2021 Social Impact Report
Helping Belong go carbon neutral
Teams from Deloitte Risk Advisory, Financial Advisory and Consulting's Deloitte Digital helped Belong, Telstra’s challenger brand, to become the first certified carbon neutral Australian telecommunications provider; and created the concept of a Carbon Thumbprint to position them as an ICT leader in the climate risk space.
Belong's advertising campaign, developed by Deloitte Digital, challenges Australians to better understand their carbon thumbprint – the estimated amount of CO2 their mobile data use contributes to emissions. “We want 'carbon thumbprint' to become part of the common vernacular, just like 'carbon footprint' is," says Deloitte Digital's Creative, Brand & Advertising Lead Partner, Adrian Mills. “It's a convenient shorthand to describe a huge problem: the environmental impact of mobile phone usage.”
Research from Blisspoint (funded by Belong) to launch the campaign, revealed nine in ten Australians don’t believe mobile data contributes to carbon emissions. Yet it is estimated that mobile data networks in Australia create more than half a million tonnes of CO2 every year – the equivalent emissions of one person flying between Melbourne and Sydney approximately three million times a year.
Reframing the debate on the economics of climate change
The latest scientific evidence from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) outlines a confronting climatic future in the absence of change. The costs of climate change are clearly rising each year – and the costs of avoiding climate change are rising with each year of inaction.
Dominant economic projections tend to assume that economies will grow according to a “business as usual” trend completely unaffected by the damages caused by climate change. Against this outlook, any action on climate change simply appears as a cost. The reality is, if we continue with “business as usual” now, it won’t lead to business as usual in the future.
For Australia, Deloitte Access Economics has shown how acting on climate change, is not a narrative of cost but one of extraordinary opportunity and economic growth. In late 2020, A New Choice: Australia’s climate for growth provided the basis for a more hopeful and useful debate about climate change. And this economic framing presented a clear opportunity for global change.
In 2021, Asia Pacific’s Turning Point showed the fight for climate change will be won or lost in the region. And the timing of this fight is now, as the choices Asia Pacific makes today will determine our future climate. Deloitte’s analysis has shown there is huge economic opportunity – a US$47 trillion gain to GDP – in Asia Pacific if the region rapidly accelerates to net-zero emissions and global average warming is limited to 1.5°C by 2050.
Aligning to WorldClimate: our global climate commitment
Last November, we announced a major elevation of our firm’s commitment towards addressing one of the biggest shared challenges facing humanity – climate change. We announced Deloitte’s Global commitment to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
Since then, we have further deepened our climate action commitment through our alignment to the Deloitte Global network’s WorldClimate initiative as well as how we operate as a business.
- We have developed an Asia Pacific-wide WorldImpact Strategy that provides strategic choices across the ambitious societal and environmental goals we have set in our region. It acknowledges the intersecting issues and opportunities within climate change; the way we serve our clients and the widening social inequalities being experienced by those worst affected by climate change
- Aligned with Deloitte Asia Pacific, Deloitte Australia has created a formal, whole-of-firm approach for our climate-related client offerings. Our Climate Change Integrated Value Proposition will build on the work already done in developing these capabilities to provide solutions that are specialised, relevant, and continuously market attuned. It represents a clear narrative and market positioning for our services focused on climate-led transformation for organisations. Through a cross-business unit operating model, supported by Clients, Industries and Markets, we are expanding and deepening our expertise to help clients deal with sustainability and climate change issues so that they can build the right capabilities to transform.
Creating kindergarten climate champions
As the president of the Albert Park Kindergarten Committee, Deloitte Consulting’s Rachel Sillett, played a leading role in creating the first carbon neutral kindergarten in Australia.
The six-year Butterfly Project was a joint effort between the City of Port Philip and Albert Park Kindergarten in Melbourne, leading the early-childhood education centre to completely eradicate its carbon footprint.
The kindergarten worked with council to install solar panels, decrease water use by 64%, electricity use by 24%, gas use by 76% and waste by 75%. This enabled it to become Australia’s first carbon neutral certified early childhood education and care service.
Asked what role she played, Rachel said, “As an organisation the Committee and staff were committed to providing the highest standards of early childhood education and making a positive contribution to our community which culminated in a plan to care for our world and each other. We achieved the esteemed Excellent Rating, official certification as Australia’s first carbon neutral early childhood service, and received the Australian Cities Power Partnership Award. All this was made possible through the support of families and community partnerships that continue to enable the kindergarten to strengthen and grow”.
FY21 climate footprint
Our absolute emissions decreased by 75% in FY21 compared with the previous year (PY), with emissions intensity dropping by 74%. Travel-related emissions usually make up >65% of our reported carbon footprint, with electricity use rounding out the remainder. This year, travel accounted for 28% of total emissions. This total emissions reduction was largely driven by a reduction in business travel and the use of building resources as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the introduction of renewable energy. We’re determined to take the opportunity to fundamentally rethink ways of working to progress our emissions reductions beyond the crisis.