Match Group Aims for Carbon Neutrality by Early 2022
Contributed by: kellyseal on Wednesday, January 05 2022 @ 10:39 am
Last modified on Wednesday, January 05 2022 @ 10:57 am
Match Group announced that the company will go carbon neutral by March of 2022 thanks to its purchase of offsets to carbon emissions, leading the way for dating apps to address issues of climate change.
The company announced the move in a press release[*1] , noting that it commits to offsetting its carbon footprint going forward, though the offset purchase made lasts only two years. Match Group invested in Hyundai Green Power Corporation, which captures and recycles waste gases to generate electricity through its Steel Waste Energy Cogeneration Project. (The site’s steel mill reuses waste gases and what remains is used by the project’s power plant.)
When that energy is repurposed, it supplies power to the local grid in Dangjin, South Korea, instead of that grid relying on fossil fuels. This means a reduction of 1.8 million tons of carbon emissions per year, according to Match Group.
Match Group’s carbon neutral strategy appeals to its target demographic of Gen Z daters, who take climate change seriously. Last year, the company’s popular dating app OkCupid debuted a feature to allow users to filter out climate change deniers after discovering an overwhelming 97 percent of its users believe in climate change. The app also saw a 240 percent increase in environmental terms users were adding to their profiles, such as “global warming” and “recycle.” Sister Match Group app Tinder also noticed a growing trend among its users to add terms like “climate change” and “the environment” to profiles, particularly among Gen Z users.
And earlier this year, OkCupid debuted a Climate Change Advocate Profile Badge and Stack, allowing users to advertise their feelings on the issue in their profiles as well as to match with other like-minded users.
When OkCupid surveyed its users on how they feel about the issue of climate change, according to Hindustan Times[*2] , 72 percent of UK users said they make a conscious effort to reduce their carbon footprint, followed by 65 percent of respondents from the US and 53 percent in India.
Seventy percent of users in India and 66 percent in Turkey said they were consciously attempting to conserve energy and resources, while 50 percent of users in the US and 48 percent in the UK said they attempt to conserve resources “sometimes.”
Match Group has taken these statistics seriously and is responding in kind with its core business, according to CEO Shar Dubey. "Sustainability is a core foundational principle that all companies should care about. There's no future if we do not have a livable planet to hand over to our children and grandchildren.”
She added: "This is the beginning of our actions to reduce our business impact on the environment."