Our planet
Becoming a net zero business
Decarbonising our business in line with a 1.5˚C pathway
As part of our 10-year environment strategy, back in 2020 we set ambitious environmental targets aligned with the 1.5-degree pathway and approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi). These targets required bold commitments around our energy usage, our supply chain and how our people travel.
We are committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050. We have set a near-term science-based target (SBT) to be achieved by 2030 and this is validated by the Science-Based Target Initiative. These targets are being achieved by:
Using 100% renewable electricity across our estate by 2024 (this was achieved in 2023).
Switching to renewable gas across our estate by 2030.
100% electric company cars by end of 2030.
Engaging 100+ suppliers to make significant carbon reductions across our supply chain.
Becoming a zero waste business – eliminating all avoidable waste from our operations by 2030.
Progress against commitments
We have achieved 100% renewable electricity.
We are reducing gas use across our estates through efficiency upgrades. This includes upgrades to boilers and our building management systems. We regularly review renewable gas options through the Environmental Working Group (EWG).
A CO2e cap has been in place for new cars for many years now already. In FY24, we introduced a new interim milestone to phase out all existing and old petrol and diesel cars and replace them with hybrid or electric cars by September 2027.
189 suppliers engaged on climate.
We have made good progress, reducing total waste by 14% against prior year and by 65% against our 2017 baseline.
In line with SBTi requirements to review and resubmit targets every five years, we are in the process of re-baselining them and will align to the latest SBTi Corporate Standards.
This year, we have strengthened our oversight of environmental issues by establishing two new groups, the Environment Working Group (EWG) and the Environment Steering Committee (ESC), which reports to the Management Committee. The ESC is composed of the Chief Supply Chain Officer, Chief Accounting Officer, Enterprise-Wide Technology (EWT) Chief Operating Officer (COO), Markets Deputy COO and the Head of Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility and is chaired by the KPMG Business Services (KBS) COO. These groups were introduced to increase accountability and create a direct line of reporting on environmental and climate matters.
Since 2022, KPMG UK has an Internal Carbon Price (ICP) on our electricity, gas and business travel emissions. We continue to reinvest the funds we raise through our ICP in greener, low-carbon upgrades to our operations, incentivising efficiency and enabling low-carbon innovation.
An ICP is a self-imposed tax we’ve applied to the carbon dioxide emissions we produce as an organisation through our electricity and gas use, and our business travel. It effectively brings the cost of the environmental damage we cause through greenhouse gas emissions back to us as an organisation.
We recognise that carbon pricing is a flexible approach to mitigating the impacts of climate change and is a positive step on our journey to Net Zero.
Some highlights of our efforts are described below:
In FY24, our electricity consumption decreased by 6.3% due to ongoing initiatives within our offices. These include continued LED lighting improvements across the estate and upgrading our air handling unit motors in our Canary Wharf office to improve their efficiency.
We continue to manage our energy consumption through our Building Management System (BMS) which controls our key engineering equipment as efficiently as possible, and we monitor and record our carbon emissions as part of our certifications to ISO14001 and ISO50001. We successfully achieved our target of using only renewable electricity by 2024 and we are pleased to report 100% of our electricity is now backed by Renewable Energy Guarantees of origin (REGOs). As in previous years, we continue to purchase renewable energy for our own managed estates.
Our 378 solar panels in our Canary Wharf head office, which we installed last year, continue to generate substantial renewable energy. The average British household consumes 2,700 kWh of electricity annually and, as of October 2024, our solar panels have generated over 107,500 KWh of renewable energy.
Our gas consumption has decreased by 33% since FY23, reflecting the improvements made to energy efficiency within our buildings. For example, we have continued to finetune the settings on our Building Management System (BMS) and have replaced our boiler and water heater in our Leeds office, improving its overall efficiency and lifespan. We continue to look for opportunities to reduce our gas consumption across our estate and have mapped out a gas reduction roadmap to 2030. In parallel, we continue to review and explore opportunities in the market to source green gas in the UK while we revise our current near-term target as part of our re-baselining exercise for the Science-based Target Initiative (SBTi).
Our business travel across all forms of transport has increased due to targeted business needs to travel nationally and internationally this year. However, overall business travel remains below pre-pandemic (2019) levels as we continue to use collaboration technologies. We are a people business, so being able to visit clients to deliver work is an important aspect of what we do. That’s why we’re committed to reducing the impact of our business travel and ensure that we travel responsibly and purposefully.
We continue to promote our travel SMART guidance to ensure travellers only travel when needed and where there is a need to travel, we do so sustainably. Travellers are encouraged to conduct more visits in the same country whilst travelling to utilise less emissions on the long journeys and cover more business needs with one trip. They can also see their individual footprint and hints and tips to reduce our overall footprint through our internal Carbon Traveller Dashboard. Our capability heads receive monthly and quarterly reports providing them with visibility over their capability’s business travel patterns, so that they can monitor and continue to make informed decisions.
We work closely with our supply chain to look at different ways to travel and promote more sustainable travel options to our travellers through the introduction of our green hotel programme, changes to business class policy and our rail mandated routes.
This year we have implemented a Responsible Supply Chain Champions Group, who meet on a monthly basis to collaborate and knowledge share on areas across the Responsible Supply Chain programme, including sustainability reporting and science-based targets (SBTs).
Meanwhile, in some of our larger offices we have Environment Champions, who are groups of likeminded colleagues with a passion for the environment. They regularly meet and plan activities and initiatives which focus on increasing environmental engagement amongst colleagues in their office and support the Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability team to raise awareness of the firm’s environmental strategy and targets.
The Net Zero economy is going to bring about an unprecedented demand for ‘green skills.’ We’re working with schools in areas of low social mobility to build students’ ‘sustainability mindset’ and help prepare and excite them for the changing world of work.
Find out more: Essential skills
We have created a suite of learning offerings for our colleagues, from introductions to ESG topics through to deep dives on specific ESG areas (including climate-change) and regulations to provide upskill opportunities for the entirety of our firm.
For Employees - KPMG collaborated with the Cambridge Judge Business School to produce a bespoke set of learning modules on ESG essentials. Alongside this, in-house training on ESG Fundamentals developed with the European Business School (EBS) includes modules such as “Building ESG Expertise” and ‘Our Impact’ providing context into the work KPMG as a firm are doing to reduce our environmental impact as well as adding value to society. For our Junior colleagues, KPMG developed a digital game called ESG Immersion that provides an interactive learning approach for the basics of ESG, whilst for more of an in-depth view of certain topics, the ESG Explained Podcast Series has been produced for a deeper dive into key ESG areas such as TCFD, TNFD and Net Zero Transition Planning.
For Board and Senior Management - KPMG have collaborated with the European Business School for a more bespoke set of ESG learning modules, aimed at colleagues with a basis of knowledge in ESG. Senior members also have the opportunity to attend Partner & Director ESG Sales Accelerator Sessions, which enable colleagues to speak to a variety of key ESG topics through the use of client examples.
When setting our own science-based targets, we made a bold commitment to significantly reduce the carbon impact of our supply chain. Our supply chain accounts for a significant proportion of our firm’s environmental footprint and we know we have a responsibility to help our suppliers on their journey and work collaboratively with them to share best-practice.
In 2024, we asked over 189 of our UK suppliers to report their carbon data to us by disclosing to CDP, helping us to measure, and encourage, progress.
Through global training initiatives, we have engaged with our UK suppliers and conducted two sessions to upskill them in: the Importance of Reducing Carbon Emissions and Setting Science-Based Targets. We also have reference guides available to supplier managers on how they can work with their suppliers on Science-Based targets. For any suppliers that have been invited to disclose to CDP, we also evaluate their performance against our 7 ESG KPIs and feedback their score. This year, we relaunched our Sustainable Procurement Programme as our Responsible Supply Chain Programme, covering four pillars, two of which are Climate and Decarbonisation, and Nature, Waste and Lifecycle Management. As part of the new programme, we have completed our first set of engagement meetings with tier 1 and tier 2 supplier managers. We also implemented the Responsible Supply Chain Champions Group, who meet on a monthly basis to collaborate and knowledge share on areas across the Responsible Supply Chain programme, such as SBTi, sustainability reporting and Modern Slavery.
Back in 2023, we published our first TCFD-aligned Climate-related Financial Disclosure, reporting on our the key physical and transition climate-related risks and opportunities our business may potentially phase in the next three to 30 years. These were identified using our in-house Climate IQ scenario analysis tool, which provided us with a quantitative assessment of the potential impact of these risks under different temperature scenarios. This exercise has enabled us to reflect on and reinforce the key mitigation measures and leverage the opportunities that a decarbonising economy may bring to our business.
Whilst we recognise that there is more to be done, over the past year we have made good progress and continued to work cross-functionally to embed climate considerations across our risk and financial decision-making. We have reported on our recent activities in our most recent Climate-related Financial Disclosure report.