Sustainability at Ancestry®

Working for a sustainable future in everything from office leases to packaging.

Each day we see how the actions of our ancestors can have a profound impact on the present and the future. We know that sustainable business practices are vital for the well-being of future generations, and we’re taking strategic measures to create a more sustainable world.

Ancestry is committed to reducing our emissions by 15% by 2025, and we’re looking across the organization and supply chain to reach that goal.

Supply Chain Sustainability

We’ve implemented a Supply Chain Code of Conduct, an ESG policy that covers supply chain roles, expectations and responsibilities.

In 2021 we designed new DNA kit packaging that is 35% smaller in size, and about half the size in weight of the original. The new kits will be implemented in 2022 in an effort to reduce our waste-to-landfill for DNA kit packaging by 35% by 2025.
We’re working with Sphera, a leading ESG performance and risk management consultant, to develop a life cycle assessment of our products.
We’re making our DNA collection device more foolproof to improve our customer success rate. Overall, this will reduce cost and material usage and provide a better customer experience.
We’re partnering with sustainable distribution partners like DHL that have implemented carbon efficiency practices and are pioneering the way for electric commercial vehicles.
We’re working towards using recycled materials for all kits by 2023.

Real Estate Sustainability

We’re working with landlords and employees in each of our largest office locations to cut emissions and waste:

We launched a Sustainability Champion Program and created “Green Teams” to educate and engage employees as we expand and organize sustainability initiatives in each office location.
Each Ancestry office has its own energy efficiency plan, and we’re partnering with our landlords to track, calculate, and report the scope of our emissions, recycling, and waste-to-landfill in each location.
We’re requesting “green lease” agreements with all our landlords as an integral aspect of reaching our environmental targets.

California Clean Air Day

Ancestry is proud to sponsor California Clean Air Day, a project of the Coalition for Clean Air. Clean Air Day is a unified day of action when individuals and organizations commit to do their part to clear the air. As a sponsor, Ancestry encourages our employees to also take a personal pledge to make simple changes to help clean the air in our community.

Utah Clean Air Partnership (UCAIR)

The UCAIR works to improve Utah’s air quality through education, grants, and partnerships with a wide variety of organizations. As a UCAIR partner, Ancestry is committing its resources to help empower individuals, businesses, and communities with the education and tools to make changes to improve Utah’s air.

City Spotlights

Lehi

In Lehi, Utah, Ancestry’s corporate office with 250,000 square feet of space spread over four floors, our focus was sustainability from the start. We built the office with Silver LEED certification (based on our green building strategies), efficient LED lighting, and eight EV chargers. To reduce water consumption, we use native plants and turned off 75% of our irrigation system. To help keep emissions down, we have partnered with other companies for employee shuttles, and make it easy for employees to bike to work by providing showers and bike storage.

San Francisco

We have made great strides in our San Francisco office to better manage and reduce waste. Through our ongoing waste campaign and collaboration with San Francisco Recology, we have eliminated all plastics, implemented a centralized waste system, and established in-office composting.

Salt Lake City

By vacating our Salt Lake City data center in 2019, we’ve eliminated about 1,500 kilowatt-hours of electricity per day (1.1 metric tons of Carbon Dioxide Equivalent – (CDE)). In the two years since we shut that office, that adds up to 547,500 kWH or 388 metric tons of CDE eliminated.