Managing our carbon emissions

Our carbon emissions are relatively low compared to many sectors, as we set out in our statement on climate-related financial risk. However, they’re our biggest environmental impact, and we want to play our part in contributing to the UK Government’s targets of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Our total carbon emissions have decreased by 51% compared to a 2019 baseline, while our revenues increased by nearly 30% over the same period. We have also achieved an 87% reduction in our Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions since 2019, surpassing our target of -50%.

We continue to have all our UK offices supplied with renewable electricity generated by wind or solar, eliminating our scope 2 emissions, and we continue to offset 100% of our residual emissions.

We pioneer new, low carbon technologies wherever feasible. And we try to pass on what we've learnt to our clients and others through case studies and downloadable 'Lessons Learned'.

Our carbon management strategy involves:

setting targets for reducing our absolute carbon emissions (scope 1, 2 and 3)
minimising our emissions by improving operational efficiencies and investing in innovative technologies and approaches to reduce our resource consumption and the waste we generate
buying renewable energy from certified sources wherever practicable
minimising unnecessary travel by encouraging our people to adopt new technologies to collaborate with colleagues and clients remotely
working with our suppliers to understand the opportunities to improve our supply chain footprint, including food
assessing the carbon impact of our technology usage, and exploring ways in which our business, people, suppliers and clients can use technology more effectively and responsibly
sharing our knowledge of carbon accounting, management and reporting from our client work and operational experiences across our networks to accelerate best practice
offsetting our Scope 1, 2 and 3 carbon emissions by buying carbon credits certified under the REDD+, CBB and VCS standards.

Measuring and reporting our emissions

We follow a rigorous process to calculate our carbon emissions, using GHG Protocol and Defra guidelines, and we report them transparently each year in our Integrated Reporting Hub, which is published with our Annual Report. In 2022 we achieved the Carbon Trust’s Route to Net Zero Standard, and in the process, became the first organisation to reach their ‘Advancing’ tier, which recognises our progress on our own journey to Net Zero. Additionally, in 2023 we were recognised as a carbon management leader by EcoVadis and retained our platinum EcoVadis sustainability rating for the third consecutive year. We also support the global PwC network response to the CDP.

You can find out more about our specific environmental impacts and solutions, in our pages on business travel, energy consumption, material consumption, and waste generation.

Offsetting our emissions

While we’ve significantly reduced our carbon emissions since 2007, the remaining emissions we produce still contribute to climate change, so we offset them to achieve carbon neutrality, by purchasing credits from carbon offsetting projects.

Find out more

Valuing our impact

We used our Total impact framework to estimate the societal impact of our total greenhouse gas emissions at £83m. However, only 0.1% of it was attributable to our direct operations. The vast majority fell outside of our own operations, and we’re continuing to try to understand ways to reduce this impact with our key suppliers.

Supply chain carbon emissions

Each year we ask our key suppliers to provide us with information which allows us to assess their environmental performance.

To reflect our net zero commitments, we have made additional targets aligned and approved by the SBTi in 2021. One specific item within our Science-Based Targets (SBT) is that 50% of our suppliers (by emissions) have set their own science-based target by FY25 (June 2025). This target covers our purchased goods and services emissions, with the exception of business travel and energy, which are covered under separate commitments.

By 2023, 42% of our suppliers reported that they already have a SBTi approved target in place, and 83% of our assessed key suppliers have a publicly announced GHG reduction target.

In addition, we also host a sustainability forum each year, to raise awareness, upskill our key suppliers, and communicate our key priorities. Building on our previous forums focusing on our suppliers’ decarbonisation journeys and net zero ambitions, the 2024 Supplier Sustainability Forum further recognised the inevitable role that nature and biodiversity plays in driving a net zero future. Within this, we delved beyond carbon emissions to explore the critical relationship between business and nature - and how this is a crucial element in delivering on our suppliers’ net zero and sustainability goals.