Our climate ambition
As the biggest professional services firm in the world, we believe it is our responsibility to use our capabilities to help our clients and society transform in order to have a more sustainable and resilient future. Deloitte is committed to running a responsible business, rooted in our purpose: to make an impact that matters to our people, clients and the communities of which we are a part.
Deloitte feels responsible to do what is necessary to halt climate change. To reduce the negative impact from our business on global warming, Deloitte global has adopted the WorldClimate programme. The objective of the WorldClimate programme is for Deloitte worldwide to achieve net zero with near-term goals for all Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by the year 2030 (using the 2019 baseline). This ambition is to be achieved by reducing emissions wherever we can and compensating for emissions in a meaningful way where we must, and our main goal is supported by a number of distinct near-term goals that are to be achieved by 2030, validated by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) as 1.5°C-aligned science-based targets.
Our near-term goals are the following:
- Reduce absolute Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 70%
- Reduce our business travel emissions by 50% per FTE from 2019 levels
- Engage with our major suppliers with the goal of having two thirds of them adopt science-based targets for carbon reduction within five years
- Invest in meaningful market solutions for emissions we cannot eliminate
Our additional 2030 goals to reduce emissions include the following:
- Source 100% renewable energy for our buildings
- Convert 100% of our fleet to hybrid and electric vehicles
Deloitte has also committed to setting long-term emissions reduction targets using the SBTi’s Net-Zero Standard (2021). In addition to climate targets, our WorldClimate programme includes elements of embedding sustainability, empowering individuals and engaging ecosystems. In Finland we have been investing into embedding sustainability and empowering individuals following the WorldClimate programme.
Embedding sustainability
We cherish the potential of our business to lead the way when our clients and society address climate change and accelerate the transition towards a low-carbon economy. Through our global strategy programme WorldClimate, we are working hard to drive responsible climate choices within our organisations and beyond. We are focused on embedding sustainable practices into our operations and committing to achieving our science-based targets while engaging our people, clients and ecosystems in order to accelerate the transition towards a sustainable future. An example of where we have successfully embedded environmental practices into our operations can be found in our office procedures. In these, we consider the environmental aspects of purchasing office supplies, select catering according to sustainable preferences (supporting local food), reduce our water consumption with investments and reduce waste with waste collection point renewals.
Our impact matters, but the impact we can create through our client work is significant. By leveraging our specialist competencies, data-driven insights and industry expertise, Deloitte is uniquely positioned to help clients integrate sustainability throughout their operations. Every day we are helping more clients embrace the changing business conditions, take action and make the necessary investment for their successful transition for a more sustainable future. Visit the Climate and Sustainability site to learn more about our services.
Empower individuals
On a global level, Deloitte’s responsible business practices cover specific goals and commitments to reduce emissions, preserve biodiversity, conserve resources and reduce waste within our operations. In Deloitte Finland, we are honouring these commitments through our actions, awareness campaigns and internal initiatives. As an example, we are currently working with our office lunch restaurants to reduce food waste and engage our people in food wastage reduction.
Due to a significant part of our emissions coming from business travel, we have focused on analysing our travel data and developed an ambitious travel policy over the past year. The aim of the policy is to make effective travel choices and lower our travel emissions. In addition, we will continue to leverage the past year’s learnings related to remote work and the utilisation of collaboration tools in order to lower emissions. This year, after the prolonged pandemic, we wanted to emphasise the importance of human connections and invested in providing an opportunity for all our people to connect with each other.
We are constantly searching for ways to make all areas of our operations more environmentally sustainable. We have already ensured that our offices in Finland use 100% renewable electricity and have waste recycling facilities. We reduced our energy consumption through energy reduction initiatives and awareness campaigns in all of our office. We have also invested in more sustainable choices of mobility than in the past in order to reduce the impact of commuting and local journeys; for instance, we provide a company-bike benefit for all our people and have a company-car benefit policy, wherein cars are required to be fully electric, plug-in hybrids or natural gas vehicles. In addition, our new low-emission business premises, We Land, opens its doors in 2024 and is the first building in Finland that has been designed and built according to the highest of the BREEAM environmental ratings (Outstanding). Sustainability plays a critical role in the building construction work, as well as in all materials and in the layout design that support the client and collaborative working settings, which is in line with our Future of Work model.
We have also created a local, long-term and continuous sustainability training programme to increase the awareness of sustainability, how to deepen the client communication on our sustainable offerings and sustainable behaviour and culture. Our local sustainability library provides a collage of essential learning paths hosted on e-learning platforms for learning and upskilling knowledge related to climate and sustainability. We have also promoted the Deloitte North South Europe (NSE) Sustainability Learning week to empower our people, and we participated in the annual national Earth Month in order to wake us all up, to reflect on and adapt our habits so they take a more sustainable direction and to learn to understand the whole-life impact of our choices on the planet.