Snapchat has just released the latest version of its CitizenSnap report, that which outlines all the company's efforts to grapple with various concerns associated with environmental, social, and governance, and how Snap intends to approach these key elements in future planning.

And under this, Snapchat has made some committing of sustainability, and to reduce its carbon footprint.

You can read the full, 102-page report here, but in this post, we’ll take a look at some of the key notes.

First off, Snapchat has outlined its key areas of Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) focus, which provide an overview of its broader goals within these elements.
But these represent just two of the many important issues where Snap finds itself at the forefront of the sector not just in its actions, but also with its users increasingly seeking alignment with businesses that make clear stands on these key issues and seek a broader positive impact on society.

The report delves further into Snapchat's efforts on each of these key fronts.

In terms of societal impact - it was certainly with the 2020 US Election representing an inflection point, that Snapchat clearly illustrated how it helped to ensure its users were will-informed, and how it sought to increase voter participation via in-app initiatives.

According to Snapchat:

"Snap partnered with TurboVote and others to create tools within Snapchat that helped users register to vote, make a plan to vote, and learn about candidates and issues. More than 30 million people used these tools, and more than 1.2 million people used our app to get help registering to vote in the US elections. More than half of these Snapchatters were first-time voters."

This has been a key focus for the app given that most of its audience is younger, thus creating more awareness among the youth towards voting and encouraging them to speak out in the voting line. Younger voters have always lagged in their participation ranks for US elections.

Snapchat also provided various other notes explaining how it tried to boost civic participation and social justice initiatives.
Again, these are initiatives that hold a lot of relevance for the app: connecting such audiences to more information around such key topics of focus and increasing civic participation and societal awareness.

And, as noted, environmental initiatives are also another focus in this respect.

"The Snapchat community cares deeply about combating climate change and stands to experience some of its worst impacts. We feel a deep responsibility to act at the pace and scale that's needed. So we're excited to announce an ambitious, three-part climate strategy.
Snap's three-part approach will focus on maintaining carbon neutral operations, adopting new emissions reduction targets and eventually running the company on 100% renewable electricity for all of its facilities worldwide.
As Snap observes, more than the effects of climate change in the long run might reach its user base, so it is imperative for Snap to make clear commitments on this front to meet community expectation.

The company claims that it has reached Carbon Neutral status, having bought offsets "enough to render the company carbon neutral since its inception in 2011", but will make an effort to implement this as a more sustainable continuing practice through its wider climate plan.

Snap also mentions it increased the representation of women on its Board to 50 percent and outlines the work it has undertaken to improve its machine learning processes to address any potential bias in its systems.

The company reported that it now has more than 4,000 employees spread across 15 countries around the world and supports 35 unique languages.

There are some interesting insights here, and it is good to see Snapchat making a concerted effort on all of these fronts to have a more positive impact on the world and to contribute to key causes.

As explained by Snap CEO Evan Spiegel :

As Snap says in a statement, "We believe it's a moral imperative to work toward creating a healthy and safe society, and we know it matters to the hundreds of millions of Snapchatters who use our services every day. It's also good for business. As our CitizenSnap report lays out, we have both made significant strides forward, and know there is so much more to do, and ways we can improve.

Those efforts will affect the company, in both operational terms, and in a fundamental way, and it's worthwhile to note Snap's approach towards these increasingly important areas.