# SmugMug

**Certification:** The Climate Label Certified — Completed, 2025
**Certified since:** 2023 (most recent: 2025)
**Industry:** Software + Tech
**Website:** https://www.smugmug.com/
**Sustainability page:** https://www.smugmug.com

## Sustainability story

At SmugMug, we are committed to building a better, more sustainable business. As a private, Certified Evergreen company our goals stretch 100 years out, centered on building awesome tools and platforms for photographers. The first step in century scale planning begins with working on our impact right now. By measuring and reducing our carbon footprint, we are actively building a better world for future generations of photographers. Alongside focusing on our long-term impact on climate, we are passionate about protecting the open and wild spaces that photographers are inspired to visit and capture. We prioritize carbon offset projects that meet these goals, and we are also active and engaged members of The Conservation Alliance.

## Emissions (2025)

**Methodology:** SmugMug's emissions inventory uses a mix of spending and activity-based data. SmugMug attests to the accuracy of their data inputs and the Change Climate team reviews the submission for compliance with the Standard.

- Scope 1: 756 tCO2e
- Scope 2 (location-based): 65 tCO2e
- Scope 2 (market-based): 65 tCO2e
- Scope 3 (location-based): 1,880 tCO2e
- Scope 3 (market-based): 1,880 tCO2e
- **Total (location-based): 2,701 tCO2e**
- **Total (market-based): 2,701 tCO2e**

**Emissions intensity:** Custom — dollar of personnel costs

### Emissions history (tCO2e, intensity as disclosed)
| Year | Scope 1 | Scope 2 (loc) | Scope 2 (mkt) | Scope 3 (loc) | Scope 3 (mkt) | Intensity |
|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|
| 2022 | 15 | 0 | 246 | 0 | 2,234 | 0.11 |
| 2023 | 776 | 0 | 145 | 0 | 2,024 | 0.15 |
| 2024 | 756 | 65 | 65 | 1,880 | 1,880 | n/a |

## Reduction plans

### Science-aligned targets
- We commit to reducing 2022 Scope 1 & 2 emissions 50% by 2030 (completion: 0%)

### Reduction action plans
- **Scope 2** — We will shut down our office, completely eliminating our energy use in that building. We are committed to being a distributed workforce. (source: Electricity, target: Q1 2024, completion: 100%)
- **Scope 3** — We will reduce our computer energy consumption by 20% by adopting advanced energy-efficient new AWS technologies such as Lambda, Graviton, and more Serverless offerings across all of our platforms and services. (source: Software and servers, target: Q4 2024, completion: 50%)
- **Scope 3** — Reduce our energy consumption for rendering images by 10% through utilizing a more efficient processing methodology. (source: Software and servers, target: Q4 2025, completion: 100%)
- **Scope 3** — Integrate with at least four new regional print labs around the world to produce and ship physical goods closer to their final destination. (source: Downstream shipping, target: Q4 2025, completion: 50%)
- **Scope 3** — We will implement PHP's Just-In-Time compiler across our environments to reduce computational resource usage, significantly decreasing energy consumption while improving application performance. (source: Software and servers, target: 2027, completion: 0%)
- **Scope 3** — We will develop and open-source hardware-accelerated computing optimizations to significantly reduce energy consumption across our systems and the global tech industry who choose to adopt our open improvements. (source: Software and servers, target: 2026, completion: 0%)

## Climate funding (2025)

**Total funding:** $40,515

**Carbon fee:** $15/tCO2e

**Spend by category:**
- VCA (Voluntary Carbon / Reductions): $23,348
- OC (Organizational Commitments): $2,332
- BVC (Beyond Value Chain): n/a

### Projects
- [OC] Change Climate BEE (Software, Planning, Research & Development): $2,320
- [OC] Carbon Kelp Science Project support (Climate policy advocacy, Market Transformation Initiatives): $12
- [VCA] Serverless Migration Project (Energy efficiency, Efficiency & Electrification): $23,348
- [BVC] Southern Cardamom REDD+ (Carbon credit, Voluntary Carbon Market): $14,835 — type: Forestry, registry: Verified Carbon Standard, vintage: 2021, location: Cambodia, provider: SeaTrees

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Source: https://explore.changeclimate.org/brand/smugmug
API documentation: https://api-docs.changeclimate.org/certified-brands.html