Pinterest’s first ESG report outlines Scope 3 emissions reductions

It is the first ESG report published by the company

Under the theme “inspiring a better future”, the report, published on Friday (10 February), highlights the milestones and initiatives that Pinterest has achieved over the last two years.

Pinterest has committed to purchasing 100% renewable electricity across its offices worldwide by 2023, alongside efforts to incorporate nature into the design phase of new buildings.

The report confirms that Pinterest has partnered with enterprise climate platform, Watershed, to calculate emissions since 2019.

The report also confirms that Pinterest will set emissions reduction goals in line with climate science through the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). No timeframe has been established for these targets as of yet.

Pinterest states that the majority of the company’s emissions are Scope 3, including emissions from cloud-based computing. Since 2018, Pinterest has partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and worked with them to reduce emissions. Indeed, AWS data centres will be powered by 100% renewable energy by 2025. Pinterest has also tested AWS’s customer carbon footprint tool to help with calculations.

In total, Scope 3 emissions have been reduced from 169,563tCO2e in 2019 to 137,299tCO2e in 2021.

The report also mentions staff-facing initiatives that have been introduced by Pinterest. On Earth Day 2022, the company introduced PinPlanet, a “Pinspiration Group” of more than 400 employees to drive sustainable actions.

Throughout the year, PinPlanet leaders hosted workshops, created community action opportunities for employees and worked with creators to develop content on living a more sustainable life.

Pinterest’s chief executive Bill Ready said: “We’re proud of the milestones highlighted in our inaugural ESG impact report. We also know that making progress in support of these important pillars is an ongoing journey—and we have more to do. We intend to continue with urgency, optimism, and a focus on impact at every step.”

Disinformation drive

With almost 500 million active monthly users Pinterest is one of the largest and most-used social media platforms on the planet.

Searches for a greener life are rising on Pinterest. People are regularly turning to Pinterest to find ideas to incorporate sustainability into their entire lifestyle. According to Pinterest internal search data from February/March 2022 to February/March 2021, searches for “zero waste tips” were six times greater, “recycling clothes ideas” were four times higher, “recycled home decor” increased by +95% and “zero waste lifestyle” increased by +64% compared to last year.

As such, the company interest introduced new guidelines aimed at ending the circulation of climate-related misinformation. In what it claimed was an industry first, Pinterest stated it would remove content that “denies the existence or impacts of climate change, the human influence on climate change, or that climate change is backed by scientific consensus”.

Last year, edie spoke to Pinterest’s global sustainability lead Mia Ketterling about the disinformation initiative. Read that exclusive interview here.