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Environmental

Deloitte has continued to translate our ambition—to help lead the world’s transition to a lower-carbon future—into meaningful, measurable action.

When COVID-19 restrictions led to a record drop in global carbon emissions, the world saw the difference a collective change in behavior can make for the environment.

However, when restrictions eased, emissions rebounded. And the temporary reduction in emissions wasn’t enough to slow the rise in extreme weather events and other impacts of climate change. Globally, the calls for immediate action on climate became more urgent.

Deloitte’s ambition is to help lead the world’s transition to a lower-carbon future. And over the past year, Deloitte has shown that we have the scale, knowledge and resources to turn this ambition into meaningful, measurable action.

Advancing responsible climate choices

Recognizing the necessity of collective action to effectively tackle the climate crisis, Deloitte worked to advance our WorldClimate strategy, which consists of a three-pronged approach—actions we take, actions we inspire our people to take, and actions we take with clients and others in our ecosystem.

Deloitte has committed to achieving science-based net-zero emissions and we currently have a 1.5⁰ C near-term (2030) goal in place, validated by the Science Based Targets initiative. We are embedding sustainability into policies and practices throughout the organization and measuring performance against our goals.

In addition, we continue to make strong progress in realizing our commitments to all three core initiatives of the Climate Group supporting the advancement of renewable electricity (RE100), electric vehicle adoption (EV100) and energy efficiency/productivity (EP100). For instance, 91 percent of the energy Deloitte purchased in FY2022 was renewable energy. Along with Deloitte’s own operations, we are also reviewing our global supply chains more closely to help ensure procurement sustainability. We are working to quantify Deloitte emissions across our organization’s entire supply chain.

As we translate our ambition into action, we also continue to examine environmental issues more widely—for example, looking at our impact on nature and biodiversity, as well as our carbon footprint. Biodiversity is critical to the health of the planet, and while our organization’s direct impacts in this area are limited, Deloitte supports nature-positive solutions and will assess impacts throughout our value chain.

Deloitte is also working with Indigenous peoples in Australia, Asia and Canada, among other geographies, to advance nature-based climate solutions. We recognize the importance of collaborating with these communities to honor their knowledge and to support Indigenous-led climate solutions. In addition, Deloitte has published insights into environmental issues impacting Indigenous peoples, including When day comes, a report on reframing the relationship between the mining industry and Australia’s First Peoples.

Prioritizing climate action—and measuring impact

Deloitte Global’s 2022 Gen Z and Millennial Survey revealed that climate is a top concern for these generations. They are taking climate action and they want business to do the same. We also learned from Deloitte Global’s 2022 CxO Sustainability Report that more than three-quarters of C-level executives agree that the world is at an environmental tipping point. Investors and other stakeholders are increasingly calling on companies to embed environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics into their business strategies and report against them.

We recognize that what gets measured gets managed. This is why Deloitte played a lead role in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) project to identify a common framework of stakeholder capitalism metrics to evaluate the environmental impact of business activities, regardless of industry or region. Along with many organizations, Deloitte is reporting against these metrics, enabling us to chart our progress with greater clarity and transparency. We, together with the coalition of companies supporting WEF’s project, strongly supported the efforts to help establish global sustainability reporting standards.

During the past year, Deloitte represented WEF in the working group set up by the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation. The activities of this working group were critical to lay the groundwork for establishing the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), which was announced at COP26. The group’s work included developing prototypes that were used as the basis for the draft standards issued for formal consultation by the ISSB in March 2022. Deloitte issued a statement of support for the ISSB and its aim to enable a comprehensive global baseline of sustainability information, welcoming this significant milestone in corporate reporting.

Deloitte is also committed to the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) and collaborates with SMI on its mission to build a coordinated global effort within the private sector to accelerate the transition to a sustainable future.

Illustration of an electric car charging

Commitment to science-based net-zero with 2030 goals

  1. Reduce emissions from business travel 50% per full time equivalent from 2019 levels
  2. Source 100% renewable energy for Deloitte facilities
  3. Transition fleets to 100% electric vehicles
  4. Engage Deloitte's supply chain to set science-based carbon reduction targets
  5. Invest in meaningful market solutions to compensate for remaining emissions

Our people are our superpower

During the past year, Deloitte launched a climate e-learning program to inform, challenge and inspire our people to act. Developed in collaboration with World Wildlife Fund, the program helps Deloitte people around the world understand what Deloitte is doing to address climate change and also how they can make a positive impact through responsible choices at home and at work. More than 300,000 people have completed the training to date. And 95% of those responding to the post-training survey have committed to taking climate action. Deloitte’s climate learning program was honored with a Brandon Hall Group HCM Excellence Award in the Best Unique or Innovative Learning and Development Program category.

Deloitte is empowering our people to be more intentional about where, when and how we travel. Making smarter travel choices, along with leveraging technology to hold many meetings virtually, will help us meet our WorldClimate commitment of cutting travel-related emissions by 50% from 2019 levels.

Deloitte’s professional-led Green Teams spearhead internal grass roots efforts to promote more sustainable choices throughout Deloitte offices globally and encourage community volunteering with environmental non-profit organizations. In addition, Deloitte created Climate Exchange, a global content hub designed to inspire ideas and provoke discussions that drive action. During Earth Month, we focused on specific, achievable ways our people can help build “Better Futures. Together.”

Collaborating with our ecosystem

Deloitte also engages with like-minded organizations and initiatives across our ecosystem, such as the Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance, to inspire action, increase demand for sustainable products and services, and develop solutions.

While Deloitte’s air travel remains significantly below pre-pandemic levels, further reducing travel-related carbon emissions is an important part of our WorldClimate strategy. Deloitte US entered into Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) agreements with several airlines to help achieve carbon reductions, and is among the first organizations to account for SAF purchases in their impact reporting. Deloitte is also helping to accelerate SAF usage through our involvement in WEF’s Clean Skies for Tomorrow Coalition and First Movers’ Coalition, as well as advancing climate action more broadly through WEF’s Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders.

Recognizing the desire of young people to lead the way in helping to ensure the long-term health of our environment, Deloitte Global established a collaboration with One Young World (OYW) to help develop young professionals into future leaders. Through this collaboration, Deloitte supports and inspires impactful youth-led initiatives focused on climate action and educational equity, as well as providing sponsorships for young professionals to attend the annual OYW Summit.

WorldClimate logo

WorldClimate

  • Cut emissions
    Commitment to science-based net-zero with 2030 goals
  • Embed sustainability
    Address internal policies and practices
  • Empower individuals
    Educate and inspire Deloitte people to act on climate change
  • Engage ecosystems
    Engage with ecosystems to address climate change

Guiding clients’ sustainability journeys

This year our organization significantly expanded and invested in Deloitte Sustainability & Climate, a practice serving clients globally as they define their paths to a more sustainable future. Building upon decades of climate client service, Deloitte has assembled one of the largest global networks of sustainability experience, including an investment of US$1 billion in client-related services, data-driven research, and assets and capabilities.

Over the past year, Deloitte practitioners have supported clients around the world as they created transformation plans; redefined business strategies to incorporate ESG; embedded sustainability into operations; met tax, disclosure and regulatory requirements; and established collaborations across their ecosystems.

In addition, we launched the Deloitte Center for Sustainable Progress (DCSP) to help accelerate transformation of clients’ organizations and value chains. The DCSP provides results-oriented insights and analysis that draw upon Deloitte’s experience and global network, including acting as a convenor of specialists, industry influencers and thought leaders from around the world. Our recent report, The Turning Point, offers a detailed exploration of how letting climate change go unchecked could cost the global economy US$178 trillion over the next 50 years—though conversely, it could gain US$43 trillion over the same time period by rapidly accelerating the transition to net-zero.