Vendor profile · in Microsoft’s own words
Microsoft Sustainability Cloud: two published plans, read against UK rules
Microsoft Sustainability Cloud is now sold as Microsoft Sustainability Manager, an application for recording, reporting and reducing carbon, water and waste, offered in two plans with published prices.
This profile uses only Microsoft’s own pages, read on 1 October 2026, and asks a narrow question: which plan carries the measurement features a UK reporter needs, and what must be built round either for SECR and UK SRS?
This site has tested no carbon software, so nothing here is a rating.
What Microsoft says it sells
One application, record, report and reduce
Microsoft describes Sustainability Manager as a way to track and reduce environmental impact using unified data and AI.
Its product page organises the pitch in three verbs: record your impact, report your progress, reduce your footprint.
Data comes in through a mix of ingestion methods and is standardised on what Microsoft calls the Microsoft for Sustainability data model.
Calculations use pre-built methods that a customer can tailor, which matters for a UK reporter because the tailoring is where a UK factor set or a SECR boundary would be configured.
Several of the AI features, including Copilot and the AI-powered insights, are labelled Preview on Microsoft’s own page.
The Microsoft for Sustainability documentation covers deployment, and it is the place to read how an environment is set up before a demonstration rather than after.
Microsoft is not the only enterprise platform to sell carbon accounting inside a broader suite: Workiva’s carbon management sits inside a reporting platform, and our Workiva profile reads that offer the same way.
| Microsoft’s heading | What its page says |
|---|---|
| Record your impact | Automated data connections across the operation and value chain, standardised on the Microsoft for Sustainability data model |
| Calculate | Pre-built calculation methods “that you can tailor” |
| Report your progress | Dashboards, configurable reports and preparatory reports for named standards |
| Reduce your footprint | Targets and scorecards, with Teams for collaboration |
| Copilot | Natural-language questions and report drafting, marked “Preview” |
The two published plans
Essentials or Premium — which Scope 3 categories each calculates
Microsoft is one of the few vendors in this site’s register to publish a price: Essentials at US$4,000 per tenant, per month, and Premium at US$12,000 per tenant, per month, on its UK product page.
The same page carries a footnote that certain features need Azure meters and other Microsoft licences, naming Microsoft 365 and Power BI as examples.
Microsoft Learn adds that a customer needs two licences: a tenant-level Sustainability Manager SKU, and a user-level SKU for each user.
The split that matters most for carbon accounting is in Scope 3.
Essentials calculates categories 1 to 9, 12 and 13; Premium adds 10, 11, 14 and 15 — processing of sold products, use of sold products, franchises and investments.
An Essentials customer can still bring in pre-calculated emissions for those four, but calculating them from activity and reference data is a Premium capability.
A company that sells energy-using products, franchises or investments therefore faces a method question as well as a price question when it chooses between the two plans.
The checker beside this takes the categories your inventory has to carry — the GHG Protocol Scope 3 Standard names fifteen — and shows which plan Microsoft’s own table says calculates them.
UK SRS S2 does not require every category: an entity must consider all fifteen and disclose which it includes, under ¶B32 and ¶B33.
The Scope 3 position for listed companies is set out on UK SRS Scope 3 reporting.
Step 1 · the Scope 3 categories your inventory carries
Step 2 · what Microsoft’s own plan page names
Essentials 3 of 4 named
US$4,000 per tenant, per month (Microsoft UK page)
Named: 1, 4, 6
Not named: 11 — calculated in Premium; Essentials can display pre-calculated emissions for 10, 11, 14 and 15.
Premium 4 of 4 named
US$12,000 per tenant, per month (Microsoft UK page)
Named: 1, 4, 6, 11
Read from Microsoft Learn’s plans and licensing article on 1 October 2026.
Category names from the GHG Protocol Scope 3 Standard.
A category a plan page does not name is a question for the vendor, not a finding about the product.
Nothing you tick is stored or sent.
The measurement layer
Versions, traceability and factors — what the plan table says
Three rows in Microsoft’s plan table bear directly on whether a figure can be defended later.
Report versioning is listed for Premium and the trial, not for Essentials.
Audit and traceability is marked “p” in both paid plans, which Microsoft’s key defines as platform only, for a custom build.
So the audit trail an assurance practitioner would sample is something a customer configures on the Power Platform rather than a finished screen, on Microsoft’s own description.
The GHG Protocol’s transparency principle asks for a clear audit trail behind every figure, in Chapter 1 of the Corporate Standard, whichever tool holds it.
Both plans list a DEFRA factor library; the UK factors are now published by DESNZ as a yearly collection.
The rule for picking a set is in the 2026 methodology paper at ¶1.10: each set is for activity data falling entirely or mostly within its year, so a 2026 inventory uses the 2026 set.
A tool that holds one “DEFRA” library and refreshes it in place cannot reproduce last year’s published figure; ask how the library is versioned.
How the factor sets work, year by year, is on GHG conversion factors.
| Row in Microsoft’s plan table | Essentials | Premium |
|---|---|---|
| Report versioning | — | Included |
| Reporting metrics | — | Included |
| What-if analysis | — | Included |
| Audit and traceability | Platform only, custom build | Platform only, custom build |
| Workflow approvals | Included | Included |
| DEFRA factor library | Included | Included |
| IEA factor library | — | Included |
| Product carbon footprint | — | Included |
Microsoft and SECR
A SECR disclosure is built round the platform, not shipped with it
SECR is not named on the Microsoft pages read for this profile, which means the statutory output has to be configured from the data model rather than chosen from a menu.
SECR binds three groups: quoted companies of any size under Part 7 of Schedule 7, large unquoted companies under Part 7A, and large LLPs under the LLP regulations.
An unquoted company is large for SECR when it exceeds at least two of £36 million turnover, £18 million balance sheet and 250 employees; paragraph 20B states the test as “not more than” conditions on the exempt side, judged over two consecutive years after the first.
The directors’ report then needs energy in kWh, emissions from gas, purchased electricity and transport fuel, at least one intensity ratio, the methodology, the principal efficiency measures taken, and last year’s figures.
Those lines are set out with their paragraphs in the government’s Environmental Reporting Guidelines and on our SECR requirements page.
Energy in kWh is the line most often lost in an emissions-first data model, because a platform designed around tonnes can convert the kWh and discard it.
Ask to see kWh kept as its own record; ESOS, the energy audit run by the Environment Agency, asks for total energy by purpose too, with Phase 4 notification due by 5 December 2027.
Microsoft and UK SRS
An IFRS S2 report builder beside a UK SRS duty
Microsoft says customers can build and collaborate on preparatory reports for CSRD, ASRS, BRSR, GRI, IFRS S1 and S2, and SASB.
UK SRS is not in that list.
UK SRS S1 and S2 were published by the Department for Business and Trade on 25 February 2026 as the UK versions of the ISSB standards, and they are voluntary for any UK entity.
The FCA’s final rules in PS26/19 require listed companies in UKLR 6, 14, 15, 16 and 22 to report against them on a comply-or-explain basis for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027.
Those rules replaced the CP26/5 proposal, whose consultation text had put UK SRS S2 on a mandatory footing; the final rules did not.
For the measurement layer, UK SRS S2 asks for location-based Scope 2 under ¶29(a)(v), the Scope 3 categories included under ¶29(a)(vi), and any changes to the measurement approach, inputs and assumptions under ¶29(a)(iii), all in the published standard.
A listed company also has a one-year Scope 3 relief under the final rules, during which it states that it is using the relief.
The rest of the comply-or-explain mechanics are on UK SRS compliance.
No UK rule requires sustainability assurance; where a listed company obtains it, PS26/19 asks it to say who provided it, on which disclosures and under which standard.
The FRC issued ISSA (UK) 5000 on 12 November 2025 for voluntary use, effective for periods beginning on or after 15 December 2026.
Your regimes
Microsoft’s claims, regime by regime
The checklist beside this lists the outputs each UK regime requires, cited to the provision, and shows what Microsoft’s pages say for each regime you tick.
Where a regime is not named, that is a question to put to Microsoft or its implementation partner, not a finding about the product.
The full register, with every vendor side by side, is on carbon reporting software.
The other enterprise suites read on this site include Salesforce Net Zero Cloud and Plan A.
Step 1 · which regimes apply to you?
Step 2 · 17 outputs to see on a demo · 0 confirmed
What Microsoft Sustainability Manager says on its own site
- SECR (unquoted / LLP): no claim found on the pages we read
- UK SRS (voluntary): no claim found on the pages we read
Vendor pages read 30 September–1 October 2026.
A missing claim is a question to ask, not evidence of a missing feature.
Outputs are the duties in the cited provisions; the demo tests are our reading of them.
Nothing you tick is stored or sent.
Demo questions
Six questions to put to Microsoft or its partner
Each question tests a statement on Microsoft’s own pages against the UK provision it touches.
Run them on your own data in the trial environment, which Microsoft says carries most Premium features for 30 days.
If you then buy Essentials, Microsoft Learn says Premium data stops displaying but is not deleted, so test the plan you will actually run.
What the measurement layer has to survive, whichever product you buy, is set out on carbon accounting software.
Demo questions · tick the ones you need
The pass tests are our reading of the cited provisions.
Nothing you tick is stored or sent.
Frequently asked
Microsoft Sustainability Manager, answered from its own pages
Is Microsoft Sustainability Cloud the same as Microsoft Sustainability Manager?
Sustainability Manager is the application Microsoft prices and documents for recording, reporting and reducing environmental impact.
Microsoft’s documentation now groups its sustainability products under the name Microsoft for Sustainability; readers still search for the older Sustainability Cloud name, which is why this page keeps it in its address.
How much does Microsoft Sustainability Manager cost?
Microsoft’s UK product page, read on 1 October 2026, lists Essentials at US$4,000 per tenant, per month and Premium at US$12,000 per tenant, per month.
A footnote says certain features require Azure meters and other Microsoft licences, and Microsoft Learn says each user also needs a user-level licence (the USL SKU) alongside the tenant licence.
Which Scope 3 categories does the Essentials plan calculate?
Microsoft Learn lists Scope 3 calculations for categories 1 to 9, 12 and 13 in Essentials.
Categories 10, 11, 14 and 15 — processing and use of sold products, franchises and investments — are calculated in Premium; Essentials customers can still see pre-calculated emissions for them.
Can Microsoft Sustainability Manager produce a SECR report?
SECR is not named on the Microsoft pages read for this profile.
A SECR directors’ report needs energy in kWh, emissions from gas, purchased electricity and transport fuel, an intensity ratio, a methodology statement, the efficiency narrative and last year’s figures, so ask to see each of those produced from your own data.
Does Microsoft Sustainability Manager support UK SRS?
Microsoft names CSRD, ASRS, BRSR, GRI, IFRS S1 and S2, and SASB among the standards it supports preparatory reports for; UK SRS is not named.
UK SRS S2 is the UK’s own version of IFRS S2, published by the Department for Business and Trade on 25 February 2026, and listed companies in UKLR 6, 14, 15, 16 and 22 report against it on a comply-or-explain basis for periods from 1 January 2027.
Does it use the UK government conversion factors?
Microsoft Learn lists a DEFRA factor library in both plans.
The UK factors are now published by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, one set per year, and each set is for activity data falling entirely or mostly within that year; ask which year’s set a UK figure was converted with.
Which plan keeps versions of a report?
Microsoft Learn’s plan table shows report versioning, reporting metrics and what-if analysis in Premium and the trial, not Essentials.
It marks audit and traceability as platform-only for a custom build in both plans.
Is there a free trial of Microsoft Sustainability Manager?
Microsoft Learn describes a 30-day trial with access to most Premium features.
If the customer then buys Essentials, Premium data stops displaying but is not removed.
Has this site tested Microsoft Sustainability Manager?
No. This site has tested no carbon software.
The page reports what Microsoft publishes, dated, and sets it beside the UK provisions it touches.
Sources
Primary sources
Microsoft’s pages are cited only for what Microsoft says about its own product and prices, read 1 October 2026.
Every regulatory statement traces to the instrument’s owner.
- MicrosoftMicrosoft Sustainability Manager — product page and plan prices (UK)
The Essentials and Premium prices, the plan features and the licensing footnote. Vendor’s own material.
- Microsoft LearnMicrosoft Sustainability Manager plans and licensing
The plan-by-plan feature table: Scope 3 categories, report versioning, factor libraries, the two SKUs.
- Microsoft LearnMicrosoft for Sustainability documentation
Deployment documentation. Vendor’s own material.
- legislation.gov.ukSI 2008/410, Schedule 7 Part 7A — SECR for large unquoted companies
The directors’-report lines a platform has to feed.
- legislation.gov.ukSI 2008/410, Schedule 7 paragraph 20B
The “not more than” qualifying conditions.
- GOV.UK (DESNZ, Defra)Environmental Reporting Guidelines, including SECR requirements
The government SECR guidance.
- Department for Energy Security and Net ZeroGovernment conversion factors for company reporting
The UK factor sets, one per activity year.
- Department for Energy Security and Net Zero2026 GHG conversion factors methodology paper, ¶1.10
Factors are for activity data falling entirely or mostly within the year.
- Department for Business and TradeUK Sustainability Reporting Standards S1 and S2
Published 25 February 2026 for voluntary use.
- Department for Business and TradeUK SRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures (PDF), ¶29(a) and ¶¶B30–B33
Location-based Scope 2, the Scope 3 categories included, changes in measurement approach.
- Financial Conduct AuthorityPS26/19 — final rules on UK SRS reporting by listed companies
Comply or explain for periods from 1 January 2027.
- Financial Conduct AuthorityCP26/5 — the consultation (landing page)
The proposal the final rules changed.
- Financial Conduct AuthorityCP26/5 (PDF)
The consultation text.
- Financial Reporting CouncilAssurance standards, including ISSA (UK) 5000
Issued 12 November 2025 for voluntary use; effective 15 December 2026.
- GHG Protocol (WRI, WBCSD)Corporate Standard
The measurement basis UK SRS S2 points at.
- GHG ProtocolScope 3 Standard
The fifteen categories and their names.
- Environment AgencyEnergy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS)
Phase 4 and the energy figures ESOS asks for.
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