Mastercard: Sustainable Technology & Reducing CO₂ Emissions

The evolution of digital payments has transformed how commerce operates, making transactions faster, more seamless and more secure. 

For Mastercard, these advances are increasingly paired with richer data and AI-driven capabilities that expand what is technologically possible.

As the company continues to power global commerce, it is also examining whether this growth can be achieved sustainably. 

Over the past decade, Mastercard’s experience has shown that not only is this possible, but measurable progress can be made while scaling the business.

Emissions performance and decoupling growth

"In 2025, we achieved and exceeded our interim emissions targets, reducing absolute  Scope 1 and 2 location-based emissions by 44% (target was 38%) and Scope 3 by 46% (target was 20%) from 2016 levels,” writes Ellen Jackowski, Chief Sustainability Officer and EVP, and Adam Tenzer, Senior VP, Data & Governance, at Mastercard.

“Even while growing net revenue by 16%, our emissions decreased by 1% year over year. 

“This marks our third consecutive year decreasing emissions, showing signs that decoupling growth from emissions is possible.”

Mastercard attributes these outcomes to a multi-pronged approach combining renewable energy procurement, supply chain engagement and the integration of environmental considerations into core business decisions. 

The company acknowledges that continued progress requires a deeper understanding of its technology footprint, as its emissions are closely tied to the global infrastructure that powers its payment network.

Data-driven sustainable technology strategy

Mastercard’s sustainability strategy is increasingly driven by granular, real-time data that informs operational decisions across its technology ecosystem. 

“Since 2023, we’ve focused on developing ways to capture and bring together more and  more granular data on our own business practices to provide greater visibility into the  performance and impact of technology,” writes Ellen and Adam.

“The result has been a comprehensive dashboard – now patent-pending – which provides a single Sustainability Score for each product and technology asset.”

This system allows Mastercard to evaluate environmental performance with greater precision than ever before.

The Sustainability Score incorporates indicators such as:

• Real-time energy consumption (kWh)
• Regional carbon intensity
• Location-based emissions
• Server utilisation rates
• Hardware lifecycle data. 

It also tracks the consolidation of applications and databases onto shared infrastructure, enabling the company to identify inefficiencies across its digital systems. 

This data is actively used to guide decisions, helping Mastercard align technology performance with environmental objectives while maintaining operational scale.

Engineering, hardware and infrastructure optimisation

Within the company, sustainable technology principles have been embedded directly into engineering and infrastructure practices. 

Application design plays a critical role, as the efficiency of software directly influences energy consumption. 

"The Sustainability Special Interest Group of our  Software Engineering Guild, which unites thousands of our engineers across geographies and products, has helped lead the way," writes Ellen and Adam.

"They’ve integrated principles from the non-profit Green Software Foundation into the way we build while helping develop Mastercard’s own architectural patterns and engineering practices to ensure more efficient application design, runtime optimisation and carbon-aware decision making."

These practices are no longer optional guidelines within Mastercard but are embedded in engineering governance and architecture review processes. 

New applications are evaluated for both performance and environmental impact prior to deployment, ensuring sustainability is considered at the design stage. 

This approach helps reduce energy demand at the source by improving how applications are built and deployed across Mastercard’s global infrastructure.

Beyond software, the company is also optimising its physical infrastructure. 

Data centres account for approximately 60% of the company’s Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, making hardware efficiency a critical focus area. 

By using detailed workload visibility, Mastercard has identified underutilised servers and consolidated infrastructure where possible, resulting in the removal of more than 3,700 hardware devices since 2024. 

The company is also scaling dynamic power management systems, allowing server energy consumption to adjust in real time based on demand, further improving efficiency across its hardware estate.

Mastercard’s 2025 results demonstrate that environmental performance and business growth can progress in parallel. 

The company’s sustained emissions reductions alongside revenue growth reinforce its view that sustainability can act as a driver of operational efficiency rather than a constraint. 

By treating environmental impact as a core business metric, Mastercard has identified inefficiencies, reduced waste and strengthened the resilience of its technology systems.