Our Environmental Footprint
We continuously strive to better understand, track and quantify our environmental footprint.
Please refer to our 2020 Impact Report for additional details on our environmental data and management.
Scope 1 and 2 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions
As part of our overall commitment to climate action, we aim to achieve 90 percent absolute reduction in our Scopes 1 and 2 emissions by 2030, a goal that has been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). We also are committed to be carbon neutral for our offices and data centers (Scopes 1 and 2) by the end of 2021. From 2019 to 2020, we have already reduced our GHG emissions in Scopes 1 and 2 by 19 percent, primarily due to increased investment in renewables.
2020 GHG Emissions by Scope
We continue to assess our emissions up and down our value chain. Our Scope 3 emissions are the most significant contributor to our overall corporate footprint at 96 percent.
For previous years’ upstream Scope 3 emissions, read our CDP Climate Change Responses here. For this year’s Scope 3 emissions, please refer to our Impact Report.
Energy Use
Energy use is typically the largest environmental impact from our business, similar to other tech and ecommerce companies. Our overall energy use decreased by 5 percent in 2020 from the prior year primarily due to our workforce transitioning to remote work in response to COVID-19.
Totals may not add up due to rounding.
Renewable Energy
As a member of RE100, we have set an ambitious 2025 goal to attain 100 percent renewable energy in our electricity supply at eBay-controlled data centers and offices. From 2019 to 2020, we increased our MWhs of renewable energy supply by 9 percent, and thus far, we have achieved 74 percent renewable energy for all of our data centers and offices.
Water Consumption
Water continues to be a precious resource worldwide, and this is only expected to intensify as the climate changes. Over the past year, we expanded our data collection efforts to include 18 percent more facilities in reporting water consumption. However, in 2020, we saw a 29 percent decrease in water usage from 2019, consuming approximately the equivalent of 104 Olympic-sized pools.
Waste Diversion
We are committed to reducing consumption and diverting waste from entering landfills at eBay-owned sites. At our San Jose headquarters, our waste diversion rate was 97.5 percent in 2020, an increase from the year prior. We have diverted almost 555 tons of waste from landfills in San Jose in 2020 alone.
