Climate Change

Protecting the environment by measuring and addressing our carbon footprint

Heightened public concern and international pressure make climate change one of the most significant sustainability issues facing Canada today. We are putting conservation into practice in two significant ways:

Tracking our GHG emissions
Energy and Carbon Reduction Strategy

Tracking our GHG emissions

In order to understand and mitigate our impact on climate change, one of our goals is to track our carbon footprint and invest in actions to reduce it. We do this by capturing data related to our energy use and the sources of our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, such as the energy consumed by the many buildings we occupy and business travel. In FY2012, the GHG emissions related our buildings operations were 6,992 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e), while the GHG emissions generated by our business travel were 6,575 tCO2e.

In addition to understanding our environmental impact, we also work to understand how climate change impacts our business and operations as well as that of our clients, from both a physical and regulatory standpoint. This holistic approach drives how our Sustainable Business Solutions practice works with clients to identify risks and make the most of opportunities to reduce their environmental impact and ensure they are in compliance with national and global standards and regulatory requirements.

Energy and Carbon Reduction Strategy

PwC’s plan to reduce our carbon footprint is described in detail in our Energy and Carbon Reduction Strategy, introduced in the beginning of FY2012. Our first year under this strategy had some successes and some challenges as we worked through the implementation process.

A key success was the development of PwC’s Environmental Policy statement, which outlines our commitment to environmental stewardship. This was the first deliverable and provides the foundational framework to move the strategy forward.

One of the challenges we faced was trying to boost participation in our annual commuter survey, where we try to gain a better understanding of our people’s travel behaviours. To improve participation we reworked the survey with a focus on usability and the quality of the data, but wound up with similar participation rates as last year. In FY2013 we will be working with a group of stakeholders to rethink our approach and revamp the survey in order to encourage better participation and arrive at better data.

Table 2: Energy and carbon reduction targets

Aspect or Measure	FY2011	FY2012	YoY Comparison	Target	Performance
Energy Consumption (GJ/FTE)	18.50	23.90	+29%	-2% annually	Did not meet due to transitions to new office space
Scope 1 & 2 GHG Emissions (tCO2e/FTE)	0.83	0.80	-4%	-2% annually	Achieved
Scope 3 Air Travel (km/FTE)	8.40	7.60	-10%	-2% annually	Achieved

What gets measured gets managed

As part of our Energy and Carbon Reduction Strategy, we have implemented a new measurement and reporting framework to better track our performance (see table 2). We also set targets associated with those measurements. To improve our performance we will continue to: