power generation in terms of flexibility, technical and financial performance, maintenance and emissions. As a result, it improves the return on assets and lowers the environmental impact of energy production by helping realize efficiency gains and make full use of renewable energies. This achievement celebrates 10 years of continuous partnership between Alstom and Infosys.

We would like to congratulate our Winner and Finalists and thank all of our nominated partners who demonstrated impressive solutions and services that are helping their customers achieve their sustainability goals! 

We look forward to seeing our partners at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) in Los Angeles from July 10th-14th.  Registration is still open at www.digitalwpc.com .  We hope to see you there!