Square pledges net-zero carbon emissions by 2030, unveils support for greener Bitcoin mining

Payments company Square has pledged to support renewable energy-backed Bitcoin mining operations as part of a broader green initiative.

According to a Tuesday morning press release, Square aims to become carbon-neutral by 2030. That includes reducing the company’s Scope 3 emissions, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency describes as pollution upstream and downstream of an organization which it doesn’t directly control. 

Square partnered with the climate change fighting company Watershed to reduce its carbon footprint.

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In addition, Square pledged $10 million to its newly launched Bitcoin Clean Energy Investment Initiative, which will support other companies in the bitcoin ecosystem as they adopt renewables.

The firm explained:

"The new Bitcoin Clean Energy Investment Initiative will support companies working on green energy technologies within bitcoin mining, and aims to accelerate its transition to clean power rather than only removing the carbon for the bitcoin that Square processes. The company intends to reinvest any of its gains from the investment back into the initiative, and is exploring the possibility of opening this initiative for participation by a consortium of like-minded companies in order to amplify the impact."

Square says it aims to achieve carbon neutrality through shrinking its own carbon footprint and scaling a carbon-removal portfolio, which the company plans to launch in the first quarter of 2021.

About Author

MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.