Klarna, the AI powered global payments provider and shopping assistant, announced its significant sustainability achievements from the past year. In 2023, saw a significant uptick in the use of its features that provide consumers with information about the sustainability efforts of merchants and promote conscious shopping, contributing to 4.75 million purchases from more conscious brands. A standout achievement was the 150% year-over-year increase in the usage of Klarna’s CO2e Emissions Tracker, highlighting a shift towards more conscious consumer behavior. In addition, the company saw a 25% reduction in its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and has to date committed $24.5 million to planet health initiatives.
These environmental and social contributions underscore the company’s continued commitment to addressing environmental sustainability, focusing on reducing its carbon footprint and promoting conscious consumption among its vast network of 150 million consumers and 550,000 retail partners worldwide.
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Klarna’s 2023 sustainability highlights include:
- Driving 4.75 million conscious purchases through tech innovation: In 2023, Klarna introduced a number of advancements to its products and services that furthered its mission of empowering its 150 million consumers with information to make more conscious purchasing decisions. Klarna’s CO2e Emissions Tracker, which was updated to include expanded insights for over 170 million products, drew in 460,000 monthly users—a 150% jump from the previous year. Additionally, new features including sustainability search filters in Klarna’s intelligent search & compare feature, a resell feature in the Klarna app, conscious brands ratings displaying brands’ sustainability achievements, as well as an online sustainability hub, contributed to Klarna customers making 4.75 million purchases from brands recognized for their sustainability efforts.
- Enabling thousands of consumers to contribute to planet health: In 2023, Klarna introduced a donations feature for US shoppers as part of its commitment to planet health with a focus on climate, people, and biodiversity. This feature allows shoppers to add a $1 donation to their purchases using the interest-free Pay in 4 service at participating retailers, with donations supporting the WRLD Foundation’s work towards achieving UN Sustainable Development goals. In just 7 months since its June 2023 launch, the initiative has received a powerful response with over 193,000 consumers contributing to date, raising over USD $200K total.
- Achieving 25% GHG reduction: Klarna has made significant progress in cutting its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, achieving a 25% reduction in its overall absolute carbon footprint in 2023 compared to the previous year, with a 66% decrease in scope 1 and 2 emissions and a 39% reduction in carbon intensity. These figures represent significant strides towards Klarna’s 2030 goal of halving carbon intensity from a 2019 baseline.
- Committing $24.5M to planet health initiatives: Since its pledge in April 2021, Klarna has dedicated 1% from each of its funding rounds to planet health initiatives via its Give One initiative. This commitment resulted in a total contribution of USD $24.5 million by the end of 2023, supporting over 50 organizations worldwide in regions including North America, South America, Africa, Europe, and Asia. Notable achievements from this support included the planting of 3.4 million trees to restore and reforest important ecosystems and 900,000 hectares (approx. 2.2 million acres) of habitat across the globe seeing positive impact through organizations backed by Klarna.
“At Klarna, we’re dedicated to accelerating commerce in a way that also takes into account the environmental challenges our world faces. We’ve set ambitious internal sustainability goals and, as a global payments and shopping assistant with 150 million consumers and 550,000 retail partners, recognize our extensive influence beyond mere operations. This understanding drives our commitment to developing and promoting tools and services for more mindful, conscious consumption,” said Alexander Farsan, Head of Climate and Environment, Klarna. “We’re proud of Klarna’s 2023 accomplishments, including the significant updates to our CO2e tracker, which experienced a 150% year-over-year increase in users, our notable reduction in GHG emissions, and $24.5 million contributed to environmental initiatives to date, and look forward to continuing to make a positive impact in 2024.”
In recognition of its efforts, Klarna was named the Most Sustainable Bank in Sweden 2023 by the Sustainable Brand Index and received several other accolades throughout the year including being awarded the Most Disruptive Global Climate Action Initiative in the CSR Excellence Awards, and receiving a finalist position in the Reuters Responsible Business Awards within the Net Zero Transition Award category.