March 16, 2023 

Beijing, China – ByteDance, the Chinese internet company that owns TikTok and other social networking apps, has announced its commitment to 100% renewable energy in its global operations by 2030 and to be net zero by 2030, reducing emissions by 90% by 2030.

Greenpeace East Asia Climate and Energy Project Manager, Ruiqi Ye said: 

“Finally, ByteDance is catching up with peers like Meta and Tencent, and we are thrilled to see a major internet company taking the reins in becoming sustainable. But to come through on this commitment, ByteDance needs to quickly scale up its renewable energy procurement. How ByteDance scales up renewable energy procurement around Asia will be key to its success. In addition, these commitments so far only cover ByteDance’s own operations, and exclude the value chain, such as its suppliers. In reality, this probably accounts for most of ByteDance’s total emissions. We’re looking forward to seeing an emissions reduction plan for ByteDance’s whole value chain, which the company plans to produce later this year, and we also ultimately hope for full disclosure of emissions data, and seeing regular, concrete updates of its progress.”

In a report released last year by Greenpeace East Asia that ranked China’s cloud providers, ByteDance was among the lowest scoring companies in terms of its climate commitments and renewable energy use. For several years now, Greenpeace East Asia has campaigned for ByteDance to commit to 100% renewable energy by 2030.