Our planet
Promoting a circular economy
We integrate circular thinking into everything we do.
Promoting a circular economy
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We'll become a zero-waste business, eliminating all avoidable waste from our operations, by 2030.
In 2019, we introduced our single-use plastic commitment, focused on reducing our consumption of single-use plastics and integrating circular thinking into everything we do. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, we had taken great steps towards achieving our plastic commitment. We engaged and collaborated with our suppliers and colleagues to design solutions that help us to reduce, re-use and recycle:
Reduce We introduced the first of our plastic-free coffee shops. We trialled a stationary reduction programme. We moved to chemical-free cleaning in our largest offices, to reduce bottles associated with cleaning chemicals.
Re-use We repaired and re-used furniture from offices and refurbished electronic items such as laptops and mobile phones. We collected unwanted stationary for re-use.
Recycle We introduced coffee cup and paper cup recycling in five of our largest offices. We recycled our toner cartridges through a specialist provider. We use recycled carpets.
Engage We provided all employees with a free re-usable water bottle. We introduced a 15p discount at our coffee points, to encourage employees to re-use cups. We hosted plastic awareness events and supported colleagues to make plastic pledges.
Collaborate We worked with our catering contractor to remove single-use plastics from our staff restaurants. We worked with waste contractors to identify new ways to reduce plastic wastes. We work with suppliers to reduce waste entering our buildings.
Design We introduced crockery and cutlery into our Watford office refurbishment and at the Reading office too, reducing our reliance on disposables. We used products that included recyclable elements as part of our office designs.
We've made good progress in delivering against our plastic commitment and in reducing our levels of waste, water consumption and paper use too. However, with the pandemic re-shaping the way we live and work, we know we need to manage our environmental footprint differently. We're committed to reducing the environmental impact of our offices and in doing so, we'll become a zero-waste business, eliminating all avoidable waste from our operations, by 2030.
1. The waste data that we report on is based on data provided from our approved waste management contractors. Data is provided on a monthly basis and for individual waste streams including general waste, dry mixed recycling, confidential paper disposal and waste associated with refurbishment activities in our office spaces. Weight data for scheduled collections of general waste and dry mixed recycling are based on industry averages for container sizes, multiplied by the number of collections made.
Recycling data includes recyclable material collected from site, supported with documentation confirming the material status as recyclable through detail of recycled tonnage in the annual waste report provided by the waste broker, subsequently treated as recyclable material without contamination and reported to KPMG as recycled.
Waste sent for Energy from Waste (EfW) is excluded from recycling data and documentation is provided to support EfW as the end fate of waste material collected from site classified as general waste.
2. Water data relates to consumption of water through actual data from metered supplies. Where actual data does not exist or where data is extrapolated this is estimated based on the typical consumption of a KPMG office using known data sets – this is data provided directly to the business by landlord managing agents.
3. Paper data relates to number of sheets of paper purchased within the reporting period substantiated by procurement records.