NatWest Group and Microsoft have partnered to help UK businesses better understand their carbon footprint and create tailored action plans to reduce their emissions by using digital tech.

The project, which is to be piloted later this year, will draw from Microsoft’s cloud, data and AI platform and NatWest Group’s customer knowledge.

A research phase which surveyed 500 business customers of different sizes, found that 88 per cent of respondents said reducing their indirect emissions is difficult to get external support for.

Insights from NatWest’s customer research also showed that 68 per cent of sustainability/supply chain managers have a target date to become carbon neutral, while 47 per cent of businesses are creating a multi-year plan to reduce their footprint.

But a further 41 per cent said reducing indirect emissions was “very challenging” or “incredibly challenging” for them.

The bank said for businesses that haven’t yet started their transition, the biggest barriers they face are a lack of information and data, alongside a lack of resource or funding.

“Tackling climate change is one of the biggest challenges of our time,” said Alison Rose, chief executive, NatWest Group. “As the leading bank in the UK for businesses, we have a significant responsibility, and the ability, to encourage, enable and to lead the way in the UK to transition to a net zero carbon economy.”

She said that cross-industry collaboration and powerful partnerships will help to “accelerate the speed of the transition.”

“At Microsoft we grounded our carbon negative strategy in the belief that technology can help solve the world's biggest challenges,” said Clare Barclay, chief executive, Microsoft UK. “We are focused upon pulling all of the levers of influence we have including our operations as a customer, supplier, investor, employer, policy advocate and partner."

She added: “We are proud to partner with NatWest on its bold sustainability aspirations. Partnerships help us accelerate progress and together I'm looking forward to enabling more UK businesses to drive the progress we so urgently need.”

NatWest Group has set ambitions to make its own operations climate positive by 2025, having achieved net zero in 2020, and to halve the climate impact of its financing activity by 2030.

In January 2020, Microsoft announced its goal to be carbon negative by 2030 and remove more carbon from the environment than it has emitted since its founding by 2050.

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