Microsoft has revealed it will achieve “carbon neutral” status from July, in a move that will include putting a price on the CO2 emissions created by every business unit.

The IT giant yesterday confirmed it would become “carbon neutral” across all of its direct operations, including data centres, software development labs, air travel, and office buildings from July 1, which represents the start of its 2013 fiscal year.

Writing in a blog posting, Kevin Turner, chief operating officer for Microsoft, also revealed that every business unit in more than 100 countries would be required to pay a fee for any carbon emissions they generate. The price per tonne will be based on the market price for the renewable energy and carbon offsets the company will have to purchase to attain its new “carbon neutral” status.

He added that the approach would raise awareness of carbon emissions across the global business and provide managers with a greater financial incentive to cut direct emissions.

“The part I’m most excited about is our plan to infuse carbon awareness into every part of our business around the world,” wrote Turner.

“To achieve this goal, we have created an accountability model which will make every Microsoft business unit responsible for the carbon they generate – creating incentives for greater efficiency, increased purchases of renewable energy, better data collection and reporting, and an overall reduction of our environmental impact.”

The move marks a major step forward in Microsoft’s efforts to curb its own environmental impact and comes at a time when it had been expected to provide an update on a previous goal to cut its carbon emissions by 30 per cent by the end of 2012, against 2007 levels.

It also comes just weeks after Microsoft signed a deal to roll out its CarbonSystems Enterprise Sustainability Platform application across its entire global operations. The system is designed to save Microsoft time and costs, for example providing it with the ability to automatically collect energy and sustainability data for its reporting under the Carbon Disclosure Project.

Microsoft was also among a number of IT giants attacked by Greenpeace in a report last month, which warned there was a growing gap in the technology industry between those companies taking steps to power their “cloud” data centres with clean energy and those using fossil fuels and nuclear power.

Greenpeace senior IT analyst Gary Cook gave the latest Microsoft announcement a cautious welcome, praising the commitment to cutting emissions but warning that the plan would still enable the company to continue using fossil fuel power.

“Today’s announcement by Microsoft to become “carbon neutral” is a good first step that shows that the company is hearing from its customers who want a clean cloud,” he said.

“However, the devil is in the details, and the details will show whether Microsoft becomes a transformational leader in moving us toward a clean cloud, or continues to rely on coal. [It] allows Microsoft to keep building data centres that rely on coal, such as its new investments in Virginia and Wyoming, yet claim to be “carbon neutral” by buying renewable energy credits.

“That tactic looks good on paper, but won’t power Microsoft’s cloud with one more electron of clean electricity.”

He also urged Microsoft to commit to renewable energy for its growing data centre fleet and use its influence to encourage other companies to follow suit.

“[It could] catalyze a shift from dirty to clean electricity and create the scale of positive change that Microsoft could be proud of,” he added.