Sustainability credentials of social media powerhouses
Sustainability within the social media industry
There’s increased focus on the power of social media companies in facilitating the dissemination of information we so hunger for, but how do these companies score on sustainability?
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Despite its widespread use and popularity, social media doesn’t contribute much to advance the global sustainability goals.
Love it or hate it, social media is in all of our lives. There is increased focus on companies that facilitate this networking, and the power they have to both select and disseminate the information we so hunger for.
Given the power of these platforms, and the amount of time we spend on them, we thought it prudent to examine the sustainability credentials of some of the top social media companies, to determine how they actual contribute to creating a better world.
All of the social media companies picked for the analysis scored lower in sustainability (average of 31) than the Sustainable Platform database (of 18,000+ listed companies) average score of 50.
The shared leaders in the group are Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook Inc and Line Corp (Tokyo based subsidiary of Korean giant Naver Corp) with an SDG score of 37. In dual second place is Chinese multi tech company Tencent Holdings Ltd, and Trump favourite Twitter Inc with an SDG score of 36.
Continuing the trend of paired scores, this is followed by both Chinese Weibo Corp and American Snap Inc (Snap chat and bitmoji) with scores of 26. Finally we have global giant Alphabet Inc (Google) with an SDG score of 21.
The sector's largest contribution to sustainability is via its services contribution to the basic need of communications and knowledge.
But you may be wondering why the companies score so low on sustainability. Social media companies gain most of their revenue from advertising, so their contribution to basic needs such as communication and knowledge and education can be tricky to determine.
Our analysis has estimated these more from business activities, and less from revenue type generation.
There was some controversial exposure identified in the group, with Tencent, Alphabet and Snap all recording fossil fuel exposure (mainly through oil and coal).
Interestingly unlike other industries which tend to contribute to one SDG more so than any others, the companies analysed touched on several of the SDGs; SDG Goal 16: Peace & Justice Strong Institutions, SDG Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals, Goals 3: Good Health and Wellbeing, SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure and SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth.
*All SDG score and data are provided by Sustainable Platform based on data as at 11 September 2020.
Top contributing goals
Of all the 17 SDGs, the advertising agencies analysed contribute most to these below goals:
SDG 3: Good Health & Well-being
SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals
Find out more about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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