WorldClimate: Our journey to net zero
Transforming our business and investing in sustainable innovation
Climate change and the urgent need to adapt for a more sustainable future are arguably the biggest issues faced by business and society.
Taking action requires everyone to challenge themselves and reimagine how they operate. That’s what our WorldClimate transformation is about.
We’re proud to be among Europe’s 2024 climate leaders, as we transform our business to meet our science-based net zero goals, empower our people, share our experience with our clients and reimagine how we deliver services.
Deloitte UK has reduced our Scopes 1&2 emissions by 76% since FY19, but there’s so much more to do. Our 27,000 people are at the heart of this transformation, working towards ESG-aligned goals.
While we transform our operations and focus on reducing emissions, we’re also fostering alliances to help all sectors decarbonise and supporting innovative environmental solutions, from decarbonising the UK’s roads to restoring seagrass by the British shores.
We can accelerate society’s transformation by finding, funding, and scaling innovative solutions
We are committed to investing in solutions that can deliver a more sustainable future.
Across Deloitte North & South Europe, we provide funding and skills-based support to a range of projects that deliver environmental and social impact across the key areas of the energy transition, circularity, sustainable food systems and nature restoration.
Next-generation built environment
With research support from our Global GreenSpace® team, we’re helping Durham-based Low Carbon Materials increase production capacity for their next-generation construction materials and identify new market opportunities by shaping the growth strategy for ACLA®.
ACLA® is a carbon-negative aggregate that, when added to the mix, lowers the carbon footprint of traditional asphalt.
One tonne of asphalt generates up to 50kg of CO₂ emissions, so solutions like ACLA® are vital for decarbonising the UK road network. It’s already being trialled on a stretch of the UK’s M11 motorway.
Transforming food systems
Food is among the most carbon-intensive sectors, but the Soil Association, a UK based charity, is changing the way we eat.
Its Cool Food Pro tool supports caterers around the world in managing the impact of their menus and purchasing, recommending low-carbon alternatives and local ingredients, encouraging target setting and raising awareness of how food and waste affect the environment. We’re enriching the tool with ingredient-level nutrition, cost and environmental impact data, and an enhanced user experience for chefs and food providers.
Circular business models
Sanergy uses black soldier fly larvae to process organic waste into safe, sustainable fertiliser products. Our sustainability experts from the UK and Kenya are helping the Nairobi-based company to scale and optimise production, so that Sanergy can continue improving the urban environment and quality of life.
Nature-based solutions
On Curaçao in the Dutch Caribbean, Deloitte Netherlands is collaborating with local NGOs and conservationists to support the reforestation of mangroves. Mangroves are important for carbon sequestration, storing up to 10 times more carbon per hectare than land forests.
To complement the reforestation efforts, we are developing a Deloitte blockchain platform to transparently track carbon storage rates of mangroves, thereby enhancing our reporting and verification processes.
We’re also bringing this innovative thinking to other organisations, restoring natural ecosystems by UK shores.
Seagrass captures carbon 35 times faster than forests, but we’ve lost up to 92% of UK seagrass meadows. Restoration is vital so we’re collaborating with Climate Impact Partners, Project Seagrass and the UK’s National Oceanography Centre to better understand seagrass and improve carbon sequestration data. This is laying the foundations for generating meaningful carbon credits and funding for seagrass restoration.
We’re also bringing organisations together to support work by The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) to restore 100,000 hectares of UK wetlands and develop landscape-scale sites for salt marsh creation.
We invest in such innovative solutions whilst we continue decarbonising our own operations and financing existing solutions via high quality carbon credits, aligned with our purpose, supporting the voluntary carbon market.
“We have been on our sustainability journey since 2011 and are now
recognised among Europe’s climate leaders.
Whilst we are proud of our progress, to reach net zero emissions we want to
accelerate impact beyond our operations and value chain through empowering our people and engaging our ecosystems.”
Gavin Harrison, Head of Sustainability, Deloitte UK
Transforming our business
We’re transforming our operations, empowering our people and engaging others as we progress towards net zero.
Business travel and Clause Zero
Making the delivery of our services more sustainable is an important part of our journey.
This year, our emissions from business travel are down 50% per each full-time colleague against our FY19 baseline, a step back from our position in FY23. Behind this is a moderate increase in travel activity which translates into much higher emissions due to a large increase in UK Government GHG emissions factors for air travel.
We remain committed to our FY30 target to cut business travel emissions by 50% per FTE and beyond. Through Clause Zero, we are making this a collaborative journey with our clients. By creating tools, such as our travel emissions calculator and dashboards to track progress, we are enabling more informed conversations about business travel, sustainable events and the best use of immersive technology.
We have also helped clients gain a better understanding of our shared responsibility of managing emissions through digital experiences, including a showcase at our Experience Transformation event.
Mobility
We have taken another step forward in our commitment to having a fully electric company car fleet with 98% of our vehicles now electric. Hybrid working and our mobility strategy are enabling more of our people to choose greener travel options.
Real estate and operations
We embed sustainability within our real estate, from creating an award-winning workspace in Edinburgh to the phased update of our premises in Shoe Lane, London.
We run our buildings on 100% renewable electricity, and have reduced energy use by 29% per m2, water use by 67% per FTE and waste by 75% per FTE since 2019, whilst continuing to divert our waste from landfill.
To advocate for sector change, we were the first of the big four to join the UK Green Building Council and have contributed to an industry report on carbon-effective retrofitting measures.
Value chain
We’re also challenging and supporting our suppliers to set ambitious carbon reduction targets and monitor their performance. This is helping us make progress towards our goal of having 67% of them set science-based targets (SBTs) by 2025. In FY24, the proportion of Deloitte’s suppliers with SBTs reached 30%. We know that we have much more to do, with plans for a Science-based Targets Academy for our small and medium size suppliers which we hope will make a meaningful difference.
Our people leading the change
We want to empower our people to own this transition.
That’s why we’re building sustainability into our culture with initiatives like ESG-aligned goal setting for our 27,000 UK colleagues.
The next generation of our leaders also care about climate action. More than 1,100 new joiners, including 200 of our early careers colleagues, have learned about our WorldClimate transformation through seminars and events. We’re also giving our people the tools they need to have confident conversations with clients and their teams.
Our UK network of over 280 climate champions bring our ambitions to life. As well as encouraging more sustainable behaviours within their business areas, they host and get involved in events and learning initiatives, including our Earth Month celebration, and inspiring events hosted with partners, such as WWF.
Throughout our firm, we see evidence that our people want to go the extra mile. Over 2,000 have taken steps to reduce their carbon footprint by engaging in Giki challenges, such as adopting sustainable behaviours at home, saving over 123,800 kg of carbon and over 15,800 single-use plastic items.
Alongside this, our people volunteered with our climate charity partners, and our sustainability specialists delivered pro bono expertise to WWT, Soil Association and pioneering innovators of The Earthshot Prize.
Our success so far is testament to the commitment and expertise of our people. And we will continue to challenge ourselves as an organisation and find new ways to use our skills, reach and influence to accelerate change in sectors we impact and society.
“No organisation can solve the climate and biodiversity crises alone.
Businesses need to actively transform how we work and, at the same, drive
collaborations with clients, partners and alliances to create systemic change
in society.
That’s what Deloitte’s WorldClimate transformation is about.”
Smruti Naik-Jones, Chief Sustainability Officer, Deloitte North & South Europe
