Our environment
We are constantly working to improve on our established environmental and sustainability efforts.
Xero’s environmental sustainability objectives
Our aim is to reduce our environmental footprint and to continue to grow and future-proof our business as the climate changes. Our objectives are to:
- reduce our net climate impact
- support sustainable small business
- enhance our waste and water management practices
Reducing our net climate impact
Vision and mission
Xero is known as a brand and an employer that takes meaningful action on climate as part of living its purpose. Our mission is to position Xero among tech leaders in carbon emissions reduction by committing to credible and ambitious climate targets.
We’ve set the following near-term emissions reduction targets, in line with climate science, from an FY24 baseline:
- 60% reduction in scope 1 and 2 emissions by FY34
- 35% reduction in scope 3 emissions by FY34
- 70% of our suppliers (by emissions) having a science-based target by FY34
Scope 1 and 2: Green our work and workplaces
Green Software @ Xero
Xero is a member of the Green Software Foundation, a global initiative focused on making software more energy efficient and sustainable. As part of this membership, we collaborate with industry leaders to adopt and promote best practices in green software. By adopting the foundation’s key principles, we aim to optimize our software for energy efficiency, reduce carbon emissions, and contribute to a more sustainable digital future.
Green our workplaces
We continue to implement initiatives aimed at reducing our electricity consumption, such as ‘switch it off’ signage, sensor and timer lighting, extensive use of LED lighting in all offices, working with air conditioning engineers and landlords to improve the efficiency of systems, and automating switching off of AV equipment.
In 2025, we transitioned to renewable electricity at our Melbourne and Sydney offices. Xero is also compliant with the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme in the United Kingdom. Our London office runs on renewable energy and is certified carbon neutral.
Where possible, we aim for our office spaces to be Green Star, LEED, BREEAM or NABERS certified.
- Our Melbourne office, which is our Australian HQ, is our largest office at 7,580m2. It has more than 220 solar panels, a rainwater harvesting system, and 10 electric vehicle charging stations. The office was built to meet NABERS 4.5* standards
- Our Wellington office is our second largest office at 6,804m.2 It has a NABERS rating of 4.5*
- Our Auckland office has a 5* Green Star rating (at 6,800m2 it’s our third largest office)
- Our Denver office is rated LEED Platinum and includes solar panels at (2,786m2 it’s our fourth largest office)
- Our San Mateo office is rated LEED Gold
- Our Toronto office is rated BOMA Gold
- Our Brisbane office has a NABERS rating of 3*
- Our Canberra office has a NABERS rating of 4.5*
- Our Napier office has solar panels installed
Scope 3: Travel thoughtfully and abate our impact
Invest in SAF and optimize flight paths
As a global company, business travel represents one of our largest sources of emissions and one of the most challenging in which to achieve significant reductions.
This year, we joined Qantas’ Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) Coalition program to support our emissions reduction strategy by reducing our business travel emissions. The SAF Coalition aims to support efforts to reduce the environmental impact of aviation and to support the development of a SAF industry in Oceania.
Prioritize green rides
We encourage our employees to choose green transportation options such as electric or hybrid vehicles where possible for business travel. We’ve made improvements to data collection within our finance systems to better capture these forms of travel.
We also provide end-of-trip facilities, including secure bike parking, showers and well-equipped changing rooms in all our newer buildings to better support alternative modes of transport. Charging points for electric vehicles are also made available where possible.
Scope 3: Decarbonise our supply chain
Supplier engagement
Given the nature of our industry, our supply chain plays a central role in our efforts to reduce our emissions, with scope 3 (including business travel) accounting for more than 99% of our carbon footprnt.
In 2025 we began the work of identifying the suppliers to be included in our scope 3 engagement target and engaging with our highest-emitting suppliers. We’re prioritizing suppliers who represent the greatest potential for us to reduce our scope 3 emissions as well as critical suppliers to our business operations in the event of disruptions.
Data center storage
We recognize the concerns about the increased energy and water used by generative artificial intelligence (AI) products compared to traditional computing.
While Xero uses generative AI tools internally and in our product, we don’t build or train proprietary large language models. The energy impact and related carbon emissions of our use of generative AI tools is therefore marginal. In FY25, all uses of AI across Xero represented 0.25% of our total carbon emissions.
Xero uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) as our cloud services platform partner. AWS is committed to running its business in the most environmentally friendly way possible and matches 100% of the electricity consumed across its global infrastructure with renewable energy. We're also working with AWS to determine how we can optimize infrastructure utilization.
Read more
Net zero ambition by 2050
In the long term, our ambition remains to reach net zero by 2050 (as defined by the Science Based Targets initiative). However, we acknowledge the nature of our business means this relies on many factors outside our direct control.
Our current priority is to make substantial progress on our near-term targets. Once we’ve done this, we’ll chart a detailed roadmap towards net zero.
Resources
- Download Xero’s FY25 Sustainability Report (PDF) and FY25 Databook (XLSX) for our most recent reporting on our emissions reduction actions and performance
Supporting sustainable small business
Small business sustainability hub
Part of managing our social and environmental impact at Xero is educating small businesses on the importance of sustainability and helping them operate in socially and environmentally responsible ways.
Xero’s small business sustainability hub includes helpful information and resources from across the globe to help our small business customers and partners build more sustainable businesses.
Of the small businesses surveyed by Xero, 68% told us they wanted to become more sustainable but needed help achieving this. Xero’s small business sustainability hub includes helpful information and resources from across the globe to help our small business customers and partners to achieve their sustainability goals.
Sustainability-related apps in the Xero App Store
We’re committed to connecting our customers with the most relevant, scalable resources and support models to help them operate in an environmentally conscious way.
Several of our Xero app partners are also helping small businesses operate more sustainably. They offer a range of capabilities such as carbon measurement and management. Learn more at the Xero App Store.
In April 2025, we announced a deepening of our global partnership with carbon accounting platform Sumday. As governments and regulators around the world increasingly mandate large companies to disclose their carbon emissions, many of our customers will likely find themselves needing to quantify and report their own emissions in order to participate in corporate supply chains.
Sumday takes an education-led approach to upskilling accountants and bookkeepers, so they can provide carbon accounting services to their clients. Through this partnership and for a limited time, eligible Xero customers have 12 months free access to Sumday, including an exclusive feature allowing our small business customers to easily display and share their carbon footprint.
We continue to partner with Sumday to deliver sessions to our accounting and bookkeeping partners on the opportunities to develop carbon accounting as a revenue stream for accounting practices.
Enhancing our waste and water management practices
Waste management
We’re committed to continually improving our recycling methods.
- We already:
- recycle paper, glass, hard plastic, aluminium and tin cans and cardboard
- undertake composting where these services are available in leased offices
- have eliminated the use of bottled water in all offices
- endeavour to source all paper for printing from FSC/PEFC sources
- use paper hand towels and toilet paper from recycled FSC/PEFC sources where we have direct control of supplies
- procure recycling services for printer toner cartridges, batteries and electronic waste
- return leased IT equipment (principally laptops) at the end of its life
- recycle non-leased IT equipment (printers, screens etc) where possible via certified e-waste companies
As a result of our initiatives and our employees’ commitment to reduce waste and increase recycling, Xero achieved a 55% diversion of waste from landfill in FY25.
Read more
Water management
While direct water consumption is not material within our business operations, we recognize that the value chain of our products includes water-intensive activities, such as data hosting. To better understand and manage these impacts and dependencies, we’ll undertake a lifecycle assessment, focusing on the water and environmental footprint across the entire lifecycle of Xero products.
More information
For more information on our sustainability work and performance, see Xero's FY25 Sustainability Report (PDF) and FY25 Databook (XLSX).
For anything else, please email us at sustainability@xero.com
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