Sustainability Training

Introduction to Corporate Sustainability & ESG

Corporate Sustainability is a business approach that enhances long term stakeholder value by implementing a strategy that considers every dimension of how a business operates when making social, environmental and economic progress.

ESG stands for Environmental, Social and Governance and refers to the three key factors when measuring the sustainability and ethical impact of an investment in a business or company.

At GitLab we use Sustainability and ESG interchangeably. Both terms are relevant to our work and both serve different purposes depending on the audience we interact with.

Examples of Sustainability/ESG Issues:

• Environmental: The ‘E’ considers a company’s use of natural resources and the impact of the company’s operations on the environment, both in its direct operations and its supply chain. Examples of specific environmental issues include greenhouse gas emissions, energy use, water use, waste management and the environmental impact of the company’s products and services. As a fully remote software company without owned and operated facilities or a physical product, GitLab’s environmental footprint is relatively small, but is growing as the company grows and as the company invests in energy-intensive measures such as AI. GitLab conducts an annual greenhouse gas inventory that measures the company’s indirect emissions (Scope 3 emissions) that come from our supply chain, business travel, remote work, and investments.

• Social: The ‘S’ considers how a company manages its relationships with its employees and the communities in which it operates, both in its direct operations and its supply chain. Examples of specific social issues include diversity of its workforce and its suppliers, employee work/life balance, employee pay equity, talent management and engagement, community engagement and the social impact of the company’s products and services.

• Governance: The ‘G’ considers the governance structures set up to manage risks and opportunities. Specific examples of governance issues include Executive and Board oversight and accountability for ESG-related risks and opportunities, Board of Director independence, skill sets and experience, board diversity, compensation practices, board oversight of ESG practices, cybersecurity and data privacy and business ethics/compliance.

Why Sustainability Matters to GitLab

Sustainability matters to GitLab because Sustainability matters to our stakeholders. Sustainability allows us to understand what our stakeholders, including our customers, team members, and investors care about. Engagement with our stakeholders allows us to meet their expectations and remain easy to do business with. Importantly, Sustainability also allows us to make progress toward social and environmental goals that we care about as a company while minimizing risk and creating value for the organization.

• Meet and Exceed Customer Expectations & Remain Easy to Transact With

  • GitLab’s customers have ESG commitments and policies that extend to the companies they do business with, like GitLab. As a vendor, GitLab’s emissions contribute directly to our customers’ emissions, and by reducing our emissions, we help our customers meet their goals.
  • Many of our customers are under pressure to comply with new regulation and meet their own ESG goals. By having a strong ESG program, GitLab is helping its customers achieve their goals and comply with new regulations.

• Comply with New Regulation

  • Starting in 2026, GitLab is required to comply with two new ESG regulations in the US and the EU. These regulations require comprehensive and detailed disclosure covering a wide range of ESG topics (e.g., climate change, working conditions, human rights, business ethics).

• Gain a Competitive Advantage

  • As sustainability, particularly climate action, becomes a growing concern for businesses globally, companies with strong ESG practices are better positioned to differentiate themselves and gain a competitive advantage.

• Attract Investors

  • Over 60% of U.S. investors surveyed were willing to pay a premium when investing in companies aligned with ESG priorities. Approximately 40% of these investors were willing to pay a premium ranging from 1% to 5%, while nearly 20% were willing to pay between 6% and 10%.
  • 93% of U.S. investors expect the companies they invest in to increase their prioritization of ESG initiatives.

• Recruit & Retain Team Members

  • 42% of employees would leave their current employer for one that is making a greater impact on the world.
  • 69% of employees want their employers to take action on climate by reducing emissions and sourcing renewable energy. The sentiment is higher amongst employees ages 18-34.

Sustainability at GitLab

Sustainability Team

• The Sustainability Team is part of Legal and Corporate Affairs. The Sustainability Team drives and integrates GitLab’s responsible business practices and ESG regulatory compliance by creating and maintaining GitLab’s Corporate Sustainability strategy and programs. This includes ESG disclosures and public ESG reporting, identifying and prioritizing key issues to advance GitLab’s social and environmental goals, and creating partnerships with nonprofit organizations that support GitLab’s values and mission.

Sustainability Programs

• Compliance & Reporting

  • GitLab is subject to new regulations in the EU and US that will require us to disclose a wide range of quantitative and qualitative ESG information in 2026. To date, GitLab has published two voluntary annual ESG reports, providing a strong foundation for complying with the new ESG reporting regulations.

• Climate Action

  • Climate is quickly becoming a key component of corporate responsibility, and with it comes new expectations from customers, investors, regulators and team members. 85% of our top 20 customers have greenhouse gas reduction targets. To remain easy to transact with, GitLab will need to meet the expectations of our customers by taking action on climate change.

• GitLab for Non-Profits

  • GitLab launched GitLab for Nonprofits, an in-kind donation program in 2023. Through this program, GitLab supports Registered 501c3 (or jurisdictional equivalent) Nonprofit Organizations in good standing that align with our values by offering free licenses and seats.

• GiveLab

  • GiveLab is GitLab’s team member volunteer program. Volunteerism is an effective way to build trust through social connections - this leads to higher individual and team motivation, greater cross-functional collaboration.

  See the Sustainability handbook page for more details on GitLab’s Sustainability Programs

GitLab’s ESG Materiality Assessment

• GitLab completed its first double materiality assessment in January 2023. The assessment considered the perspectives of all of GitLab’s stakeholders including team members, senior leadership, customers, community members, board members, investors. The assessment involved speaking with GitLab’s stakeholders to understand the key topics they believe have the biggest impact on the success of the business and where GitLab has the biggest impact on the environment, society and people. We also considered ESG regulation, our peers, competitors and nonprofit organizations.The materiality assessment was the first step in developing the company’s first ESG strategy.
• In Q1 of 2025, GitLab underwent a refresh of the double materiality assessment to uncover any changes in stakeholder perception on the key topics GitLab focuses on and to align with the requirements of new EU regulation.
• As part of the assessment, GitLab uncovered 9 material topics, most of which aligned with GitLab’s original assessment. The complete assessment and data will be published in GitLab’s FY25 Sustainability Report.

GitLab’s Key Topics

• Climate Action
• Social Impact
• Team Member Health, Safety and Well Being
• Responsible Product Development
• Talent, Engagement and Culture
• Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging
• Business Ethics
• Public Policy
• Information Security and Data Privacy

GitLab’s ESG Disclosures

• Every year, GitLab publishes a Sustainability/ESG report in the Handbook, which will describe key accomplishments for the year, include descriptions of how we manage relevant ESG risks and opportunities, highlight new programs and policies and report metrics across our material ESG topics to hold ourselves accountable year over year for improving our performance.

ESG Regulatory Environment

• Throughout 2024 and 2025, the EU, U.S., Australia, and Canada have introduced ESG regulations that require many companies to disclose ESG information alongside their financial reports. Many of these regulations apply to GitLab, and many of our customers will also need to comply by providing ESG data on their suppliers, such as GitLab.

Responding to Customer Questions about Sustainability & ESG

• If a customer or potential customer has questions related to GitLab’s ESG practices as part of an RFP, please follow the RFP process.
• If a customer or potential customer requests information via an ESG questionnaire, please open an issue here and select the ‘ESG Questionnaire’ template.’
• GitLab participates in EcoVadis and customers can request our scorecard via the EcoVadis platform
• GitLab also participates in Integrity Next. If you receive a request from a customer to complete an Integrity Next questionnaire, please do not create a new profile. Instead, please forward the request to the ESG team, so we can complete the questions. This avoids having multiple profiles under GitLab Inc.

Responding to Investor Questions about ESG

• If an investor contacts you regarding ESG, please advise them to reach out via the IR page.

Where to Find More Information

• Review the Sustainability Handbook Page to learn more about GitLab’s Sustainability strategy and programs
• Read GitLab’s latest ESG Report
• Join the #sustainability-eSG slack channel to follow along for updates and ask questions