Environment - Case Studies

Renewable Electricity

We are using renewable electricity in 23 of our offices, with the electricity being derived from a number of sources including wind, small hydro-electric projects, incineration of municipal waste and utilisation of landfill gas.

Through this initiative we have made a 42% reduction in the amount of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide that we emitted as a result of our operations and services in 2005-6.

Sustainability Of Office Furniture

Replacement of used office furniture is a major contributor to the overall waste and environmental damage arising from office relocation. We have a programme to review the potential for re-use of existing furniture. When we relocated our Uxbridge office, instead of scrapping the workstations from the old office we had them dismantled and re-shaped for use in other locations. Around 120 were re-installed in our newly refurbished St Albans office. Most of the furniture that is not suitable for reuse within PwC, is recycled through a community-based organisation called Green-Works, which renovates the furniture for use by small local businesses and not-for-profit organisations – and provides training and work for people from disadvantaged backgrounds in the process.

World Environment Day 2006

We encourage environmental awareness in our people and for the second year running actively promoted World Environment Day, which this year fell on 5th June. The purpose of the project was to focus attention onto the importance of the environment, and to stimulate attention and action amongst our people.

The firm provided staff with the opportunity to make 'promises' through the Environment Agency's 'Promise the earth for World Environment Day' campaign. 'Promises' involved staff pledging to make small lifestyle changes which would have an environmental benefit, for example, promising to install energy efficient lightbulbs or fitting a water saving device in a toilet cistern. In addition, over 35 teams completed the PwC Three Peaks Stair-Climbing Challenge, aimed at raising awareness of the health benefits of regular activity.