Mastercard Success With ESG Could Be Blueprint for Sustainable Fintech

Mastercard decreased its emissions by seven percent while increasing its net revenue by 12 percent compared to 2023, indicating its wide-ranging environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiative has been a resounding success for the second year in a row.

Mastercard’s core ESG framework revolves around three strategic pillars the company calls People, Prosperity, and Planet, each of which feature stated goals and clear metrics for measuring progress towards them. One aim is to achieve net-zero by 2040, funding the planting of 100 million trees for reforestation, and connecting one billion people as part of its financial inclusion initiatives.

Mastercard’s strategy and results outlined in its recently released 2024 Impact Report reflect the broader trend of maturing ESG within the global financial services and fintech industries. While the sector represents only a fraction of a percent of direct global emissions, most emissions are “financed,” meaning that they’re produced by the companies invested in by banks and asset managers. According to the CDP, these financed emissions are around 700 times larger than their direct emissions.

Mastercard’s approach is a prime example of what the World Economic Forum described in its Insight Report, published in June 2025, as an industry-wide transition to sustainable growth in which revenue growth and sustainability are deeply intertwined. Previously, they had long been viewed as competing disciplines. For instance, a major component of Mastercard’s strategy is supplier engagement, with the company successfully getting almost three quarters of its supplier base to commit to their own science-based emissions reduction targets. “Supply chain emissions account for 76 percent of Mastercard's

global emissions, which includes roughly 330 suppliers that accounted for around 85 percent of those emissions in 2024,” the report noted. To mitigate the issue, the company has worked closely with suppliers to encourage them to “report and allocate annual Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions; establish science-based targets to support emissions reduction goals; [and] collaborate…on projects and programs to reduce and allocate emissions.”

Furthermore, the company’s partnership with the Priceless Planet Coalition, which aims to restore the world’s forests, has already funded the restoration of 26 million trees, putting it well on its way to its 100 million tree goal. Under its prosperity pillar, Mastercard has either reached or surpassed its goals thanks in part to its digital infrastructure projects designed to connect remote and underserved communities. For example, since 2018, its Community Pass platform has provided access to 7 million previously unbanked users in counties like Kenya, Uganda, and India, facilitating growth among local entrepreneurs and smallholder farmers.

Both regulatory and market forces are behind this shift, with lawmakers pushing the sector to embed ESG considerations into their core operations and consumers and investors demanding greater social and environmental transparency. For instance, in Europe, regulations like the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) mandate comprehensive sustainability reporting. In the US, despite the more polarizing political climate of the Trump presidency, many investors continue to view ESG policy as integral to good governance, risk management, and long-term financial performance.