WorldClimate: Working together to take climate action
Change starts with all of us. And each of our individual actions add up.
That’s what Deloitte’s WorldClimate strategy is about. It’s our plan to drive responsible climate choices within our organisation and use our reach and influence to help others do the same.
“We’ve set challenging targets and are putting our combined energy, skills and connections behind meeting them. WorldClimate inspires our people to embed sustainability through our operations and the way we work with our clients and partners,” says David Noon, COO for Deloitte North and South Europe (NSE).
Read on to learn how we’re transforming our operations, working with partners and helping our clients thrive in a low-carbon world.
On a firmwide journey to net zero
Our ambitious net zero commitments have helped our NSE firm reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions by 29 per cent since FY2019. During COVID our total footprint dropped significantly, leading to a 43 per cent reduction per full-time employee.
Explore our detailed greenhouse gas emissions and environmental metrics.
We are proud of what we have achieved so far, says Smruti Naik-Jones, Chief Sustainability Officer for NSE. "It is testament of what is possible when we come together around a common purpose and shared goal. But we have much more to do, and we will have to go further to reach net zero. I am confident that by continuing to empower our people and by working collaboratively we will be able to get there.”
Empowering our people
Our people are our greatest asset in making change happen – through our own sustainable choices and through the insight and advice we share with clients.
Last year, we empowered our people to bring sustainability into everything we do at Deloitte, sharing tools and knowledge through our Sustainability Learning Week and launching a climate learning for our 330,000 people worldwide.
Reaching net zero is a marathon, not a sprint, and initiatives like our Lightbulb List, Green Room Podcast and Enter Net Zero immersive experience provide inspiration.
Building and sharing our expertise
As a firm that advises businesses, governments and NGOs - we have an important role to play in supporting others’ efforts to achieve a net zero, nature-positive world.
To expand and deepen our sustainability knowledge we’re investing $1 billion across our global Sustainability and Climate practice. We’re also building our ESG skills and specialties, by enabling our people to learn with the Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership.
One area we’re especially focused on is boosting ‘green skills’ – the capabilities, knowledge and behaviours organisations need to tackle environmental challenges and reach net zero by 2050.
Working with leading sustainability body IEMA, we produced A blueprint for green workforce transformation, which explores the skills required for a zero-carbon future, providing practical steps, case studies and a toolkit any organisation can use to help them prepare.
“Organisations that transition to the green economy will create new business opportunities and jobs in the process,” says Deloitte UK’s net zero partner for Consulting, Matthew Guest.
“Every worker, team and organisation can contribute to mitigating climate change, repairing environmental damage and ensuring net zero ambitions are met.
“The challenge is making the most of what we’ve got. We need inspiration and for people to come together – I hope that’s where we can help.”
Hybrid: a new way of working
The last two years have brought big changes to our firm, and we’ve committed to supporting hybrid working, giving our people choice and control about where they work. Our travel emissions in FY19 accounted for around 29 per cent of our total footprint and dropped significantly during COVID.
Taking our Belgian firm as an example; our car mileage decreased by 63 per cent per person, predominately due to our transition to home-based working in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Air miles flown per Belgian colleague was even down by 99.6 per cent, due to travel restrictions. Embedding our new hybrid way of working across our business is critical to ensure we keep travel emissions down and meet our climate commitments.
It’s also prompting us to reimagine our workspaces for a new, more sustainable, hybrid future. Designs for our new ‘future of work’ offices were guided by insight from our already sustainable offices, The Edge in Amsterdam and 1 New Street Square in London.
One important part of this is how we use technology to collaborate as we consider how we work on, and travel to, each client project.
“We’re helping our people to understand the environmental impact of their decisions so they can make informed choices that benefit them, us and our clients,” says Gavin Harrison, our NSE sustainability lead.
Voices of climate action
Working alongside the Climate Crisis Hub & Film Festival, we produced these Voices of Climate Action films.
They tell stories from four countries, and the work being done by local people across the world to, for example, support a circular economy in Accra and restore urban forests in Lahore.
Their message is that anyone, anywhere can push for change. And that’s exactly the ethos we’re championing within our firm.
Change-making through partnerships
Our partnerships with charity partners and non-profits are at the heart of our sustainability plans - and we’re privileged to join their efforts and share their change-making expertise with our clients.
Our three-year strategic partnerships with the Soil Association, Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) and Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) are an opportunity to work together on challenges such as how to activate private investment in nature-based solutions.
To that end, in partnership with WDC and Marine Conservation Society, we published A Drop in the Ocean, a report that highlights the imbalance between financing for ocean and land-based restoration, and the importance of Blue Carbon investment.
Inspiration and action
The Earthshot Prize, created by HRH Prince William, is designed to find solutions to help repair our planet.
As a member of the Earthshot Prize Global Alliance, we’re supporting prize winners like coral reef restoration innovators Coral Vita – an exciting company with an ambition that colleagues from our Dutch firm are proud to support. You can read about it here.
“The Earthshot Prize is about bringing different skills and talents together to make the biggest positive impact we can on our planet,” says Tracy Wyman, Deloitte’s director of WorldClimate ecosystems.
“There’s nothing like seeing these big, potentially game-changing ideas come to life and make a real difference. Our people are energised by working alongside these innovators. It inspires us to do more.”
