How Mastercard Is Guiding Suppliers to Cut Scope 3 Emissions
Mastercard has set its sights on encouraging its suppliers to cut their emissions as it reveals it has made strong year-on-year progress towards its ESG goals.
The multinational payment card services business has published its 2023 ESG Report – Powering Economies & Empowering People: Doing Well by Doing Good.
Ellen Jackowski, CSO and EVP at Mastercard, said: “In 2023, we again saw signs of decoupling emissions from corporate growth, with a 1% year-over-year decrease in emissions versus 13% growth in net revenue.
“We continue to generate and purchase 100% renewable energy for our operations, but this can be a challenge in quite a number of emerging, as well as some fairly advanced, countries.”
Tackling those tricky Scope 3 emissions
The ESG report acknowledges that reducing Scope 3 emissions is the biggest challenge.
It says: “Our supply chain emissions account for 78% of Mastercard's total global emissions, which includes roughly 250 suppliers that account for around 85% of those emissions in 2022.”
The company is engaging suppliers in four ways:
1 - Encouraging them to disclose their emissions footprint by reporting and allocating annual emissions
2 - Leveraging educational resources, both Mastercard and external, to aid suppliers in advancing their environmental management practices and performance
3 - Asking them to evaluate and align on key performance indicators, including setting science based targets to support emission reduction goals
4 - Guiding them to collaborate with Mastercard on projects and programmes to reduce and allocate emissions.
The report adds: “In 2023, suppliers accounting for around 85% of our total 2022 supply chain emissions were invited to the 2023 CDP Climate Change Questionnaire and 91% responded, up from 78% in 2022.
“Additionally, the portion of suppliers that have or committed to a science based target increased by 17%, and the portion of suppliers that have a net zero goal increased by 9%.”
People, Prosperity, Planet
Mastercard, which has 33,400 employees and processed 143.2 billion switched transactions in 2023, has the ESG guiding principles of People, Prosperity, Planet.
Highlights under these headings in 2023 include that, over the year, Mastercard:
- Increased the global median pay for female employees to 96.4% of the median pay for male employees, up 1.7% from 2022
- Grew the number of US Black leaders at vice president level and above from 72 to 80
- Connected more than 85 million people to the digital economy in 2023 and more than 870 million since 2015 – against a target of one billion by 2025
- Mastercard’s Scope 1 and 2 emissions were 48% less than in 2016, Scope 3 emissions were 40% less than in 2016 and total Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions were 41% less than in 2016
- 17 million trees funded for restoration through its Priceless Planet Coalition.
Overall, Mastercard reduced total Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 41% from its 2016 base year.
Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach said: “We know that we can only prosper when the world prospers. That comes when growth is sustainable and inclusive and when prosperity is shared.
“That is why reports like this one are valuable. They allow us to reflect on our impact and the progress we’ve made against our goals. As importantly, reports like this give us a view into where there is an opportunity to do more.”
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