Today, we’re excited to announce the launch of the “VMware Zero Carbon Committed” cloud provider initiative—supported by Atea, Equinix, IBM, Microsoft, and OVHcloud as our inaugural partners. The VMware Zero Carbon Committed (ZCC) initiative recognizes our VMware Cloud Verified providers who have a commitment to use 100% renewable energy to power their data centers by 2030 (or >50% by 2025). These partners are also recognized for operating the full virtualization stack of compute, storage and networking that enables infrastructure-, energy- and carbon-efficient data center operations based on VMware software-defined-data-center platform.    

How to become a VMware Zero Carbon Committed partner?

Following are the requirements for a Cloud Verified partner to join VMware Zero Carbon Committed initiative:

1. Provider needs to be “Cloud Verified” partner with at least one Cloud Verified data center.
2. Cloud provider has:
   • A public commitment of 100% renewable energy or a net-zero carbon goal to be achieved by 2030 (or >50% renewable energy by 2025) that covers partner’s data center operations, including VMware cloud data centers.
   • Achieved at least 15% of the above goal by end of 2021.
3. Cloud provider verifies that:
   • Its renewable energy or net-zero carbon commitment is stated on partner’s public website.
   • 100% renewable energy or net-zero carbon goal to be achieved on (or) before 2030 (or >50% renewable energy on or before 2025).
   • Goal covers global public cloud operations including VMware cloud.
   • Partner has achieved >15% of goal across data center operations by 2021 [this percentage will rise linearly each year to 100% by 2030.]

Key Benefits of VMware Zero Carbon Committed initiative:

As we hear from more and more end customers that are prioritizing sustainable vendors, our goal is to highlight and support your efforts on decarbonization and help you enjoy the following benefits:

• Become a trusted sustainability partner for your customers: VMware Zero Carbon Committed initiative identifies Cloud Verified provider as a trusted sustainability partner with aligned decarbonization goals.

• Scale your business with zero carbon commitments: Every day, more and more global, cross-sector companies–more than 1,300 to-date including VMware and many of our customers–are committing to the United Nations’ Science Based Targets (SBT) initiative to reduce absolute carbon emissions in their operations and supply chains to reach net zero carbon by 2050.[1] Zero Carbon Committed partners can achieve business growth by plugging into this growing ecosystem of engaged customers with aligned sustainability goals to provide a differentiated offering. With customers always on the lookout for suppliers with low carbon solutions, Zero Carbon Commitment is table stakes to winning customer contracts. 

• Utilize Zero Carbon Committed as a competitive differentiator: Providers can leverage VMware Zero Carbon Committed validated branding as a competitive differentiator, furthering the value they offer through the VMware Cloud Verified program. Adopting the Zero Carbon Committed initiative also helps level the playing field for qualified partners when competing with other organizations who are not as far along their sustainability journey. VMware will position our VMware Zero Carbon Committed partners for success by promoting them to prospective customers seeking cloud providers with aligned sustainability goals. Zero Carbon Committed partners can also leverage VMware’s branding of “VMware Zero Carbon Committed” on their website, to showcase the VMware-Provider sustainability partnership.

Fig 1: “Zero Carbon Committed” partners promoted on VMware’s Cloud Provider Services website

Resources:

To learn more about VMware’s vision and our Cloud provider’s progress towards Zero Carbon Commitments, please read the announcement blog.

Please visit our “Zero Carbon Committed” website to learn more. Email us at [email protected] if you are a qualified Cloud Verified partner interested to be part of this initiative.