Doing the right thing for our planet

Roger Reeves
Partner for Infrastructure
Transcript

"Doing the right thing for our clients, our people and our communities lies at the heart of PwC's vision. Understanding and then minimising our impact on the environment is central to this commitment.

We have a responsibility to manage our own activities with very clear sustainability objectives and we have a responsibility to influence change through our relationships with business, with government and with regulatory bodies and forums.

Our people expect us to walk the talk - and be exemplars of good environmental management for our type of business.

Over the past two years we have stepped up the challenge.

We work with people like the Carbon Trust and the Green Buildings Council to share ideas and test our ambitions.

We have a published carbon reduction target to reduce our emissions by 27% over five years from 2007 base.

More than half of this target will come from more efficient use of energy. We are well on track and have achieved over 20% reduction in energy emissions already.

We do this best when we work together.

You are helping us leverage our investment and minimise our carbon footprint. As example:

  • We are using our office space sparingly and efficiently, a major contributor
  • Lights are being switched off and now some 40% of our UK offices have some form of low energy lighting and sensor controls
  • Over 700 desk side printers have gone, replaced by neighbourhood highly efficient low energy printer / copiers
  • We are recycling more - all our offices have facilities - not always pretty but well used and significantly reducing waste to landfill. Desk side bins are rapidly becoming history.
  • We are audio and video conferencing more - but reducing our travel further remains a major priority in reducing our carbon footprint.

And there are a couple of other points.

Our environmental management system is certified to the international standard ISO 14001. The certification body, the British Standards Institute, conducts regular reviews and audits our systems.

And we've had a new and exciting opportunity for environmental leadership with the design of our new building at 7 More London, where some 6000 of our people will be based in 2011. 7 More London has been assessed by the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method, or BREEAM, as it's more helpfully described, as Outstanding for its innovation and exemplary environmental design; the first building in London, and the first major office in the UK, to have achieved this highest possible rating.

To stay ahead we will continue to challenge ourselves, challenge our suppliers, and continue to work together promoting and doing the right thing for a more sustainable future."