Our Environmental Footprint
We continuously strive to better understand, track and quantify our environmental footprint. Please refer to our 2019 Impact Report for additional details on our environmental data and management.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG Scope 1 and 2)
By 2025, we aim to achieve a 50 percent absolute reduction in Scopes 1 and 2. By 2030, we strive to reach 75 percent reduction from our 2016 baseline. We have decreased these emissions by 31 percent between 2016 and 2019 and, in just the last year, we decreased our emissions by 16 percent.
2019 GHG Emissions by Activity
eBay also captures carbon emissions from business travel, which are primarily Scope 3. When looking at our corporate footprint, data centers comprise the majority of our emissions at 57 percent, and offices and business travel contribute 43 percent. Our Scope 3 business travel emissions were approximately 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) in 2019.
Energy Use
Similar to many tech and e-commerce companies, energy use is where we typically see the largest environmental impact from our business. Between 2018 and 2019, our overall energy use increased by only 2 percent, due to our continued efforts to implement new strategies around data center optimization.
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. We’re on course to accomplish this goal through continued participation in green power programs and power purchase agreements (PPAs).
From 2018 to 2019, we increased our renewable energy supply by 24 percent, and thus far, we have achieved 64 percent renewable energy for all of our data centers and offices.
Water Consumption
Water is an increasingly precious resource worldwide, and this is only expected to intensify as the climate changes. eBay works to conserve water every day, and many of our sites have implemented water-saving technologies and processes. In 2019, we used approximately 382,000 meters³ of water, less than a 1 percent increase from the year before.
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 averages 96% annually. Additionally, at our campus in Draper, Utah, we are evaluating procedures in our cafe that would result in diverting nearly 10,000 gallons of food waste every year.
