Mastercard recently published its 2018 Sustainability Report, highlighting the ways in which the company is delivering on its commitment to doing well by doing good. Mastercard knows that when the world thrives, business thrives and the company has made significant progress towards social impact.
“As the digital economy increasingly becomes the economy, it is both our business strategy and our social responsibility to ensure that people and organizations have access to the networks, tools and solutions that can help them reach their potential and achieve financial security,” Mastercard President and CEO, Ajay Banga, said. “That means approaching everything through the lens of our culture of decency and using our technology and experience to empower each individual — no matter where they come from — as well as the system as a whole.”
Together with its partners, Mastercard is more than 80% of the way towards its goal of providing access to 500 million people previously excluded from financial services by 2020. For example, connecting farmers to a digital marketplace in India, or unlocking microcredit for merchants in Kenya, or digitizing school payments for families in Uganda and providing safe digital payments for smallholder coffee farmers in Central America.
The 2018 report highlights progress made on four company pillars: inclusive growth, inspired workforce, environmental stewardship, and ethical and responsible standards:
Inclusive Growth
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In early 2019, Mastercard launched a Data Science for Social Impact collaborative with the Rockefeller Foundation, which will increase the capacity of social sector organizations and government to solve systemic problems.
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Mastercard pledged $500 million for inclusive growth and established the Mastercard Impact Fund. To date, the Fund has committed more than $40 million in grants.
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To date, the Center for Inclusive Growth has collaborated with more than 50 research organizations and fellows and invested in programs reaching more than 575,000 people in 17 countries.
Inspired Workforce
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Mastercard continued progress toward gender equity and equal pay for equal work, with our female employees earning $0.996 for every $1.000 earned by men.
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Mastercard employees supported more than 2,200 charities through monetary donations or by contributing nearly 70,000 volunteer hours, including through more than 75 events, serving as educators, role models and mentors for the signature Girls4Tech STEM education program.
Environmental Stewardship
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Mastercard is the first in the payments industry to receive external validation of its science-based target to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 20% by 2025, from a 2016 baseline.
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Mastercard is pioneering environmentally conscious solutions and cross-sector partnerships, such as the Greener Payments Partnership and the UN Global Compact Cities Programme, to help consumers, businesses and cities lessen their impact on the planet.
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The company launched City Possible, a new model for urban collaboration that brings cities, companies and communities together to identify common challenges and create solutions that can be scaled up broadly.
“Our purpose drives us forward,” Banga added. “We’re working to scale ‘Doing Well by Doing Good’ by making commercially sustainable social impact the new paradigm for business as usual, because we believe being purpose-driven is fundamental to sustainability — for everyone.”
The report was prepared according to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards, the most widely recognized framework for sustainability reporting.
For more information and to view Mastercard’s 2018 Corporate Sustainability Report, please visit https://www.mastercard.us/content/dam/mccom/global/aboutus/Sustainability/mastercard-sustainability-report-2018.pdf.
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Published Aug 16, 2019 4pm EDT / 1pm PDT / 9pm BST / 10pm CEST