Yandex Publishes 2022 Sustainability Progress Report

Yandex publishes the 2022 Sustainability Progress Report, which outlines the company’s results across 12 sustainability streams and related objectives formalized in 2020.

In 2022, Yandex support for employees and partners, the development of educational programs, enhancing service quality, and reducing the environmental footprint of its offline operations. These efforts led to the following performance highlights:

Partners

●      RUB 1 billion have been invested in an expanded medical insurance program for partner drivers and couriers.

●      Over 7,000 self-employed individuals placed their goods on Yandex Market marketplace as a part of our support program for the self-employed.

●      Over 400 non-profits were supported by the Helping Hand, Yandex's charitable foundation that leverages the company’s infrastructure to provide free taxi rides for people with reduced mobility as well as build the capability of non-profits through various grants and access to Yandex’s digital products.

Employees

●      The number of people who worked at Yandex in 2022 increased by 20% and 62% compared to 2021 and 2020, respectively, reaching a total of 25,431 employees.

●       One in ten current employees started their career at Yandex as interns. Around half of the interns receive job offers and join our team after completing the internship.

●      A total of RUB 18.5 billion was spent in the form of one-off salary payments and cash payments throughout the year as a substitute for regular equity grant vesting.

Educational Initiatives

●      Over RUB 1 billion have been invested in free educational programs and products. These include Yandex Textbook, Lyceum by Yandex, Yandex School of Data Analysis (YSDA), joint degree programs with leading universities and other initiatives, all aimed at improving the quality of IT education and integrating continuous learning into everyday life. Over 6 million people — both students and educators — benefitted from Yandex's free learning opportunities and EdTech in 2022.

●      More than 3.5 million individuals participated in IT reskilling and upskilling programs offered by Practicum by Yandex.

●      At the end of Q1 2023, over 10,000 Practicum graduates successfully secured employment in their chosen fields.

●      More than 2,000 companies provided digital skills training to their employees.through Practicum.

Service Quality

●      Yandex Maps now features accessibility labeling for over 980,000 organizations, providing information on ramps and accessible restrooms. The data is provided by business owners, users, and Yandex itself.

●      250,000 phone numbers with changed ownership were identified by Yandex ID. These will be considered invalid when logging in to the previous owner’s Yandex accounts.

●      The media compression algorithm in Kinopoisk and Yandex Music helped users save up to 30% on monthly data traffic. This helps reduce the load on user devices, communication networks, and server equipment, resulting in lower electricity consumption and reduced carbon footprint.

Environmental Responsibility

●      The use of over 1,600 metric tons of cardboard and paper filler was avoided by Yandex Market through packaging diversification. In 2022, Market used 70% less delivery packaging compared to 2021, down to 3.2 thousand metric tons from 10.9 thousand tons in 2021, while having delivered twice as many orders.

●      487 metric tons of non-returnable packaging and pallets were avoided by Yandex Lavka following the adoption of circular logistics solutions.

●      79% of restaurant and café orders made on Yandex Eats were delivered without utensils, resulting in the saving of over 200 metric tons of plastic.

As part of our commitment to make our technologies more accessible, we also continued to invest in the development of open-source projects. Today, Yandex is among the world’s top-30 contributors to open-source, with over 100 products published. Some of the significant releases in 2022 include the YDB distributed database management system, the YaLM neural network for text generation and processing in Russian and English, the userver framework for building high-load applications in C++, and several others.

“In 2022, we kept delivering quality services to our users while navigating unstable market conditions. Despite all the challenges, we stayed committed to using our products and services for social good, developing our business sustainably, supporting employees and partners and helping them transition to sustainability. These remained among our top priorities," says John Boynton, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Yandex Group.

The report is published annually and can be accessed on a dedicated Sustainability webpage. It is prepared in accordance with GRI Standards and SASB guidelines and is available in English and Russian.

Contacts:

Investor Relations
Daria Muhortova
E-mail: askIR@yandex-team.ru

Press Office
Daria Gerasimova
E-mail: pr@yandex-team.com