Respecting and preserving the environment

At Mastercard, we are responsibly managing our overall environmental footprint by focusing on three areas – energy conservation, recycling and pollution control.

Facilities

• All of our owned buildings have attained LEED certification. Our St. Louis data center earned a LEED’s Platinum designation and received an ENERGYSTAR score of 96, ranking in the top 4th percentile of energy efficient buildings.
• Complete use of hydroelectric power at our European headquarters, which has significantly reduced our GHG emissions in Europe.
• Relocation or reconfigurations of our offices to next-generation buildings or practices, including a 20% reduction in energy usage and GHG emissions in our Asia-Pacific offices.
• Diverted 75% of waste generated in our owned facilities through effective recycling and waste reduction.
• Achieved 720,000 kW-hrs of energy savings through implementation of energy efficiency projects.
• Implemented a program to reduce exposure to potentially hazardous contaminants; over 80% of janitorial cleaning products are low-emitting & least-toxic.
• Installed 35% more efficient indoor plumbing fixtures than the national standard.

Employees

• Employee-led Environmental Action Teams at nine locations worldwide are working to increase awareness.
• By encouraging double-sided, black and white printing in our offices, we have reduced the number of pages printed by 33 million since 2009. 
• In Europe, our efforts to reduce carbon emissions include a bicycle allowance and a company car policy that factors the car's carbon footprint into employees' taxation.
• At our U.S. headquarters, we provide car charging stations, shuttle bus service and an employee garden with composting and honey bee hives.