Snap Inc., the creator of Snapchat, is reporting on its progress towards its sustainability goals. The company announced it has chosen the voluntary carbon removal marketplace Puro.Earth to offset part of its Scope 1,2 and 3 emissions.
For the fiscal year 2021, Snap. has purchased 8000 CO2 removal certificates (CORCS) from Puro Standard – the first carbon removal standard for engineered carbon removal methods. Each CORC represents one metric ton of CO2 removed from the atmosphere. Those carbon offsets come from two bio-based construction materials projects – Moelven and ARE.
Moelven is a company that produces innovative glulam elements for wooden building construction. It sources the timber from local spruce and pine forests in Norway that is sustainably managed and certified with the PEFC chain of custody.
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Each cubic meter of Moelven’s elements stores 541 kg of the CO2 that the timber absorbed from the atmosphere during its growth period. The idea behind the carbon removal methodology is to collect wooden material from sustainably managed forests that would have otherwise decomposed, to store the carbon locked in them for a long time.
ARE, the other company that has provided the carbon removal, produces wooden building elements from sustainably managed local forests in Norway.
According to ARE, the CO2 sequestered by the tree is stored for 50 to 100 years or more, creating a CO2 removal beyond the peak of global emissions. Their process ensures the removal of 532 kg CO2 per m3 of timber product.
Snap uses the CORCs to offset its scope 1 emissions and the non-electricity share of its scope 2 emissions under the market-based approach of the GHG Protocol. Puro.Earth is tracking the retirement of Snap’s CORCs in its Puro Registry which is transparent and publicly available.
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The company also reported that in 2021 it managed to reduce the absolute Scope 1 + 2 emissions by over 50% from its 2019 baseline. The Scope 3 emissions increased, however, as revenues grew by 140%, Snap was able to reduce the Scope 3 emissions indexed to revenue by 44% from the 2019 baseline.
The company’s goal is to be net emissions negative by 2030. Thanks to Puro.Earth’s CORCs, it has announced it is ahead of meeting its 2025 science-based reduction targets, and will therefore consider re-stating its targets within the next year.
