Deloitte is helping to lead the way toward a more sustainable future by taking meaningful, measurable action to embed sustainability into our processes through our WorldClimate strategy.
We’re enhancing our decarbonization efforts with the aim of meeting near-term and long-term net-zero goals through the introduction of internal carbon pricing (ICP), and by supporting high-integrity market solutions. In October 2023, we joined the Government of Canada’s Net-Zero Challenge to demonstrate our commitment to building better futures.
Beyond making progress internally, we’re addressing climate change by advising clients on their sustainability journeys, working to balance their environmental and societal impacts in line with their business strategies.
WorldClimate
As part of Deloitte’s WorldClimate ambition, we invest in climate solutions that bring together allies across the ecosystem to make an impact. The following are a sampling of our endeavours.
Deloitte is committed to reaching net-zero emissions in accordance with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) Net-Zero Standard. Both our near-term and net-zero (2040) goals have been validated by SBTi.
Progress towards our targets
In FY2024, we reviewed our scopes for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and identified employee commuting and teleworking as an added material source of these. As such, we adopted a methodology to calculate and report on the added emissions (e.g., from transportation between home and work sites, plus optional emissions from teleworking). The results were that employee commuting and teleworking contributed an extra 11% to our gross GHG emissions.
See the latest “Deloitte Global Impact report” for more detailed environmental performance data, along with reporting methodology and frameworks.
Evolving our carbon management strategy via meaningful climate solutions
Sustainable aviation fuel
Advancing aviation decarbonization with sustainable aviation fuel
Deloitte continues to address intentionality with business travel and explore ways to reduce travel emissions through value chain mitigation measures. In this fiscal year, we invested in sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) through Air Canada’s Leave Less program to continue signaling demand for this product and deepen our collective understanding of the market. We also remain dedicated to engaging industry leaders and policymakers alike to advance the decarbonization of the Canadian aviation sector, focusing on building a national SAF market and better understanding of sustainable feedstocks, which are used in the creation of this biofuel.
Indigenous-led climate solutions
Investing beyond our value chain: Indigenous-led climate solutions
Decarbonization through absolute reductions remains a key priority. Additionally, we have worked to compensate for unabated emissions through carbon credit purchases in the voluntary carbon market.
In FY2024, we extended our investment in the Great Bear Forest Carbon Project, which is led by an alliance of nine Indigenous groups in Canada. The initiative’s carbon credits help us compensate for our emissions while promoting Indigenous-led, nature-based climate solutions.
Carbon removals
Supporting the deployment of carbon removal technologies
“Corporate buyers play a critical role as early investors in climate solutions that enable decarbonization of high-emitting industries and permanent carbon removal. Supporting the development and verification of high-quality carbon removal credits is crucial to scale the gigatonne market that is needed to meet net-zero. As part of Deloitte’s commitment to a 1.5°C-aligned science-based target, we are pleased to support Canadian clean technology innovations with CarbonCure.”
Sheri Penner, Managing Partner, Purpose and Sustainability, Deloitte Canada
In November 2023, Deloitte entered into a multi-year agreement with CarbonCure Technologies to purchase high-quality carbon credits in support of the organization’s cutting-edge carbon removal technologies around the globe. The process works by blending carbon dioxide (CO2) with cement and other elements of concrete mix, transforming the CO2 into a mineral that enhances the strength of the resulting concrete and thus permanently storing the CO2. Cement manufacturing accounts for an estimated 7% of global CO2 emissions—three times that from aviation. This agreement represents an evolution of Deloitte’s carbon credit portfolio and demonstrates our support for a high-integrity voluntary carbon market.
According to respondents to the Deloitte Global 2024 Gen Z and Millennial survey, climate change is these groups’ No. 3 top societal concern, eclipsed only by cost of living and unemployment. Our people are proud to be part of a company that prioritizes sustainability, and they feel empowered to take climate action.
Through the Green Champions Network, we organized various learning activities and opportunities to promote climate-responsible choices. These included webinars, documentary viewings, animal sanctuary volunteering, and urban forest and park stewardship outings.
To address food waste and improve food accessibility, we hosted a national webinar with experts who encouraged us to be creative with food scraps. We also collaborated with local charities and participated in food waste diversion events.
Our impact included:
- Teaming with Feed Nova Scotia, we sorted over 4,000 kilograms of food, providing 9,300 meals across the province.
- Working with Food for Life and Second Harvest in Ontario, we rescued 3,400 kilograms of surplus food, benefiting 500 households in the Greater Toronto Area.
These initiatives allowed us to make a positive impact on the environment and our communities, raising awareness about food waste reduction and providing meals to those in need. Through the Green Champions Network, Deloitte employees have come together to promote climate-responsible choices both in the workplace and beyond.
Beyond internal learning, Deloitte also collaborates with renowned academic institutions to enhance our people’s sustainability, climate, and equity problem-solving skills. For example, in FY2024:
- 82 Deloitte people completed the Sustainability Simplified program: This multi-week speaker series delves into the complexity of climate change and its relation to inequality; it is offered in collaboration with the NYU Stern Executive Education and Center for Sustainable Business divisions.
- 76 leaders obtained certification in the MIT Sloan School of Management’s Sustainability Accelerator program: This program is designed to equip senior business leaders with a common language and a knowledge of important sustainability-related concepts.
Strengthening Indigenous voices in climate action
Our Bringing carbon down to earth report resulted from our work with Indigenous leaders and voices explores how to make use of carbon projects to advance Indigenous-led climate action initiatives. From this, we identified meaningful actions that corporate Canada, our governments, and NGOs can take to engage in authentic climate action and reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.
Promoting sustainable agriculture practices across Canada
Recognizing the urgent need to achieve a healthy, affordable, and sustainable food system, we teamed with the Canadian Alliance for Net-Zero Agriculture (CANZA) to create an open-source framework designed to support Canada in its transition toward a net-zero food supply. The initiative brought together key players across the food production industry, including input providers, growers, producers, processors, and retailers.
This new framework addresses the critical need for standardized GHG accounting in climate-smart agricultural practices. By providing considerations for sustainable product labelling and certifications, it aims to drive the commercialization of sustainable food products in Canada. This initiative is particularly significant given the agri-food industry contributes 8% of Canada’s total GHG emissions, a figure that could rise by more than one-quarter by 2050 without intervention.
The framework offers a standardized approach to measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV), enabling value-chain participants to credibly quantify their emissions reductions. Moreover, it not only helps estimate the impact of climate-smart interventions, but also measures the emissions impacts of supply chains, driving sustainable action throughout Canada’s agriculture and food value chains.
In addition, a stand-alone measurement methodology is under development to outline technical GHG accounting practices for emissions reductions and removals for key commodities.
In one of our ventures, working closely with a Canadian agri-business has already demonstrated how the framework can be applied in real-world settings to achieve tangible benefits and support value creation.
See our report Growing a net-zero food system to learn more.
Deloitte Sustainability
We’re dedicated to ensuring Canadian organizations meet their sustainability ambitions. That’s why we support our clients in aligning their sustainability efforts with their business strategies, working to help them understand related uncertainties, evaluate trade-offs, and make decisions that can enable long-term business resilience and growth. Together, we help foster a sustainable economy that balances environmental stewardship with economic prosperity and equity, working to ensure a brighter future for generations to come.
Visit Deloitte Sustainability to learn more.
Safeguarding Canada's supply chain
Canadian industries are leading the way in setting new benchmarks for responsible partnerships, mandating comprehensive reporting and disclosure—and emphasizing sustainability, as well as ethical sourcing and procurement—as foundational to their operations.
These regulatory initiatives are driving meaningful change across sectors, promoting compliance and transparency, safeguarding human rights, and fostering trust, resilience, and ethical innovation throughout supply chains.
But the country’s commitment to ethical practices goes beyond regulatory compliance, driving systemic transformations that emphasize both profitability and social responsibility. For example, the Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act, which came into force this year, reflects Canada’s dedication to protecting vulnerable populations and ensuring that business practices contribute positively to society; they do so by encouraging organizations to integrate social responsibility in their operations, prioritizing ethical considerations as essential to long-term success.
Deloitte has been a quiet but crucial part of this movement, helping businesses prioritize ethical integrity while navigating the complexities of ethical sourcing and sustainability—thus supporting them in developing responsible partnerships that advance both corporate value and broader societal goals.
Visit Sustainable supply chains to learn more.
Working with suppliers to uphold ethical sourcing
A commitment to pairing ethical considerations with business imperatives is particularly evident in the aviation sector, where responsible collaborations are crucial.
Canadian airlines are increasingly partnering with suppliers who share their values and uphold ethical sourcing practices, working to ensure every component of their operations—from the materials used in aircraft manufacturing to amenities offered to passengers—is procured sustainably and ethically. By adhering to rigorous ethical standards and regulatory requirements, airlines not only mitigate operational risks, but also enhance their reputations and the trust placed in them by passengers and stakeholders. These efforts further demonstrate leadership in sustainable aviation practices and underscore the sector’s commitment to ethical conduct, setting a precedent for global aviation standards.
Saint John Energy: Towards a sustainable energy future
Saint John Energy is looking to reach net-zero carbon emissions in operations by 2030 and collaborating with Deloitte to make that goal a reality.
Like utilities throughout the world, Saint John Energy is grappling with increased electricity demand due to new technologies like electric vehicles and heat pumps. The complexity and uncertainty surrounding the energy transition is significant: Which technologies will be deployed? Where will they be adopted and how will they be used? Will the raw materials required to support the transition be affordably available? Will we have the infrastructure required to support the transition?
Saint John Energy is on a journey towards energy sustainability, strengthening Canada’s position as a global leader in the evolving energy landscape. As the world accelerates towards renewable energy solutions, Saint John Energy is leveraging what Deloitte and its teams have experienced, working with companies in Europe, Japan, Australia, and elsewhere across the globe.
ElectrifiedGrid, developed through Deloitte’s commitment to innovation, integrates cutting-edge modeling and a digital twin of the grid’s physical infrastructure to manage energy demand from generation to consumption. This platform harnesses energy-economy modeling and vast datasets to empower the energy leaders to make informed decisions. By forecasting adoption trends and consumption behaviors under diverse scenarios, ElectrifiedGrid helps mitigate the risks of sunk-cost investments and quantifies infrastructure impacts, helping leaders make strategic investments in grid resilience and efficiency with confidence.
In collaboration with clients from coast to coast, Deloitte’s work through ElectrifiedGrid not only addresses existing infrastructure challenges but also propels Canada towards a sustainable, low-carbon future. This initiative not only enhances local energy resilience but also positions Canada as a front runner in global efforts towards environmental stewardship.
Deloitte’s experience with Saint John Energy shows how proactive infrastructure planning and innovative solutions can pave the way for a greener tomorrow, demonstrating leadership in the energy transition on both national and global scales.
Visit Canada’s energy transition to learn more.