Chapter 4
Reducing our environmental impact
- Our science-based greenhouse gas emissions reduction target
- Sustainable operations
- Environmental sustainability data
- Corporate Governance
- ESG oversight
- Materiality assessments
- Risk management
- Code of Conduct
- Whistleblower protection and anti-harassment, anti-discrimination, and anti-retaliation
- Human rights
- Public policy positions and lobbying disclosures
- Advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
Reducing our environmental impact
Our priorities and commitments
At Twilio, we believe businesses should leave society better than they found it, which requires us to be thoughtful stewards of our natural resources. We are committed to reducing the environmental impact of our own operations and advancing climate action through our product, capital, and people in order to build a more sustainable future.
At the end of 2023, Twilio’s sustainability ambitions reached a major milestone: our near-term science-based, greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) reduction target was validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).17 SBTi is a UN-backed global body that independently assesses companies’ targets and their alignment with a global ambition, in line with climate science, to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. SBTi validated that Twilio’s target is aligned with a 1.5°C trajectory across all three scopes of GHG emissions.
Our science-based greenhouse gas emissions reduction target
Our target focuses on reducing the emissions associated with our offices and data centers as well as per-employee business travel and commuting, and having the majority of our suppliers based on emissions set their own science-based targets (SBTs). In 2024 we made strides against our SBTi target. Learn more about our target by clicking on the details to the right.
Twilio commits to reduce absolute scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions 54.6% by 2032 from a 2019 base year. Twilio also commits to reduce absolute scope 3 GHG emissions covering fuel- and energy-related activities and upstream leased assets 32.5% within the same timeframe.
2024 Progress:
- 34.9% reduction of absolute scope 1 and 2 achieved18
- 35.3% reduction of relevant absolute scope 3 achieved
We address our scope 1 and 2 emissions as well as our scope 3 emissions covering fuel- and energy-related activities and upstream leased assets by increasing efficiency and shifting our electricity consumption to clean, renewable sources. We exceeded our 32.5% reduction goal for our scope 3 GHG emissions target covering fuel- and energy-related activities and upstream leased assets in 2024. Learn more about our sustainable offices and cloud and data center efforts.
Twilio commits to reduce scope 3 GHG emissions from business travel and employee commuting 61.1% per full-time employee by 2032 from a 2019 base year.
2024 Progress:
- 45.9% reduction per full-time employee achieved
We address our scope 3 GHG emissions from business travel and employee commuting by optimizing travel budgets, traveling efficiently, and continuing our remote-first work culture. Learn more about our sustainable travel and commuting efforts.
Twilio commits that 61.8% of its suppliers by emissions covering purchased goods and services and capital goods, will have science-based targets by 2027.
2024 Progress:
- 44% achieved19
We address supplier-based emissions by educating our suppliers on SBTs and engaging with them as they embark on their own sustainability journeys. Learn more about our sustainable supply chain efforts.
Sharing our progress
We prioritize transparent communication of our sustainability efforts to stakeholders through our Global Impact Report. Additionally, we engage with select ESG rating agencies to benchmark our efforts against industry standards. When addressing customer sustainability inquiries, we share our progress privately through platforms like EcoVadis and respond to specific Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) questions. Through these efforts, we uphold our commitment to transparency, accountability, and dialogue, ensuring stakeholders are informed partners in our sustainability journey.
Sustainable operations
Environmental management
While we believe everyone at Twilio has a role to play, there are a few key teams responsible for our environmental management and performance, including Workplace Operations, Sourcing, Finance, and Twilio.org. Each team tackles the sustainability opportunities in their respective domains, and all work together collaboratively towards our sustainability goals.
We actively assess, manage, and improve the environmental and energy performance of our workplaces through an environmental management framework and software solutions. We compile data for emissions tracking and management following the Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s guidelines.
We believe that building awareness of our sustainability and environmental management efforts is essential to driving progress. We aim to educate Twilions, our suppliers, and our customers about our sustainability efforts and related performance through our Global Impact Report, meetings, surveys, and training.
While Twilio operates as a remote-first company, we maintain a select portfolio of workplaces worldwide. In these locations, we aim to preserve and efficiently manage energy and emissions, optimize water consumption, prioritize sustainable sourcing, minimize waste, and educate employees on sustainability efforts. Our San Francisco headquarters is LEED Gold certified and powered by 100% renewable energy.
We work closely with our data center and cloud computing partners to measure our GHG emissions. We work to minimize data center energy use by utilizing containerization, server virtualization, selecting efficient equipment that meets environmental industry standards, and streamlining our code to reduce energy consumption. Additionally, some of our colocation and cloud computing partners have established 100% renewable energy goals. Together, these efforts help us provide a reliable experience for our customers, while reducing environmental impacts.
As a remote-first company, Twilio is able to access talent across the globe, while significantly reducing the need for employee commuting compared to companies with traditional in-office policies. We address travel and commuting emissions by managing travel budgets, balancing in-person versus virtual meetings, and fostering awareness of sustainable travel practices among our employees. We advance sustainable air travel by offering employees insights into the estimated GHG emissions for each flight booked through our online system. Furthermore, our travel policy prioritizes economy class bookings for the majority of our flights.
We strive to embed sustainability into our purchasing practices, from our events and IT equipment to vendors and professional services. We are building out our sustainable sourcing program to track our suppliers with science based targets and engage with our other suppliers to set their own emission reduction targets. Read more about sustainable sourcing in our Supplier Code of Conduct, which every supplier must adhere to before doing business with Twilio.
We dispose of hardware in partnership with global asset disposition providers that work to recycle wherever possible and properly decommission and dispose of hardware in compliance with local laws. In addition, our asset disposition processes are designed to ensure we remove all hazardous equipment and participate in hardware take-back schemes and donation programs whenever possible.
Our 2024 footprint20
Building an ethical business
We believe that robust corporate governance policies and practices are critical to the effective management of our business, helping ensure that our business functions at its best and serves the long-term interests of our stockholders. Our commitment to strong corporate governance is articulated in our most recent annual Proxy Statement available on our Investor Relations webpage, which provides detailed information on our board structure and composition, stockholder rights and engagement, executive compensation, and other key governance topics.
Twilio is committed to sound governance and oversight of our impact on our community and environment.
Our Board has delegated formal oversight of these responsible business practices to our Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. Our Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee has primary responsibility for oversight of our environmental, social, and governance (ESG) activities and programs pursuant to its charter. The Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee is regularly informed of Twilio’s ESG progress and major updates. In addition, our Audit Committee oversees our enterprise risk management framework and processes, as well as matters related to privacy, AI, cybersecurity, and information and technology security, and oversees any sustainability-related disclosure that we may be required to make under applicable law. Our Compensation and Talent Management Committee oversees a range of human capital management activities and disclosure of such matters, including relating to talent acquisition, talent management and development, employee engagement, and culture and inclusion.
Our Chief Social Impact Officer serves as our ESG Executive Sponsor. Their responsibilities include ESG strategy approval, implementation oversight, addressing ESG-related matters as they arise, and sponsorship of Twilio’s ESG Management Committee. This committee is led by the Environmental Sustainability and ESG Director, and is responsible for establishing, implementing, and tracking Twilio’s ESG strategies and programs, subject to the oversight of our Board’s Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee.
For more information on our ESG documents and disclosures, visit our Investor Relations webpage.
In 2022 Twilio conducted our first single materiality21 assessment, followed by a double materiality assessment which began in 2024. Through internal and external stakeholder engagement and in-depth research on the broader technology industry and sustainability landscape, we identified the environmental, social, and governance issues that are most important to our stakeholders, including employees, customers, investors, and community partners, and to our long-term business success. These assessments enable us to prioritize our ESG efforts, inform our ESG strategy, and help prepare us for evolving global reporting requirements.
We examine risks from a top-down and bottom-up approach and escalate risks to members of our management team and our Board of Directors. Our Board of Directors is ultimately responsible for risk oversight, and our board committees assist our Board of Directors in fulfilling their oversight responsibilities.
Potential ESG risks are intentionally integrated into our enterprise risk assessment processes, and the Enterprise Risk Management function is also included in our ESG materiality assessment and subsequent ESG Strategy. Types of ESG risks assessed include operational risks from potential climate-related physical impact events, and tightening of regulatory requirements regarding ESG and climate disclosures.
Our risk management structure is further described in our most recent annual Proxy Statement available on our Investor Relations webpage.
Our commitment to ethical business practices is captured in the Twilio Code of Conduct, which applies to all Twilio employees, consultants, contractors, suppliers, and board members. Upon joining Twilio, and annually thereafter, all employees are required to complete a series of compliance training courses covering the Code of Conduct, which addresses topics including ethical business conduct, data privacy, information security, anti-corruption, anti-discrimination, anti-harassment, anti-retaliation, and reporting ethics and compliance concerns. The format of this training is an online course with industry-specific scenarios and interactive elements including knowledge-check questions. Through this training we capture written employee certification of compliance with the Code of Conduct.
On the supplier side, we maintain the Twilio Supplier Code of Conduct, which outlines Twilio’s ethics, compliance, and legal-related expectations for suppliers and any subcontractors, providers, or agents that they use. Our contract template and Online Purchase Order Terms & Conditions require suppliers to comply with our Supplier Code of Conduct. In addition, Twilio has adopted a third party risk management process which includes screening vendors, suppliers, carriers, and customers against sanctioned parties lists. This third party risk management program is designed to ensure compliance with the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) legal requirements. Through these efforts, we are demonstrating our commitment to legal compliance as well as ethical business practices, transparency, and integrity.
To ensure protection of whistleblower’s employment status and protection from workplace harassment, discrimination, and retaliation, Twilio has adopted the following policies:
The Code of Conduct outlines Twilio’s commitment to providing a work environment that is free of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation for all employees, interns, apprentices, and contingent workers in accordance with applicable law.
The Global Speak-Up Policy captures Twilio’s prohibition on retaliation for raising good faith concerns about a violation of policy or law or participating in an investigation relating to a violation of policy or law, or assisting with an inquiry or investigation of a potential violation.
Twilio is committed to doing our part to advance human rights and to identifying and mitigating risks that business operations could pose to such rights. Twilio’s Human Rights Statement outlines our approach to human rights issues including privacy, labor practices, and anti-discrimination, anti-harassment, and anti-retaliation in the workplace.
Twilio does not have a political action committee and does not contribute to any individual political candidates. Total financial contributions to political parties, politicians, and PACs in 2020-2024: $0.
Twilio and its lobbying consultants disclose our U.S. lobbying activities and associated costs, which can be found on the House of Representatives and Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act websites. For the EU, Twilio voluntarily reports lobbying contributions and activities to the Transparency Register.
The United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer a blueprint for businesses, governments, and civil society organizations to come together as global partners to address society’s most pressing issues. At Twilio, we are committed to helping advance this global mission to create an equitable and sustainable world.
We concentrate our efforts on the areas where we believe we can have the greatest impact. Specifically, we focus on advancing equitable long-term wellbeing, supporting people displaced by humanitarian crises, and enabling climate action. We believe our work contributes most to addressing the following 9 SDGs: No poverty; Zero hunger; Good health and well-being; Quality education; Gender equality; Reduced inequalities; Climate action; Peace, justice and strong institutions; and Partnerships for the goals.
Building a trusted business
While each Twilion plays an important role in helping to ensure the protection of personal data and compliance with data privacy laws, Twilio’s Privacy team manages our global privacy program, overseen by our Chief Privacy Officer with the support of an international team of privacy lawyers and compliance specialists. The foundation of the program is our BCRs (Binding Corporate Rules) for when we act as a controller or a processor of data, which were approved by European Data Protection Regulators in 2018 and are applied globally to align our processes and practices to the highest standards. We have continued to maintain its certification under the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Cross-Border Privacy Rules (CBPRs) and Privacy Recognition for Processors (PRP) systems. These voluntary and enforceable privacy certifications demonstrate our commitment to privacy and facilitate international data transfers from APEC countries participating in these programs. We have also maintained our EU-US Privacy Shield Certification to enable transfers of personal data from the EU, UK, and Switzerland to our US operations. Our participation in these programs requires that we regularly update, audit or re-certify our compliance.
We have implemented policies and procedures that facilitate compliance with applicable privacy laws, including the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and other US state privacy laws, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), UK GDPR, and others. We work to use privacy by design in the review and building processes for our products, services, and internal business operations. We publish privacy-specific guidance in Twilio’s public-facing help center to help our customers use our products in a way that will help them meet their compliance obligations and to demonstrate our commitment to privacy. To learn more about our commitment to protecting the privacy of our developer ecosystem, customers, and users, visit our Privacy webpage and Privacy Notice.
At Twilio, securing communications is a top priority and at the core of our platform. Twilio strives to maintain the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data and services by proactively mitigating information security risks and helping customers meet regulatory demands. While each Twilio employee plays an important role in helping to ensure compliance with data security standards, a few key teams are responsible for our data security. Our information security program is overseen by our Chief Information Security Officer and focuses on securing our people, our products, and our data to maintain security in every customer interaction. We follow a set of core security principles to guide our tested security posture. Our security risk management framework is designed to ensure ongoing risk identification, assessment, treatment, and reporting, while ensuring continuous delivery of platform products and services. All of our employees and contractors are required to complete security training every year, participate in regular phishing simulations, and we use physical and procedural safeguards to help keep our facilities and equipment secure. We assess and continuously monitor the security posture of our critical third party vendors. As part of our information security management system, Twilio is formally audited by third parties against frameworks such as ISO/IEC 27001, SOC, and PCI on a regular basis. To learn more about our security practices, principles, and certifications, visit our Trust Center.
Twilio takes measures to protect customers and their services through our high-availability platform architecture, resiliency practices, and requirements built into our development and operational processes. Twilio’s Operational Resilience program establishes a framework for Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery to ensure continued delivery of our products and services by following an annual program cadence of core activities ranging from the business impact analysis (BIA), plan development and updates, and testing and exercises. Twilio performs an annual BIA to understand current business requirements, set recovery objectives for critical processes, and to identify gaps and areas of vulnerability. Risks identified during the BIA are included in the One Twilio Risk Management team’s risk assessment process. The requirements and objectives set during the BIA inform the strategy analysis and development. Recovery strategies are documented in the Business Continuity Plans (BCP) to specify how teams will respond and recover during a disruptive event. BCPs are tested via procedural walkthroughs, tabletop exercises, or simulations. Twilio’s Operational Resilience program core activities are updated, reviewed, and approved by leadership annually, or as significant organizational changes occur. Additionally, Twilio leverages specialized tools to monitor server performance, data, and traffic load capacity and increase the capacity or shift traffic to relieve any suboptimal server performance or capacity overload. Twilio’s approach to resilience is aligned to ISO 22301 Business Continuity Management System and the Business Continuity Institutes’ Good Practice Guidelines. Learn more about our Operational Resilience program.
We’re committed to building a trusted ecosystem across all stakeholders. To ensure that Twilio’s customers can deliver secure, engaging experiences on a global scale, we diligently protect the security, privacy, and availability of our platform with intelligent software and resilient infrastructure. To protect consumers from bad actors, spam, and unwanted communications, Twilio has engaged in a number of industry-wide and product initiatives that enhance trust and deliverability of wanted messages. Twilio’s Acceptable Use Policy outlines the rules customers must abide by in order to use Twilio’s platform. Twilio’s Acceptable Use Policy is geared toward protecting not only Twilio’s platform, but also Twilio’s customers, recipients of communications, and the public at large. For example, Twilio prohibits any activity on its platform that is illegal, deceptive, or deemed to be hate speech. Twilio is also a trusted member of national and international committees that are shaping the future of telecommunications. Learn more about our commitment to trusted communications.
Twilio is dedicated to using artificial intelligence (AI) in a manner that is ethical, legal, and responsible while also respecting human rights, intellectual property rights, and privacy rights. Learn more about Twilio’s approach to trusted AI here. We are continuing to develop our AI governance processes in light of developments in law and practice to ensure the risks of AI within our products, services and business operations are appropriately managed. We also use our AI Nutrition Facts Labels and product-specific terms to provide transparency and assistance to our customers to assess any risks from their use of our products. Twilio is actively engaged in helping to shape the development of AI law and practice through its participation in the development of the EU AI Act Code of Practice and ongoing work with trade associations around the world.
Twilio’s design systems team is committed to helping everyone at Twilio build inclusive and accessible software. Paste, Twilio’s design system, adheres to the international standard Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1 AA). The system provides accessibility tips and an inclusive design guide to use while building new products. Paste aims to raise the floor for all Twilio products to start their product development lifecycle with accessibility as a baseline and is used across our entire product portfolio. To share our learnings, we have open-sourced the Paste design system so our customers can leverage business best practices when building their own customer engagement software.
This index maps our disclosures to the SASB standards for the Software & IT Services industry.
Forward-looking statements
This report contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or our future performance. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “may,” “can,” “will,” “would,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “could,” “target,” “projects,” “aims,” “contemplates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “forecasts,” “potential,” or “continue” or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions that concern our expectations, strategy, plans or intentions. Forward-looking statements contained in this report include, but are not limited to, statements about: our opportunities and anticipated strategy and business plans, and our ability to successfully execute them; our future performance; our relationships with partners and customers, including our expectations regarding customer value and AI; our environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals, culture and inclusion objectives, science-based targets (SBTs), commitments and goals, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and other goals discussed in this report, and our related plans, expectations, timing and ability to achieve them; our plans and expectations regarding our ESG, SBT and culture and inclusion programs and initiatives, including Open Work; the goals and effectiveness of our governance policies and practices, including related to building an ethical and trusted business; the development of our sustainable sourcing program; and our expectations and goals related to growth, nonprofit support, grant funding and social impact. You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events.
The outcome of the events described in these forward-looking statements is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements, including, among other things: changes in macroeconomic and political conditions; changes in industry standards, laws, and regulations; changes to the operations of the social impact organizations we partner with; and the impact of social and environmental factors beyond our control, including social unrest, natural disasters, and similar events.
The forward-looking statements contained in this report are also subject to additional risks, uncertainties, and factors, including those more fully described in our most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. Should any of these risks materialize, or should our assumptions prove to be incorrect, actual results could differ materially from our projections or those implied by these forward-looking statements. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment, and new risks and uncertainties may emerge that could have an impact on the forward-looking statements contained in this report.
Forward-looking statements represent our management’s beliefs and assumptions only as of the date such statements are made and we do not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date on which the statements were made or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law.
17 Twilio received SBTi validation at the end of 2023. SBTi published Twilio’s commitment on its website on January 4, 2024 (https://sciencebasedtargets.org/target-dashboard).
18 This includes both utility sourced renewable energy and renewable energy certificates.
19 11.8% includes some suppliers that have commitments to set science-based targets but have not yet set them. Excluding commitments, suppliers that have set science-based targets comprise 32.2% of our suppliers by emissions.
20We measured our 2019-2024 carbon footprint, inclusive of scope 1, scope 2, and all relevant scope 3 categories, in accordance with the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard and the Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard. Our 2024 scope 1 and 2 emissions are verified. Starting in the 2022 footprint, we collected access swipe data across key offices to estimate the percentage of employees commuting into the office. We separately disclose optional scope 3.6 emissions from business travel accommodations and optional scope 3.7 emissions from energy usage from employees working from home. We share these categories for transparency, but they are not included in our science-based target per SBTi requirements. Scope 3.6 emissions from business travel include radiative forcing for flights. Optional scope 3.7 emissions from employees working from home are calculated using location-specific carbon intensity factors to account for differences in emission intensity of the energy sources where our employees are working from home. We acquired multiple companies between 2019 and 2022. The GHG Protocol requires that the emissions from each acquired company are included within our footprint prior to the acquisition close date starting from our base year (2019). Therefore, our acquisitions' estimated historical emissions are included in addition to our actual emissions for the applicable years. After the acquisition close date, these companies’ data are folded into our systems, and their emissions appear in our carbon footprint using more granular primary data. In line with this methodology, we restated our 2019-2023 footprints to remove ValueFirst and IoT, two business units we divested in 2023. We also added estimated emissions for 2019-2021 for our 2022 acquisition Boku. Our 2023 and 2024 market-based scope 2 emissions include Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). We previously applied RECs to the US-based grid mix for scopes 3.3 and 3.8 for our 2021-2022 footprints, but we have removed those RECs from scopes 3.3 and 3.8 and now apply them to scope 2 in 2023. We have applied these RECs within the recommended 21-month window timeframe per Green-E guidance best practices.
For our 2024 footprint, we further improved our calculation methodologies to more accurately reflect our emissions and future-proof our reporting against evolving standards. We also restated our 2019-2023 carbon footprints using these methodology improvements. These improvements led to an increase in previously reported total emissions across each of those years. These improvements led to an increase in previously reported total emissions across each of those years. We switched from using a cash basis methodology for our operating expense data used in scope 3 to using an accrual basis methodology to improve accuracy by aligning with our audited financial statements. In prior years, our methodology utilized the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's US Environmentally-Extended Input-Output (USEEIO) modeling, which is a single-region database. Now, our 2019-2024 footprints use the multi-region database Comprehensive Environmental Data Archive (CEDA). Covering 95 percent of global GDP, CEDA better reflects the global nature of supply chains and the complexity of goods and services production since regional energy systems and emissions profiles vary significantly. Our 2019-2024 footprints now better incorporate the latest energy estimates for cloud machine types and regional clean power in the cloud methodology, no longer incorporate region-specific power usage effectiveness values from one of our cloud computing partners in 2022-2023, more precisely attribute flight fare class to each flight leg for 2019-2022, more accurately categorize a small portion of spend as goods and services instead of travel, better incorporate a more comprehensive estimate of acquired companies' historical emissions, now include well-to-tank emissions for commute and home offices, and generally benefit from improved data availability and updated emission factors. As we continuously improve our calculation methodologies, we continue to track progress against and review our science-based targets.
21In this report and in related communications, the term “materiality” and similar terms, when used in the context of environmental, social and governance topics, are defined in reference to sustainability frameworks and are not meant to correspond to the concept of materiality under the U.S. securities laws and/or disclosures required by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.