Klarna continues to grow globally. We are now present in 20 markets, reaching over 100M consumers and partnering with 250K+ retail partners. This scale enables us to significantly contribute to a more sustainable future and be a force for good in society and our planet. We do this with no judgment. Instead, we strive to play an essential role in providing consumers the information they seek to make informed purchases. We believe the commitments we have made over the last year are the building blocks of driving positive change in the next few years to come.
We have committed to a sustainability approach that focuses on three areas; making our own operations more sustainable, providing transparency on the impact of products and giving our customers access to offerings and services that help them shop and bank more sustainably.
In 2021 our main ambition was to get the foundations in place and building a better understanding of the distinctive role Klarna can play in the transformation to a more sustainable future. Going into 2022, we are set up to leverage our capabilities, lead by example, and channel our joint aspirations for the most significant effect.
So let’s take a look back at our achievements from the last 12 months.
Our own initiatives:
- We launched Give One which is our promise to donate 1% of all funding rounds to help combat climate change and the loss of biodiversity, and we want our consumers and retail partners to join our efforts. Klarna pledged an initial 10M USD and 1% of all future funding rounds towards Give One. Today we are at 16.5M USD, which is just the start.
- We make annual financial contributions to high-impact climate projects through our Climate Transformation Fund. In 2021, we invested more than $1.05M in 11 projects that catalyze carbon removal, decarbonization and climate advocacy and portrayed the projects in our climate report.
- Together with our strategic sustainability partner Milkywire, we provided a platform for Klarna consumers to donate to environmental causes they care about too. By enabling a donation gateway at the end of the checkout, our customers have donated over 1.6M SEK to Give One causes to date.
- We launched a CO2 emissions tracker for our 100M consumers to track their emissions based on their shopping through Klarna. Consumers can then donate to a Carbon Transformation Fund to take action on those emissions.
- We launched Sustainable Collections in collaboration with Good On You, the world’s leading sustainability rating platform for fashion brands to help consumers find more sustainable brands.
- We provided consumers with advice on how they could build a more sustainable wardrobe and how to shop and sell pre-owned fashion.
Watch here the progress we made with our Give One initiative and learn more about the change makers we supported.
However, it’s not just about us setting our own goals, we are also active in initiatives that align with the Paris Agreement and set strong climate action foundations.
- We were the first fintech to sign the Climate Pledge, which commits us to reach net-zero carbon emission by 2040, 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement. Klarna regularly reports greenhouse gas emissions, implements decarbonization strategies, and offsets any remaining emissions as part of the pledge.
- We have also joined Race to Zero, an UN-backed global campaign that aims to build momentum around the shift to a decarbonized economy and halve all global emissions by 2030.
- Give One supported the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative (ICCI). Inviting scientists, activists, and indigenous leaders to discussions to voice towards policymakers and those who can enable change, putting Earth’s icy regions firmly on the map at COP26.
- We are a member of the Leaders for Climate Action. The entrepreneurial community drives climate action to facilitate and scale best practice CO2 reduction solutions in tech.
- We will use 100% renewable energy sources in all locations by 2025. We have 80% of our leased offices and 40% of our coworking spaces using green electricity to date.
- For the first time, we published our Climate Report, which provides a comprehensive overview of our approach to climate change to date.
We want to make it as easy as possible for our consumers to find out more about their shopping and how to shop more sustainably.
- We launched the CO2 emissions tracker – bringing to life one of the largest awareness efforts on carbon footprints ever embarked on, by introducing CO2 data to 100M consumers on a global scale.
- Powered by Doconomy’s Åland Index, it offers CO2 insights for all the shopping purchases of our consumers. This is a response to our consumers’ increasing demands to better understand how their purchasing power affects the planet. They can see this impact directly in the Klarna app.
- Since its launch, the feature has seen a strong positive trend with positive consumer feedback. We currently have 3.74 million unique users engaging with the feature, good start but lots more we can do to drive awareness.
- Klarna’s Sustainable Collections are curated in collaboration with Good On You, the world’s leading sustainability rating platform for fashion brands. Featuring 23 different clothing brands in the Klarna app that have been given a Good or Great rating by Good on You, the collections will bring greater awareness to environmentally and ethically friendly brands to all customers. The partnership builds on the commitments Klarna made in 2021, to continue to drive positive change for the planet through insights and awareness.
- We are encouraging circular shopping for our consumers. To help our customers maximize the use of their products, Klarna partnered with retail partners that sell pre-owned goods, such as Sellpy and Vestiaire Collective. Together with one of our resell merchant partners Sellpy we launched a first pilot campaign to promote more conscious shopping and care of garments. In collab with Klarna’s Fashion Director Emilia de Poret we launched the premiere episode edutainment series on how to revamp your wardrobe and your shopping habits based on three key areas; how to build a more sustainable wardrobe, how to find the best pre-loved garments and how to make your garments last longer. Which we are now looking to scale into more markets and verticals.
We are proud of the progress we have made to date and continue to approach sustainability and the climate challenge with a sense of urgency and great optimism to have a meaningful, positive, and lasting impact. Not only do we want to lead with what we say, but what we do. We want to bring our customers on this journey with us and also join forces with other businesses to reduce emissions and accelerate carbon removal wherever we can. The existing and planned pledges and initiatives are just the beginning. We are fully committed to transparency at every step of the way and keeping our customers informed as we move forward to impact the climate crisis together positively.