Our commitment to Environmental, Social, and Governance standards

As part of our mission to design a more enlightened way of working, we believe in making investments that improve the lives of our employees and the global community we all live in. That’s why we’re dedicating more time and resources toward creating a more equitable world.

Today, we’re releasing our Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Fact Sheet, which highlights our progress towards our ESG commitments in 2019 and 2020:  

• Environmental: In 2020, we set goals to fight global warming and reduce our carbon footprint, which we aim to complete by 2030. This includes achieving carbon neutrality for Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 business-travel emissions, sourcing 100% renewable energy for operations including data centers, funding and supporting organizations working for climate action, and mobilizing employees to use volunteer time off for environmental causes. Approximately 68% of Dropbox office space is LEED certified today, and between 2019 and 2020, our reported Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions decreased by 8%, largely due to reduced business travel during the COVID-19 pandemic. We remain committed to making meaningful progress against these goals.
• Social: From 2019 to 2020, we increased representation of underrepresented minorities (URMs¹) from 10% to 11% and women from 35% to 37% at the manager level and higher. We partnered with Next Chapter and launched our own program, IGNITE Engineering Apprenticeship Program, to support engineers from nontraditional backgrounds. We’ve outlined other areas of focus in our annual Diversity Report.
• Governance: Since 2019, we’ve added four directors to our board who are women or members of underrepresented communities (URC²). We also continue to hold ourselves accountable at the highest levels of leadership for the protection of our users’ content. A cross-functional leadership team, which includes our Chief Privacy Officer, Head of Security, and Chief Legal Officer, oversees our information security and privacy practices. The team proactively addresses related risks and regularly reports to our Board of Directors and its audit committee.

While we’ve made good progress, there’s still a lot more work to do and we’re committed to holding ourselves accountable. In addition to this fact sheet, we intend to publish updates on our progress annually, starting next year.

Finally, we’re excited to announce that Dropbox signed the United Nations (UN) Global Compact, a pact between the UN and businesses worldwide that are committed to solving major global issues. We’re joined by 10,000 companies across sectors that are adopting more sustainable and socially responsible practices.

By working towards our sustainability goals, investing in social-good initiatives, and focusing on positive change, we hope to do our part to make the world a better place. You can learn more about the Dropbox ESG program here. 

Endnotes

1. Dropbox defines “underrepresented minorities (URMs)” as Black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx, Native American, or Pacific Islander.

2. In alignment with California Assembly Bill 979, Dropbox defines “underrepresented communities (URCs)” as individuals who self-identify as Black, African American, Hispanic, Latinx, Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American, Native Hawaiian, or Alaska Native, or as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender.

• Note: While Dropbox uses the term underrepresented minorities (URMs) in the context of DEI, we use the term underrepresented communities (URCs) in the context of board diversity because it aligns with terminology that’s used in related legislation from the California State Assembly.