Partnering with our Canva Print suppliers to co-fund a community solar facility

At Canva, Step Two⁠(opens in a new tab or window) of our Two-Step Plan is to “do the most good we can” – which includes a commitment to making the world a better, more sustainable place.

That’s why we’re thrilled to announce that we’re teaming up with our largest Canva Print⁠(opens in a new tab or window) suppliers, including RPI Print⁠(opens in a new tab or window), Taylor⁠(opens in a new tab or window), Blooming Color⁠(opens in a new tab or window), Brook & Whittle⁠(opens in a new tab or window), and Digital on Demand⁠(opens in a new tab or window), to co-fund a Virtual Power Purchase Agreement (VPPA) in partnership with Watershed⁠(opens in a new tab or window) to build a network of community solar projects in Illinois. These will bring access to clean power to parts of the community who need it, while at the same time reducing our scope 3 Print electricity-related emissions.

What are Scope 3 emissions?

Scope 3 emissions include the indirect emissions from an organization’s supply chain – and reducing them is one of the most complex challenges facing corporate sustainability teams around the world. Especially when you have ambitious climate goals: Scope 3 emissions can make up over 90% of organizational emissions⁠(opens in a new tab or window), or 11.4X⁠(opens in a new tab or window) greater than a company's emissions combined.

It can be difficult for any company in hypergrowth to tackle these emissions when they don’t have direct control over them – their supplier base is constantly changing, and those vendors’ contributions to overall purchased emissions can shift each year. Many of these suppliers are genuinely eager to drive sustainability throughout their operations but often don’t yet have mature climate programs – and a large part of their physical emissions footprint is spread across a number of regions, or even the world.

One approach is to ask suppliers to set their own climate targets and create a plan for reducing emissions on their own. But in reality, it might take them years to be in a position to measure emissions, prioritize hotspots, fund action, and report back on how they're going.

What if we want to start moving on driving real Scope 3 reductions, today?

That’s the question Canva, our largest Canva Print partners, and enterprise sustainability platform Watershed are tackling together.

Why we’re prioritizing Print emissions

Each year, we measure our emissions, helping our team identify the largest drivers of our footprint and determining how those emissions will likely change over time based on our business growth.

As a technology company with a diverse supplier base, we identified Canva Print as an important area of emissions both today and into the future – and a domain where we have a unique network and leverage to drive action.

In 2023, we organized our inaugural Print Sustainability Summit, bringing leaders from our largest Print partners together alongside Watershed, to share our climate goals, Two-Step Plan⁠(opens in a new tab or window), and strategies to measure and reduce emissions. Here, we began the journey of a jointly funded VPPA with Watershed.

Why a VPPA?

We’d already had success in decarbonizing our own indirect (Scope 2) electricity emissions in Australia via an Australian Power Purchase Agreement, and we wanted to extend these benefits into our worldwide value chain with a VPPA.

Emissions arising from electricity are one of the more well-understood areas of emissions – and the power sector is one of the most important to decarbonize in order to achieve global Net Zero goals.

Globally, around 500 GW of new renewable energy was deployed in 2023⁠(opens in a new tab or window). Current forecasts suggest we’ll double renewable capacity by 2030, but we need to triple this to achieve Paris-aligned goals, based on emission trajectories and forecast global energy demand.

A focus on ‘additionality’ in clean power

One of our guiding principles in reducing emissions was to have the most climate impact possible.

To achieve that with a renewable energy focus, we recognized additionality as a must-have for any proposed project. In simple terms, additionality is where the clean energy produced wouldn't have existed without Canva and our Print Partners’ investment.

It means that any dollars spent will add brand-new clean power to the grid, rather than purchasing from a project that has already been established (where funding can support pre-existing facilities, but is generally less impactful than net new power generation).

The community solar model

As well as reducing our supplier emissions, the solar development will add new clean energy to Illinois' power grid, and bring significant economic benefits to the local area. The community solar model provides access to clean power for people unable to install rooftop solar panels, such as renters or low-income households.

The projects will also help lower electricity bills for households in the community through net virtual metering: extra electricity produced by the solar facilities is sold to the local utility, which will then credit the sales against the utility bills of participating households.

Overcoming the challenges of high-impact PPAs and VPPAs

Project developers who build and operate solar and wind farms can require commitments to a minimum facility size and a term of 10+ years – and securing that can involve complicated legal negotiations. This makes funding PPAs and VPPAs out of reach for many small to midsize suppliers who don’t have the requisite energy demand or the internal resources to justify or execute it on their own.

By co-funding a new facility alongside our Print Partners via Watershed, we’re creating real, additional, emission reductions – at a fixed price, in a world where spot market energy certificate prices can fluctuate.

By handling the sourcing and negotiation processes, Watershed removes much of the contract complexity for Canva and our suppliers, enabling a shorter-term VPPA commitment (5-7 years). This approach is also flexible, allowing new suppliers to join our commitment.

What’s next for Canva on climate?

In 2021, Canva was the first Australian company to sign Amazon’s The Climate Pledge, putting us on a path to Net Zero by 2040.

We recognize Canva’s Print VPPA is just one piece of our climate reduction puzzle, and we have a long way to go on our journey to Net Zero emissions. We’ll continue our efforts to reduce Canva’s global emissions footprint, fund investments outside our value chain such asOne Print One Tree⁠(opens in a new tab or window) to protect and restore nature, andremove legacy emissions permanently with Frontier⁠(opens in a new tab or window).

A co-funding model like this is a unique and innovative way to start making progress on our Scope 3 emissions and our Net Zero targets, and we're excited to be forging a path for others who want to have a similar impact.

We look forward to sharing more insights with the Canva community as we progress on our journey.

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