CitizenSnap
Planet

We seek to be kind to the planet by applying a sustainability lens to every aspect of our business — from our workplaces to our products and throughout our value chain. The Planet section of our report describes our efforts in 2021 to assess climate risk, uplevel our climate commitments, reduce our carbon emissions, operationalize our Climate Action Plan towards our 2030 Net Negative emissions goal, maintain carbon neutrality, reduce the impacts of our products and our supply chain, and raise awareness about relevant environmental issues through Snapchat.

Highlights graphic for the Planet Pillar. PLANET Addressing the climate crisis by reducing the carbon footprint of our products and operations Conserving natural resources and reducing waste Minimizing the environmental footprint of our products across their lifecycle Building a socially and environmentally responsible supply chain that emphasizes worker well-being and responsible materials use 50+% reduction in absolute Scope 1 and 2 Emissions 40% reduction in intensity-based Scope 3 Emissions 100% renewable electricity and Carbon Neutral.

Our Climate Strategy

Snap recognizes the climate crisis as one of the greatest challenges of our time. We stand with the overwhelming scientific consensus that governments, businesses, and individuals across the world must immediately do more to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis and build a more sustainable future. As a company with products that touch the lives of the younger generations — who both care passionately about addressing the climate crisis and who will experience its worst impacts — we feel a responsibility to take decisive action. We also recognize that the climate crisis disproportionately impacts people of color and many disadvantaged communities across the world.
In 2021, we made progress on our first major climate commitments, upleveled our commitments, advanced our efforts to improve our operational sustainability, and leverage our platform to engage Snapchatters on the climate crisis. We have also performed our first scenario analysis in line with the Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) guidance.

Image depicting Snap's Climate Commitments: Science Based Targets: Reduce absolute Scope 1/2 GHG emissions 25% by 2025 Reduce Scope 3 GHG emissions 35% per unit of value added by 2025 Source 100% renewable electricity Procure or self-produce 100% of electricity from renewable sources Net Negative by 2030 Removing from the environment more carbon than we emit each year +$1M Annual Investment in Carbon Removal Projects through 2030
"It’s great to see a company that has millions of users in the digital world take responsibility for their carbon emissions in the real world by supporting innovative carbon removal projects. I am confident their climate action will inspire their users to act for the planet, too.”
— ANTTI VIHAVAINEN, CEO OF PURO.EARTH
An image depicting each of the emissions Scopes at Snap, with total emissions equaling 184,106 metric tons of CO2-equivalents. Scope 1 (2%): Direct emissions from our operations, including: Company owned vehicles and aircraft Natural gas consumed in our facilities Scope 2 (0%): Grid-supplied electricity consumed in our facilities Scope 3 (98%): Indirect Emissions from Upstream activities: Purchased goods and services Waste generation Employee business travel Employee commuting Supply chain emissions related to production and upstream transportation of hardware products Downstream Activities: Supply chain emissions related to downstream transportation and distribution of hardware products Life cycle emissions of our software products, including use and data storage

Carbon Emissions

We calculate all of Snap’s material emission sources in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol market-based approach and obtained third-party verification of our data.
In 2021, we reduced our absolute Scope 1 + 2 emissions by over 50% from our 2019 baseline. And while our absolute Scope 3 emissions increased, our revenues grew by 140% and we were able to reduce our Scope 3 emissions indexed to revenue by 44% from the 2019 baseline. Both of these reductions put Snap ahead of meeting our 2025 science-based reduction targets, and we will therefore consider re-stating our targets within the next year. For all remaining emissions, we compensated through the purchase of carbon credits to honor our commitment to become Net Negative by 2030 while also honoring our previous commitment to carbon neutrality.

Collage of Snapchat phone screen grabs with photos from the Snapchat activations related to environmental awareness such as sea level rise, protecting the Great Barrier Reef and celebrating Earth Day.

Our Platform

At Snap, we recognize that we are in a unique position and have a big opportunity to engage with our community of Snapchatters to catalyze change for the future. We know that reducing our impacts is important, but leveraging our platform to raise awareness and catalyze change on environmental issues can have an even bigger impact. To increase environmental awareness and engage with our Snapchat community of over 300 million daily active users, we have partnered with the UN Environment Programme and other organizations to create in-app activations that educate our community and provide them with resources to become a part of the solution. 
Photo of a Snap office reception area.

Our Workplace

As Snap continues to grow, we keep environmental sustainability top of mind with the design, construction and ongoing occupancy of our spaces and kitchens. That’s true for both the food we serve and the workspaces we create. Our workplaces continued to be at a lower capacity during 2021 with our flexible work policies in place, meaning a lower impact from employee commuting, food consumption, and energy use in our workplaces. We continued to find ways to shift our resources to support our local communities and our team members working from home. 
Image collage of the new Spectacles, one with a glass mannequin head wearing the glasses and another depicting the display from the wearer's view when wearing Spectacles.

Our Products

Snapchat consumes battery life that requires energy consumption for recharging and requires data to be stored via our cloud partners, so reducing our computing and storage needs and increasing the efficiency of the app is a priority at Snap. Separately, producing hardware creates environmental impacts throughout the product life cycle. From product design to the selection of components to final assembly, building any hardware product uses chemicals, consumes energy and generates waste. We have processes in place to help reduce our impacts across the life cycle, and we will increase our focus in these areas as we scale our hardware business. 

Our Supply Chain

Snap buys components for our hardware products, such as Spectacles, from companies across the globe and outsources the assembly of those products. We work hard to ensure these partners do business responsibly. Each product goes through a complex supply chain before going to market — from the mining of raw materials and the production of components, to the final product assembly and the logistics that take the product to the end consumer. To ensure that our products are being made responsibly and the workers who make them are treated well, we require our suppliers to agree to a stringent Supplier Code of Conduct, and we monitor adherence through third-party audits and remediation support. 

Download the CitizenSnap Report

We recount our efforts, our shortcomings, and offer a way forward.