When a company tries to cut its carbon footprint, how far should it cast the net? Is it responsible for the choices of its customers? What if it sells something that doesn’t have a carbon footprint at all – until the second it’s used?
For some companies, flush with cash, the answer is easy enough. Microsoft, for instance, has committed to becoming carbon negative by 2030, and ultimately removing from the environment all the carbon it has ever emitted by 2050. In that accounting, it’s even accepting the cost of downstream use of its products: if you’ve powered an Xbox on a diesel generator, or charged a Zune using coal power, Microsoft will offset those emissions.
