Introducing our Climate Impact Tracker: See your real-time ticketing carbon emissions and climate charity donations

Ever wondered about the environmental footprint of your ticketing? Today we’re launching our new Climate Impact Tracker! 

Now, you have the power to track carbon emissions from your ticket sales, right from your dashboard overview. You’ll also see the donations we make to our climate charity partners (more on this below). We hope this increased visibility inspires further actions towards climate responsibility.

Back to the beginning

Since launching in 2010 our priority has been to provide easy and affordable ticketing for event creators around the world. But on top of that, we want to make sure we do business in a responsible and sustainable way, so we became a Certified B Corp and have embraced the ethos “Growth on Purpose”. We believe a key part of this is being transparent about the carbon impact of using our technology and what we're doing about that.

Given technology companies tend to be asset-light, it’s often assumed that carbon emissions are also low. But that’s not always the case. In fact, in 2021, the tech industry was responsible for 2-3% of total global carbon emissions. This highlights how it’s important to educate users, and lead the change.

Measuring carbon emissions

We achieved carbon neutrality in 2021 with the support of Supercritical, the largest multi-method carbon removal marketplace. Following Supercriticals’ expert advice, we now invest in high quality carbon removals to offset our annual emissions across all three scopes, while taking actionable steps to minimise carbon emissions per ticket – you can read more about this in our annual Impact Report. We also chose to offset all historic emissions produced since the company's inception, which is a step beyond requirements for carbon neutrality and not common practice (but we personally felt it was our duty to the planet).

We continue to collaborate with Supercritical each year for our carbon emission measurements, which allows us to calculate the average carbon footprint per ticket in any given year. This came to 6g CO₂e per ticket in 2023 and includes scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. This data allows us to display the individual carbon footprint for each event creator’s ticketing function in the new tracker, see our example below:

What are the three scopes?

You may have read that last section and wondered “what on earth are the ‘three scopes’?”. So here’s our simplest explanation:

Scope 1: These are the direct carbon emissions that we ‘own or control’ from our business operations - for example, at Ticket Tailor this would include the emissions from our laptops, coffee machines and other office utilities.

Scope 2: These are the indirect emissions from the generation of electricity that we use - for example, at Ticket Tailor this would include the electricity used for our office. You can read more about Workspace’s sustainability agenda on their website.

Scope 3: These are all the emissions that we don’t produce, and are a result of activities up and down our value chain - for example, at Ticket Tailor this would include cloud servers, employee commutes, business travel, food and drink consumption, and much more.

To give you a bit more background, for a company to be classified as carbon neutral in the UK, they only have to measure scope 1 and 2 emissions, reduce them where possible, and offset the remaining emissions. 

Measuring and reporting Scope 3 emissions is currently voluntary in the UK, and while it does come with its challenges due to the complexity of measuring all emissions outside of your direct control, Scope 3 emissions are often considered the most significant as they typically account for the largest portion of a business’s total emissions. This is why we chose to include all three scopes in our own measurements, as we believe it tells a more accurate picture. We would encourage anyone starting their carbon footprint journey to include all three scopes in their carbon emissions measurements.

Penny for the Planet donations

TEAM TICKET TAILOR AFTER VOLUNTEERING AT FOULSHAW MOSS BOG WITH CUMBRIA WILDLIFE TRUST 2023

In addition to displaying the carbon emissions, our Climate Impact Tracker also shows the donations we make based on ticket sales. At the end of 2022, we started our Penny for the Planet initiative, through which we donate 1p (1.3c) of every ticket sale to our chosen climate charity partners.

Since its launch, Penny for the Planet donations have reached an impressive £400,000, benefiting four charity partners who are crucial in the fight against climate change: Ocean Conservation Trust; Cumbria Wildlife Trust; The Rainforest Foundation UK; and Heal. This direct tie between donations and ticket sales amplifies the impact as we grow. In 2023, we experienced 37% growth and processed 18.5 million tickets. This resulted in £137,000 in donations! 

Closing thoughts from our Founder

While ticketing typically makes up a small percentage of the total emissions from events, our new Climate Impact Tracker is a supportive step for those already reporting their emissions, and serves as a starting point for those who are not.

When discussing the importance of the Climate Impact Tracker, our Founder and CEO Jonny spoke about the bigger picture goal: “In today's world, businesses hold a responsibility to not only strive for success but to do so with purpose and accountability. With the launch of our Climate Impact Tracker, we aim to set a new standard of transparency and environmental accountability in the event ticketing industry. We believe that all businesses, regardless of size or industry, should prioritise measuring and mitigating their environmental impact. By integrating carbon reporting and climate donations into our platform, we empower event creators to make informed decisions and take meaningful action towards a more sustainable future." 

We hope you find this latest innovation helpful, or at the very least interesting. Want to learn more about our commitment to sustainability, or see how you can make improvements to your own events, check out the following resources:

• Read more about Ticket Tailor’s Impact
• 5 ways to gear-shift your events sustainability efforts
• A sustainable approach to events with Thorington Theatre
• How to practice event sustainability without it feeling like a token gesture
• A summary of our 2023 Penny for the Planet donations