Sustainability
Building a sustainable future
The long-term impact of climate change represents a material risk to our investors and the way companies including ours will operate in the future. We are committed to minimizing the environmental impact of our operations.
Taking action now
Our multifaceted approach to addressing climate change includes assessing how we operate as a company and an employer. With more than 17,300 mission-driven crew working around the world, we are committed to building a more sustainable future.
Vanguard's sustainability goals
We take a thorough, pragmatic approach to managing our resources. In early 2020, we established a pair of goals to curb emissions and reduce our global carbon footprint.
- Achieve 100% renewable energy in our global operations in 2021.
- Reach carbon neutrality throughout our global operations in 2025.
We are taking multiple approaches to reach our 100% renewable energy goal. In locations where available, our buildings will use energy sources such as solar, wind, and hydropower directly from the utility provider. Where unavailable, our approach includes purchasing renewable energy certificates, which supports the development of the global renewable energy market.
Our plan to achieve carbon neutrality includes avoiding, reducing, and offsetting all Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, as well as emissions from a number of Scope 3 categories:
- Category 1 - Purchased goods and services1
- Category 3 - Fuel- and energy-related activities
- Category 5 - Waste generated in operations
- Category 6 - Business travel
- Category 7 - Employee commuting
- Category 8 - Upstream leased assets
Scope definitions appear in the figure below.
1 Only includes the following: shuttle, security, and print vehicles.
Vanguard's 2020 global carbon footprint
Note: Mt of CO2e stands for metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents. Scope definitions are based on those of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
Our approach
At Vanguard, our sustainability strategy balances growth and efficiency. To achieve carbon neutrality, we are committed to a combination of tactics—operational changes to reduce our carbon emissions, investment in the sustainability of our global real estate portfolio, and the purchase of renewable energy certificates and carbon offsets.
Operations
We're reducing emissions by improving operational efficiencies, investing in new sustainable technology and high-efficiency equipment, and improving building energy standards.
Specific operational targets include:
–20%
Reduce emissions by 20% (baseline 2019)
–5%
Reduce electricity consumption by 5% (baseline 2019)
–20%
Reduce water consumption by 20% (baseline 2019)
80%
Achieve 80% landfill diversion rate
Real estate investments
We incorporate sustainable design and construction principles into the U.S. buildings we own and the office space we lease worldwide.
Offsets
After operational reduction and real estate investments, we offset our remaining footprint with high-impact projects that increase economic development.
Progress
30%
of our operational carbon emissions were offset by purchasing renewable energy certificates in 2020
7 buildings
in our U.S. locations earned the EPA’s ENERGY STAR® certification in 2020
7 buildings
in our Global real estate portfolio are either LEED-certified or BREEAM-certified
62
Electric Vehicle charging stations are available for Vanguard crew to use in 2021
127K
megawatt hours of Renewable Energy Certificates purchased in 2020, and through October 2021
