Our carbon footprint went up. Here's why we're publishing it anyway.

Why publish a year when the numbers went up?

The honest answer is: because transparency is only meaningful when it's uncomfortable. This is our third consecutive year of emissions measurement, and the first year we can present three full years of comparable data, including a year where the number increased. Hiding that would defeat the purpose of publishing at all.

Our 2025 total of 5,615 tCO₂e represents a 74% increase on 2024. We want to be clear about what drove this. Part of it is real growth from a bigger company. Part of it is that we're measuring more things, and measuring them better. And part of it is that we found errors in our 2024 numbers — once corrected, they showed last year was understated.

What drove the increase

The key drivers break down as follows, and it matters to understand each one rather than read the headline number in isolation.

• Purchased goods & services (+70%): The largest driver, accounting for roughly 77% of the total increase. This category is calculated on a spend-based method, meaning it scales directly with company spend. As Payhawk grew from 326 to 414 average employees, vendor spend on cloud infrastructure, SaaS tools, and professional services rose proportionally.
• Business travel (+92%): Travel per employee increased, consistent with a maturing commercial team, more in-person customer engagement, and a broader return to conferences and external events.
• Energy-related activities (+905%): Largely a data correction story. In 2024, heating data for our Sofia office, our largest, was accidentally recorded for one month instead of twelve. Our New York office size was entered as 8 sqm instead of 240 sqm. The 2025 figure is substantially more complete and accurate than 2024's.
• Expanded offices: Moving from co-working spaces to leased offices, and opening in Munich in April 2025, added emissions previously not attributed to Payhawk directly.

Importantly, our per-employee emissions intensity of 13.56 tCO₂e/FTE remains 17% below our 2023 baseline of 16.40. We are more carbon-efficient per person than two years ago, even as our absolute footprint grew alongside the business.

What we built in 2025

Beyond the emissions story, 2025 was a genuine year of institutional building across governance, people, and community.

• Modern Slavery Statement: Published our first Modern Slavery Statement in December 2025, a public, zero-tolerance commitment to ethical standards across our operations and supply chains.
• ESG risk framework: Integrated ESG risk into our Enterprise Risk Management Framework. ESG-related Key Risk Indicators will be monitored quarterly from 2026, reported to the Leadership Team and Management Boards in the UK and Lithuania.
• HawkVibes: Launched our in-house performance and feedback platform in May 2025, giving employees a structured way to get feedback, track growth, and get recognised throughout the year rather than in an annual review cycle.
• Munich office: Opened in April 2025, deepening our DACH presence alongside Berlin and bringing us closer to customers and talent across Germany and broader Europe.
• Unicorn Club: Now in its second year, 12 employees were recognised as Fellows or Distinguished Members, each with a significant financial reward for exemplifying Payhawk's seven cultural behaviours.
• Court of Resilience: Commissioned a playable art mural at Aldersbrook Lawn Tennis Club in Wanstead, East London, celebrating the resilience of brand ambassador Grigor Dimitrov and gifting the court to the local community.

Community: education, mentorship, founders

In 2025 we ran university courses at the American University in Bulgaria covering Business Development and Product Management, with Payhawk's CEO, CMO, and CRO among the guest speakers. We contributed to Give Time Foundation's "School for Work" programme supporting children without parental care, and supported the IESE School of Founders Forum in Barcelona. We continued our partnership with Tuk-Tam through both the Hive Annual Event and the newly launched Compass Career Event.

Free carbon tracking for every customer

Payhawk Green, our carbon tracking feature, gives every business visibility into the environmental impact of their spend. Every transaction on a Payhawk card comes with a carbon emissions estimate powered by Lune, provided to all customers at no additional cost. Unlike standard spend-based models, Lune calculates at the transaction level, factoring in product category, country of purchase, and industry-specific methodologies such as ICAO for flights and GLEC for logistics.

For businesses trying to understand their Scope 3 footprint, which typically represents 80–95% of total emissions, this kind of granular, real-time data is rarely accessible without significant cost or effort. Payhawk Green makes it available automatically, as part of the platform.

Three lessons, still true

1. Accountability beats ambition. The initiatives that stuck were the ones someone was responsible for. Frameworks don't do the work, people with clear ownership do.
2. Better data changes the conversation. Our emissions reporting improved every year, not because the footprint shrank, but because we got more rigorous about measuring it. That rigour is what makes reduction targets credible. As Asya Tisheva, our Financial Controller, puts it: "Good sustainability reporting starts with good data. I'm proud that at Payhawk, we take that seriously, and that finance plays a part in making it happen."
3. Small actions compound. Offsetting two years of Scope 1 and 2 emissions, opening a community tennis court, launching a feedback platform, none of these are transformational on their own. Together, over time, they add up to something that is.

What's next

In 2026 our priorities are: implementing ESG KRI monitoring on a quarterly cycle, embedding HawkVibes deeper into our performance culture, deepening community partnerships, exploring further emissions offsets for 2023 and 2024, and enhancing our carbon estimation feature for customers.

We think we're moving the right way, but we also know we need to move faster, and we'll tell you next year whether we achieved it. Read our complete 2025 Impact Report.