PwC UN Global Compact communication on progress 2019
We’re proud to have been a signatory to the UN Global Compact (UNGC) since 2002 and are deeply committed to its mission to support companies to operate responsibly in line with the ten principles and take strategic action in advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Chairman's statement
"First, I would like to congratulate the UN Global Compact (UNGC) on celebrating its 20th year anniversary. The UN Global Compact has provided strong leadership in driving change and uniting businesses to address and mobilize in response to global environmental, social, and governance challenges over the last two decades. This leadership is especially critical now when the world is coming to terms with the impact of COVID-19 (coronavirus) on health systems, economies, and communities."
Our progress
In 2018, PwC set global ambitions for our community investments and environmental action. Building off these global commitments, we took steps this year to increase our impact.
Skills, education and communities
PwC’s progress on UNGC principles linked to human rights and labour is strongly demonstrated by our community commitment to invest in skills training and capacity building with the goal of maximizing the potential of 15 million people, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and social and micro-enterprises by 2022.
Since 2018 thanks to the ongoing efforts and dedication of our people we have reached 8.5 million people
In September 2019 we launched a new initiative called New world. New skills. to help prepare people and organizations with the skills for the workforce of the future. Actions underway this year include:
Working with students and teachers in disadvantaged communities to grow their skills and capabilities through key programmes such as PwC US’s Access Your Potential and strategic local collaborations such as PwC China’s efforts with the Adream Foundation.
We’ve offered a free version of our Digital Fitness App, a tool to enhance digital acumen, to everyone across the globe, to help people and businesses understand essential technologies and new ways of working to navigate today’s world.
PwC joined forces with UNICEF in a global collaboration focused on upskilling the world’s youth. The collaboration supports Generation Unlimited, a multi-sector partnership aimed at giving 1.8 billion young people access to education, skills training, entrepreneurship and employment on a large scale.
Environment
Our environmental commitment aims to drive efficiency by reducing our absolute carbon footprint, to source 100% renewable energy for our electricity consumption, to offset residual energy use by FY22 (July 2021 - June 2022) and to offset 100% of our air travel emissions from FY19 (July 2018 - June 2019).
PwC is a signatory to the RE100 initiative, we’ve committed to source 100% renewable electricity. The proportion of electricity coming from renewable sources increased, from 60% in FY18 (July 2017 - June 2018) to 65% in FY19 (July 2018 - June 2019).
Air travel emissions are our largest source of carbon emissions and in FY19 we saw an increase in Scope 3 emissions. We are managing this by exploring how to increase our use of online meetings when our offices open post COVID-19 and use less carbon intensive forms of travel, such as rail, within the context of stricter travel policies. In light of COVID-19, we have eliminated all but truly essential travel and will be considering how we adapt our longer term business travel to support the ongoing safety and wellness of our people and clients, as well as lower our carbon footprint.
PwC supports a range of high-quality voluntary carbon offset projects to mitigate the impact of our air travel. These projects not only reduce carbon emissions, but also allow us to take responsibility for our impact while we investigate longer-term solutions.
Our people
The PwC network is committed to creating and supporting an inclusive workforce.
The PwC network is committed to pay equity, with firms regularly conducting comprehensive reviews of compensation data to understand any differences between and among staff, and make adjustments as appropriate. Some PwC firms may choose to add additional types of pay equity reviews, such as compensation differences among partners, or an analysis along racial/ethnic lines. Several PwC firms have disclosed this information, including:
PwC Switzerland obtained EQUAL-SALARY certification after having been audited by an independent third party.
We joined the Partnership for Global LGBTI Equality, in collaboration with the World Economic Forum to advance global progress for equality and social and economic inclusion for LGBT+ people.
PwC leaders and employees marched with pride in cities around the world and brought together 200 PwC LGBT+ leaders and staff from 28 countries to share knowledge, network and talk about LGBT+ issues at our first ever Global LGBT+ Summit.
We encourage healthy behaviours and habits through our wellbeing programme, The Habit Bank.
Beyond our own operations
PwC’s purpose - to build trust in society and solve important problems - guides our collective activities and impact as a network. In 2019, we contributed to a broad range of research and insights to support our clients and wider stakeholders to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth, including:
Contributing to the development of an initial set of non-financial measures that companies can use based on existing standards and frameworks around four pillars - Principles of Governance, People, Planet and Prosperity linked to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - to disclose and incorporate into their core and expanded reporting.
Quantifying the contribution and impact of biodiversity on the economy through Nature Risk Rising: Why the crisis engulfing nature matters for business and the economy.
Consulted with over 50 board members and corporate executives and used their feedback to develop a guide to help corporate boards drive effective climate governance.
Provided technical feedback on the 2019 Status Report on Climate-related Financial Reporting for the Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosure.
Served as the lead knowledge partner to the World Economic Forum’s Frontier 2030 initiative on how and where emerging technologies could help advance progress on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
Supporting wider stakeholder understanding and engagement in issues supporting sustainable growth:
Understanding the potential for technology to deliver for the SDGs
- Continuing to contribute to a broad range of research and insights to support our clients to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth through our involvement in the Think20 (T20).
Issues in focus
From early 2020, we responded swiftly as a global network of firms to emerging issues. As a network, we are committed to learning lessons to drive and strengthen our business and operations.
COVID-19
As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, teams across our global network of firms mobilized quickly and decisively to provide clear action plans at the local level, rolling out support resources for our people and clients ranging from wellbeing support, to skills development, to planning and crisis management toolkits.
We have also leveraged our technology capabilities to make a difference.
PwC Germany created the “Corona Manager” app in response to the government’s call for digital solutions to contain the spread of the virus.
PwC US similarly has developed an Automatic Contact Tracing check in app to assist organizations in tracking cases of COVID-19.
PwC Netherlands set up a free help desk for non-client small and medium enterprises, independent entrepreneurs, social enterprise and charity organizations to provide them with guidance around their most pressing questions.
A number of teams across the network are supplying much needed medical supplies to front line staff and community members, whilst others are providing financial support to local front line charitable organizations or towards the preparation and delivery of UN care parcels for affected communities.
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