Environment

At PwC we have a long term commitment to managing our impact on the environment.

Our Environmental Policy summarises this commitment »

In 2008 we were the first professional services firm to become carbon neutral by purchasing "Greenhouse Friendly"™ accredited offsets, and we achieved this through three key steps:

• reducing our impact;
• supplementing with renewable energy sources (100% from 1 July 2010); and
• purchasing accredited "Greenhouse Friendly" offsets for any residual emissions.

We have remained carbon neutral through to end of FY11. The "National Carbon Offset Standard" (NCOS) has now replaced the Greenhouse Friendly initiative on 1 July 2010. The NCOS provides a voluntary standard for businesses to use in claiming carbon neutrality, and provides guidance on determining their greenhouse gas emissions and for purchasing robust offsets. The NCOS Carbon Neutral program also provides the ability to become certified under the NCOS as carbon neutral. PwC has applied for certification under the NCOS carbon neutral program for the FY12 period.

We have a target of reducing our carbon emissions by 50% by FY12 (from FY08 base line year), and in FY11 we achieved a reduction of 44%. This has been achieved through cost-control initiatives and new tools to encourage behavioural change in our people.

Greenhouse Gas Accounts

Annual Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory Report – We are the first and only professional services firm to publically produce annual, independently verified Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory reports which include our emission reduction targets and how we have progressed against those targets during the year.

A summary of Greenhouse gas emissions performance and targets is shown below.