Offsetting our carbon emissions

We’ve offset our carbon emissions as reported in each financial year since 2007, enabling us to be carbon neutral. We’ve achieved this through significantly reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, and purchasing certified carbon credits to offset what remains at the end of each year.

Reducing our impact

We’re committed to reducing the environmental impact of our business, and since 2007 have reduced our carbon emissions by 35%. This includes a 90% reduction in emissions from our offices (“scope 1&2”), through consolidating our office portfolio, investing in energy saving innovations, and sourcing almost three quarters of our energy from renewable sources. We’ve also reduced emissions from our business travel by 21% per head over the same period, in spite of our business growth, through championing the use of online meetings and collaboration tools.

Although these reductions represent great progress, we’re conscious that the remaining emissions that we produce still contribute to climate change, so we’re committed to offsetting all of our residual emissions (Scope 1, 2 & 3) as reported in our Annual Report each year through purchasing certified carbon credits from projects that are designed to avert emissions or to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Our offset projects

We purchase our offsets through credible and established offset brokers. The projects we support are in recognised biodiversity hotspots in the following regions, and form part of the portfolio of projects supported by the global PwC network.

Makira, Madagascar (REDD+, CCB, VCS)

The Makira project aims to protect forests in one of the top five biodiversity hotspots in the world. More than 75% of all plant and animal species - such as the lemur - are endemic to Madagascar, while less than 10% of the primary vegetation remains. This project aims to limit deforestation in 360,000 hectares of the Makira forest. It also works with communities around the forest in a ‘protection zone’ of 320,000 hectares on projects that focus on economic development and health and education, as well as natural resource stewardship, ecosystem conservation and research, and carbon accounting and monitoring.

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Rimba Raya, Indonesia (REDD+, CCB, VCS)

This project in Borneo aims to protect carbon-dense tropical peat swamps (roughly 47,000 hectares) from conversion to palm oil plantations, and to conserve local biodiversity - particularly the endangered Borneo Orangutan - through engaging local communities to improve food security, income opportunities, health care, and education.

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Acre, Brazil (REDD+, CCB, VCS)

This is a collection of three projects focused on preventing deforestation across 105,000 hectares of pristine rainforest in the Amazon Basin. They protect some of the world’s most biodiverse species and habitats by working with communities and local groups to help protect ecosystem services - granting them land tenure and providing agricultural training.

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A multi-benefit approach

We choose to purchase offsets that are certified under three key standards.

Verified Carbon Standard (VCS)

The Verified Carbon Standard ensures that credits are additional, measurable, conservative, permanent, independently verified, uniquely numbered and transparently listed.

Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+)

REDD+ projects aim to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and foster the conservation, enhancement and sustainable management of forest carbon stocks.

Climate, Community and Biodiversity (CCB)

The projects that we’ve selected also meet the Climate, Community and Biodiversity (CCB) Gold standard, which recognises - among other things - that they also deliver broader social and economic benefits through involving local communities.