Opportunities to get involved in sustainability at PwC

Research tells us that graduates have high expectations: you want to work for the best organisations, which means good training, remuneration and colleagues. But we know that you are increasingly looking for an employer that goes beyond that, and takes environmental and social responsibility seriously, contributing to making the world a better place.

We have put sustainability at the heart of our business, 'doing the right thing for our clients, our people, our communities and the planet'. Our Managing Partner Richard Collier-Keywood stewards this, meaning that sustainability is embedded throughout the organisation, and there are lots of different ways to get involved - ways that matter to you and fit with your lifestyle.

Work on sustainability related projects

Sustainability is embedded into a number of our professional services, providing opportunities for our people to get involved directly through their work. This is most evident through our dedicated Sustainability and Climate Change (S&CC) team, who provide technical advice to clients specifically on sustainability. We also have a Charities Group that offers audit, assurance, tax and advisory services across the civil society in a way which is affordable to charities. One part of our Government and Public Sector practice focuses on social enterprises, an emerging way to do sustainable business. And across our assurance, tax and advisory lines of service, our people are helping clients to adapt to the challenges and opportunities presented by sustainability - measuring the impact, assuring their sustainability reports, preparing for new legislation, and transforming sectors as broad as transport, energy, food, construction, IT and logistics as the UK moves to a low carbon economy.

Come to our sustainability speaker series or attend our training

Because we expect our people to understand sustainability and be able to help clients with the issues it presents, we've developed our own tools and training. Our 'Sustainability Means Rethinking Business' is foundational in our Baseline Sustainability Training which is being rolled out across the business, and you can see an edited version of this on our website. We've also been running a regular sustainability speaker series, Sustainability Unwrapped, for over a year. The series covers a wide range of sustainability topics and gives an opportunity for staff to ask questions of the experts, to debate and to network with other people who are interested in sustainability. These are supported by a Sustainability library of books and DVDs for self study, and our sustainability thought capital across the business, which is available to both employees and on our external website.

Sign up to the sustainable behaviours campaign

We also strive to reduce any adverse impact of our own operations: we've set challenging targets for our energy, travel and carbon emissions and are working to reduce them wherever we can. So far, we've removed 18% of our carbon per operating profit since 2007. We are aiming to go much further and need our people to help us to do so, expecting them to take personal responsibility for making sustainable choices in our daily working lives.

Our sustainable behaviours campaign, Building our Blueprint for Better Business, gives our people with practical advice on ways to work more sustainably. It focuses in particular on reducing carbon-intensive travel, encouraging video conferencing and other sustainable travel options and alternatives, such as electric cars and bikes, and allows them to keep in touch with sustainability events throughout the year.

And, we include sustainability on our employee surveys so you can tell us how we're doing and what you want to change.

Cycle to work

Cycling is a great way to get to work. It's affordable, keeps you fit and fresh, and helps the planet, too. So we've developed a number of ways to help you get on your bike. We offer and manage a Cycle to Work scheme which allows you to get a bike in a tax efficient way. We've installed bike racks, showers and lockers in most of our offices - in fact our new office in 7 More London has 240 racks for bikes and no car parking spaces for staff. And we offer bike maintenance and cycle training from time to time, to keep you safe on the road.

Volunteer during working hours, or in your own time

Our programmes allow our people to volunteer during working hours either on a one-off basis or as part of a regular commitment, such as mentoring social entrepreneurs. The programmes focus on employability, education and the environment, allowing people to get involved either individually or as part of a team using their professional or leadership skills, depending on what the community partner needs.

Some of our people want to support charities outside of work, and we encourage this through our 'Volunteering Awards Scheme', making financial donations for the chosen causes of all award entrants and winners. Our Chairman, Ian Powell hosts an awards ceremony each year to celebrate these extra curricula achievements.

More than 4,000 people (almost a quarter) of our people do some sort of volunteering in the year, including our partners, so it is part of our culture and a natural part of your career experience with the firm.

Donate to charities

Our Matched Giving Programme allows us to donate a proportion of our charitable funds to support the charity fundraising efforts of our people. This means we can recognise fund raising efforts of our staff and amplify the financial benefit to their chosen cause.

Our 'Give As You Earn (GAYE)' scheme also provides a simple and efficient way for our people to donate to charity on a regular basis directly from their gross salary, before income tax is deducted. We cover the costs of administering this scheme.

Visit our new, social enterprise bar and restaurant, Brigade

Brigade is a bar and bistro, private dining and cook school housed in the old Tooley Street Fire Station, next to our new More London office. We've set up this social enterprise with the UK Government, De Vere and entrepreneur Simon Boyle, to take people out of homelessness with hospitality skills - any profits from Brigade will be invested back into society. It's open to the public but you can contribute to its success and make a difference to the people in our local community, just by frequenting it for breakfast, lunch or a drink after work.

Become a sustainability champion

We have community, environment and travel champions in many offices around the country who support our initiatives locally and encourage our people to get involved. If you have a passion for sustainability, this is perfect for you.

Full details on all these opportunities are available on our portals once you join, but to find out more about our community programmes ahead of time, visit our case study videos or community involvement pages.