Visa Inc. will aim to achieve net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions by 2040 after already reaching carbon neutrality across its own operations last year.

With the latest commitment, Visa is setting its sights on further reducing its so-called Scope 3 emissions, which include those tied to supply chains, according to a statement Wednesday. Scope 1 and 2 emissions encompass a firm’s direct emissions and those from the energy a company buys, such as electricity for offices.

“This can’t be a buy your way into it or just buy offsets for all that,” Douglas Sabo, Visa’s chief sustainability officer, said in an interview. “It has to be first and foremost about abatement and reduction. The greenest energy is the energy not used.”

With the pledge, Visa is joining a chorus of companies including Amazon.com Inc. and Best Buy Co. that have vowed to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions over the next 19 years. Investors and customers alike have increasingly pushed for companies to find ways to reduce their contributions to climate change.

There’s added urgency to the moves: The International Energy Agency issued a “dire warning” this week that worldwide carbon emissions will jump by almost 5 per cent in 2021, largely reversing last year’s decline.

As part of its commitment, Visa is also planning a bigger push to educate cardholders about their own carbon emissions. It’s already begun work in this area and last year inked a partnership with Berlin-based financial technology company Ecolytiq to create a product that banks can use to tell customers how much emissions are tied to any given purchase made with a Visa card.

Customers will be given information about how they can reduce emissions and given the chance to purchase carbon offsets.

“That isn’t in our Scope 1, 2 and 3 but that doesn’t mean we’re not going to focus on it,” Sabo said. “In fact, that’s where we can have the biggest impact.”