Deloitte and the UN Global Compact: Our Communication on ProgressEnvironment |
As a professional services firm, environmental concerns are not core to our business, however, we recognize that environmental management programs are important and we are committed to minimizing any negative impacts that our activities may have. By recycling waste, managing energy/paper consumption, and investing in technology to avoid unnecessary travel, we are able to make a positive contribution to the environment.
While Deloitte does not have formal global tracking systems in place, an internal survey among member firms showed that individual member firms have taken initiatives to monitor, manage, and report on their environmental impacts and activities:
- Our member firms in Canada, Hong Kong, and U.S. have assigned responsibility for environmental issues to internal resources either on a full-time or part-time basis.
- In Canada, Hong Kong, Japan and New Zealand, our member firms have developed environmental objectives/targets to reduce energy consumption and to increase recycling of waste paper.
- Our firms in Denmark, Hong Kong, and Japan have processes for internal or external reporting on environmental performance.
- In Australia, Canada, Denmark, and Hong Kong, our member firms consider environmental criteria when procuring items such as office cleaning materials, recyclable toner cartridges, recycled paper and energy efficient equipment.
As a precautionary approach, Deloitte promotes environmental responsibility by complying with local environmental laws in the societies where we operate. We encourage our national practices to go beyond such regulation whenever possible. Some member firms take active measures to minimize unnecessary travel, which goes a long way in reducing emissions and also to encourage viable alternatives such as telecommuting.
Deloitte encourages energy efficiency and promotes waste minimization and environmentally friendly waste disposal in many of our national practices around the world. Some programs include:
- Our colleagues in Germany took part in a campaign organized by Hamburg's municipal utility called "Hamburg is Tidied Up." This was a community effort to clean up local parks by collecting and disposing waste.
- Our people in Spain took part in an endeavor called "Operación Chapapote" to help clean up an oil spill on the northwest coast of Spain resulting from the sinking of the tanker Prestige in 2002. This initiative was part of a broader Social Action Plan under development in the Spanish practice.
- The Hong Kong practice implemented an Accounting for Green Program, which aims to reduce consumption of both electricity and paper. By encouraging simple steps like turning off computers that are not in use or printing double-sided copies, our colleagues have made major strides toward both conservation and cost savings.
- Deloitte Buenos Aires' paper recycling program started with the Garrahan foundation in September of 1999 and has since recycled over 7,000 tons of paper. Deloitte is one of 700 companies that participate in this program whose first objective is to raise funds for several projects such as, training centers and charity homes.
- Similar conservation and recycling projects are undertaken in Deloitte France, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and the UK.
- We invest in the latest communications technology to provide viable alternatives to traveling, thereby minimizing emissions and pollution. For example, we increasingly make use of Placeware technology and teleconferences as a means to share information and knowledge live across countries and continents without being physically in the same place.
- In conjunction with the Hong Kong Government's Environmental Protection Department, Deloitte developed a benchmark for environmental performance reports, and designed the book and marketing folder. Deloitte was initially retained as consultant by the department to produce the benchmark and to review the reports submitted for 1999 and 2000. Our enhanced role arose as a result of our support for raising environmental awareness.
