Mozilla’s Climate Commitments
Assuming responsibility for our emissions
In these disruptive, crises-ridden times, our attention is often captured by the immediate political and technical challenges right in front of us. Facing the climate crisis and ensuring that there is a habitable planet for us and future generations to continue fighting these fights is not something that can be pushed to the back seat. I, and Mozilla, are committed to protecting the environment." - Mitchell Baker, CEO
We can't save the planet without people, and we understand that the internet is an incredibly powerful tool to help us draw the attention to what needs to happen.
The first line of order is that Mozilla assumes responsibility for its greenhouse gas emissions: We will reduce our emissions significantly and mitigate what we can't avoid. We will share what we learn and lead transparently, supporting others on their journeys and continuously exploring ways to increase the resiliency of our communities.
Four Climate Commitments
To that end, we pledge:
- Mozilla is firmly committed to being carbon-neutral.
- Mozilla will significantly reduce its GHG footprint year over year aligning to, and aiming to exceed, the net zero emissions commitment of the Paris Climate Agreement.
- Mozilla commits to leading openly by sharing materials, tools, and methodologies.
- Mozilla will explore approaches to develop, design, and improve products from a sustainability perspective, including seeking collaborations to further amplify impact.
Mitigation and Carbon Offsets
Doing right by the environment cannot be about simply paying off your emissions. In order to be carbon-neutral today, we invested in high quality carbon offsets to mitigate our 2019 impact for business services and operations. While these offsets are an important tool to mitigate emissions that we are not yet able to avoid, they do not provide or stimulate the sort of transformation that our societies need in order to truly be sustainable.
The most effective climate mitigation strategy is avoiding emissions, and Mozilla will continue to reduce its share while working with allies and partners to amplify our ambitions.
Such a transformation requires new mindsets and a high degree of organisational and cultural change. Training our staff and providing a range of different incentives to improve our environmental impact will be integral to achieving this.
Supported Sequestration Projects
We interviewed a range of offsets retailers and providers, assessing each project with a view to: level of certification with a preference for Gold Standard or Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), human rights compliance, focus on sequestration rather than avoidance, additionality and permanence of projects, social impact and community resilience.
On the basis of these criteria, we decided to work with EcoAct and invest in three sequestration projects: Madre de Dios REDD project, Peru; Darkwoods carbon forestry project, Canada; and Rimba Raya Reserve project, Indonesia.
In addition, we purchased renewable energy certificates (RECs) for our offices and co-locations in North America, Europe and Taiwan starting with our 2019 impact.
Next steps
In 2021, we will double down on our reduction efforts and develop implementation plans with each part of our organisation.
This will include switching more of our offices to renewable energy, reviewing our travel policies, exploring options for cloud optimisation, developing toolkits for product integrity and design principles, and more. We will share details on our process and targets as we refine them.
And for anyone pondering their options, I'd love to hear what you think about these ideas:
- How can we strengthen a successful remote culture and incentivise an even more sustainable set-up?
- How can we adjust travel criteria and promote a culture where we limit travel to necessary-only?
- What steps would we need to take to achieve zero waste in office and coworking spaces?
- Are there tools that can support us to be a paper-free organisation?
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