Living Sustainably and Enhancing Workplace Sustainability

Living sustainably is a way of life and a career path for one Deloitte professional

Her role at Deloitte: Sustainability and Climate Senior Consultant, Deloitte Consulting, LLP, Boston. Emma came to Deloitte after graduating from college with a degree in environmental economics and international studies, seeking to build a career in sustainability. “I thought that if I worked in consulting, I would have broad exposure without being siloed,” she says. When she joined Deloitte in 2018, she sought internal ways to build green practices. She quickly found the Boston office’s Green Team, a group of Deloitte professionals working together to make Deloitte an even more sustainable place to work and to empower others to take action. “The team had four people then,” she says. The goal: to get rid of single-use plastic bottles, which they achieved by installing water bubblers and tracking data use. From there, Emma says, she felt like it was all systems go for her work with Green Teams. “We created Green Team toolkits for new teams to leverage – that was my nights and weekends thing for a while,” she laughs. She also worked on expanding the Boston team’s efforts and sourcing funding and support from leaders. Emma credits her work with Green Teams for opening the door to her role on the Sustainability team in Deloitte’s Purpose and DEI Office. Emma now leads the entire network of Green Teams, which has expanded to 36 teams across the country. “Green Teams are important for so many of our professionals who want to find a great way to get experience on sustainability projects,” she says. “I’m really most proud of my work on them – I found my network and the ability to use my skillset.”

Purpose in action: “Employee engagement efforts in sustainability can all come together in the realm of zero waste,” Emma says. “If your people aren’t aware, you’re likely not going to succeed. That comes to life for me in Impact Day.” Emma started working on waste-reduction efforts for Impact Day – Deloitte’s annual day of service – in 2022, with a vision to achieve zero waste for the day by 2025. She and her team started in just four markets with a pilot program to focus on waste reduction. “We got a lot of feedback from the pilot,” she says. “It was new for a lot of people – to ask them to measure their waste and separate waste streams on site.” Flash forward two years later, and all markets are piloting zero waste programs to some degree, while larger markets are fully scaling their efforts. “Next year’s goal is for all sites and all markets participating in Impact Day to achieve zero waste status,” she says. New roles, such as a Zero Waste Ambassador and a Zero Waste Champion, are likely to be important for the efforts’ successes, and they’ve added guidance materials to help local teams source vendors and methods. “We’re just trying to meet people where they are,” she says of broadening awareness of zero waste.

Impact: “I feel like I am probably the most inspiring, or possibly annoying, person about waste,” Emma jokes. She embeds waste-reduction efforts wherever she can at home, and she and her friends do clothing swaps for birthdays and holidays instead of buying new things. Her focus on recycling extends to even the smallest of things, and she goes out of her way to find ways to upcycle or reuse. She’s getting married in September, and she and her fiancé are working with their vendors to identify ways to limit waste at their wedding celebration in Maine. “It feels really special to me, to minimize waste for a big life event,” she says.