An Environmental Opportunity Audit: Microsoft 365 in K-12 Classrooms

The Gates Foundation is a self-proclaimed global leader in advancing educational innovations and equity around the world. With their significant investment in digital learning tools, infrastructure, and data storage-systems, the foundation attempts to shape the education systems around the world by adopting and implementing new technologies in the classrooms (Gates Foundation, n.d.).

Nonetheless, as the environmental crisis brews and calls for environmental accountability intensify, important questions emerge: Does the Gates Foundation continue to invest in cloud-based education platforms like Office 365, and do these platforms align with their populist commitments to sustainability, global well-being, ethical innovations and equity?

As an opportunity auditor, I will attempt to address and answer this question by examining the hidden environmental costs of Microsoft 365, especially in the Grade 5-7 classes I support this year. This audit is meant to bring attention to the Gates Foundation, considering and evaluating the long-term sustainability risks associated with cloud-based infrastructure, device manufacturing, data centre energy use, and the ethical dilemmas embedded and present in global supply chain.