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.
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.
Our Climate Strategy
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.
"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
Carbon Emissions
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.
Our Platform
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.
Our Workplace
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.
Our Products
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
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
Download the CitizenSnap Report
We recount our efforts, our shortcomings, and offer a way forward.
We recount our efforts, our shortcomings, and offer a way forward.