Environmental Commitment

At KPMG, we’re always focused on the long-term impacts of our decisions. That’s why environmental sustainability is a core component of KPMG’s corporate citizenship strategy.

Implementing environmentally sustainable principles, reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, and addressing local environmental challenges adds value for our clients and reflects the integrity and ethics of our professionals.

We demonstrate our commitment in various ways, including working with the Arbor Day Foundation to plant trees to celebrate new hires, volunteering to build renewable energy solutions, and cleaning up beaches to promote ocean conservation.

Environmental Goal

KPMG’s goal is a 10-percent carbon footprint reduction per full-time-equivalent (FTE) employee by year-end 2020, from a 2016 baseline. A key strategy is our focus on energy efficiency and alternatives to air travel, which represent over 80 percent of our carbon footprint.

Environmental Performance

In 2010, KPMG set a five-year goal to cut net emissions by 10 percent per FTE against a 2010 baseline. In 2015 we exceeded that goal—cutting our carbon footprint by 26 percent per FTE. That number reflects active management of our direct emissions and indirect emissions from electricity consumption and air and car travel. Learn more about our 2020 environmental goals, results to date, and their metrics and methodology.

Sustainability Services

The growing focus by investors on nonfinancial matters such as environmental performance and social impact is reshaping the business landscape, affecting financial performance and long-term business success. Companies are under increasing pressure to manage these aspects to protect and create corporate value and to communicate the value they offer society. These nonfinancial issues are bringing compliance challenges, new risks, and opportunities with significant implications for corporate value creation. Our Sustainability Services professionals work with companies to help them manage the risks and opportunities associated with nonfinancial issues and to enhance all aspects of reporting and communication. We also provide assurance services over nonfinancial disclosures to enhance the credibility of reported information.

Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, KPMG International co-created the SDG Industry Matrix in partnership with the UN Global Compact (UNGC) to help businesses connect the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with their commercial activities to help advance the goals collectively. The SDGs play a fundamental role for us here in the United States, from better framing our commitment to empower the next generation of leaders through lifelong learning to also helping us better analyze how we can use our strengths and resources to drive the SDGs forward.

KPMG has a particular focus on SDG #7 (clean energy), #12 (responsible consumption), and #13 (climate action), which gives us concrete direction and a framework to refine our ongoing efforts to reduce our carbon footprint.

Renewable Energy

KPMG is committed to 100 percent renewable energy by 2020. We operate our own rooftop solar farm with more than 2,000 panels, purchase Renewable Energy Certificates to offset our energy consumption, and support community solar projects in underserved communities.

LEED Offices

KPMG’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified offices total more than two million square feet and house more than half of our employees. LEED offices continue to help the firm reduce its overall footprint with significant reductions in both water and energy usage.