Sustainability

Events, meetings, trainings, and other business gatherings often create large quantities of waste. As an organization, we have a large degree of control over where and how these events are held, and we recognize our responsibility to minimize our environmental and waste footprints during these events.

At two major conferences in 2023, Deloitte worked with the venues and a waste management vendor to divert event waste from the landfill. Across the two conferences, we diverted more than 68,000 pounds of waste (approximately the weight of seven RVs) from the landfill through composting, recycling, reuse, and donation efforts.

Deloitte University (DU) is our leadership center where we connect our people, deliver immersive client experiences, and give back to our community through learning programs such as Courageous Principals and CORE Veterans Leadership Development.

Environmental sustainability is a top priority at DU, as it is throughout the Deloitte organization. Sustainable design, construction, and operations in the building of DU were recognized through the prestigious Gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification awarded upon opening. As we proceed with the significant expansion of our DU campus, we have a continued commitment to making DU more energy efficient and environmentally sustainable. Making dining, transportation, landscaping, and energy choices that reduce our carbon footprint is just one of the ways DU works toward its commitment to our sustainability principles.

Here are a few examples of how we have prioritized sustainability at DU:

• During construction, 20% of materials used were regionally extracted, promoting local business and decreasing the amount of fuel and emissions related to shipping.
• Greenscaping with native plants and a highly efficient landscape irrigation system led to a 50% reduction in water usage.
• High-efficiency faucets are expected to reduce annual water consumption by 53,000 gallons.
• High albedo roofing is highly reflective, absorbing less solar energy, reducing surface temperature, and decreasing heat transfer into the building.

Learn more about sustainability at DU

Our workplace sustainability efforts extend beyond DU and into our local offices. Our Real Estate team incorporates a sustainability lens throughout the project life cycle, from office and building selection to the design and construction of our workplaces.

Deloitte has a core focus on being a responsible steward of the environment by embedding and elevating sustainability standards throughout technology operations. These standards mitigate environmental impacts while driving innovation and fostering long-term climate resilience.

Technology, in general, is a huge contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and e-waste. Our strategy is to reduce and reuse as much as possible. When technology-related items cannot be reused, we are committed to recycling and working with certified recyclers who meet specific environmental standards and safely manage used electronics.

To encourage laptop care, we launched the “Love Your Laptop Campaign.” By providing top tips for laptop health, Deloitte helps promote simple sustainable technology choices. Over 90% of our laptops are repurposed at end of life through our leasing program. Repurposing laptops contributes to the circular economy by diverting assets from being destroyed and giving them a second life. Additionally, in 2023, we donated 1,900 tablets for refurbishment and/or redistribution to families, students, or teachers.

We are also reducing energy usage in our regional data centers through ongoing optimization efforts. For example, four of our data centers reduced their average daily power usage in 2022. Together, this saved approximately 5,460 kilowatt-hours of energy, which avoided 4.3 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, each month. These energy savings were achieved in part by decommissioning unused and less efficient hardware—returning these devices to vendors to be recycled and/or reused—with the remaining workloads consolidated into new, more energy efficient servers and storage.

Deloitte’s supply chains cross multiple industries and regions of the world. Because more than two-thirds of our organization’s aggregate emissions are derived from purchased goods and services, our WorldClimate strategy includes a specific focus on developing more sustainable supply chains. We are reviewing our Supplier Code of Conduct and contract clauses to incorporate more environmental, social, and governance (ESG)-specific expectations (e.g., Science-Based Target references, environmental risk, and sustainability governance).

In 2023, Deloitte Global directly engaged with more than 400 of Deloitte’s largest global suppliers with the goal of having two-thirds of suppliers (by emissions) set science-based targets. These global suppliers are also being engaged on an annual basis to report their emissions through a nonprofit focused on environmental disclosure. To learn more about sustainable procurement efforts at the global level, read the 2023 Deloitte Global Impact Report.