Transcript: Net Zero: The Integrity Pathway

Transcript

Reporter:

There is a growing demand for organisations to demonstrate progress towards reducing their carbon emissions to meet net zero targets. Professional services firm, PwC, are not only committed to their own agenda of reaching net zero but are helping businesses to turn their own pledges into action, and ensure the transition to a green economy is done in a fair and equitable way.

Reporter:

Finding the route to a sustainable future is one of the biggest challenges facing all of us. PwC’s purpose is to build trust in society and solve important problems and by taking a human-led, tech powered approach, it’s turning ambition into action.

Carl Sizer:

I think the concept of an ecosystem within any bit of the UK or for that matter within the globe is incredibly important. The role that business plays alongside local government, alongside universities to make sure they have the right skills, the right capabilities, the right incentives to change a local community, a local environment is key but businesses need to be at the forefront.

COP26 was a massive accelerator I think, the noise, the energy and the enthusiasm was huge. I saw and talked to many CEOs who were wanting to make commitments, who did make commitments but also changed their mindset in terms of purpose of what they need to deliver…the skills change across the UK is huge. Think about Aberdeen for example where we currently have engineers looking after oil rigs, those same engineers with the right skills can be the engineers that sort and fix wind turbines.

Jonathan Gibson:

The green jobs barometer has been created by PwC to measure how the UK is progressing towards net zero…a first-of-its-kind tool, the barometer uses five key pillars to track metrics across regions and industries, including the creation of green jobs and the benefits these bring and so-called ‘sunset jobs’ - those likely to come under pressure in sectors like the hydrocarbon industries. It also tracks the carbon intensity of employment and how workplaces are becoming much greener , all of which helps to build up a picture of how far the economy has come on its journey to destination sustainability.

Reporter:

Lynne Baber leads PwC’s UK sustainability practice. She works with clients to understand the importance of capturing and reporting accurate environmental, social and governance data, known as ESG, to build trust and confidence.

Lynne Baber:

Reporting, regulation, it's not just about compliance and actually there’s a huge amount of value that can be created, there are so many different stakeholders that have differing expectations and needs in relation to the information so thinking about investors, through to consumers through to your own staff within the organisation, everyone has got an interest in your commitments to get to net zero and want to see the tangible progress that you’re making. There’s a real need for transformation within organisations to be able to give that information that is required.

Reporter:

The Carbon-out dashboard is another tool developed by PwC to help clients develop and monitor their decarbonising strategy.

Lynne:

On the left hand side is a net emissions reduction graph so showing the commitment that they’ve made in 2030, what their current baseline is and then how are they going to get there.

Reporter:

For Faye Melly, one of PwC’s net zero transformation experts, businesses need to look across their operations and adopt radically different ways of working.

Faye Melly:

This is called the decade for action, we’ve only got 10,000 days left until net zero in 2050. I think this does need to touch on every element, a real enterprise transformation to do this and organisations will need to think about new operating models, new capabilities, financin, innovation, but I also think this is a huge opportunity, not just a cost.

Jonathan:

And PwC is leading by example. Since 2007 it’s reduced its carbon emissions by 83%, at the same time as growing revenues by 84%.

Reporter:

Proof that becoming sustainable doesn’t have to be a barrier to growth.

Lynne:

One client that I work with…they’ve been able to achieve a lower cost of capital in relation to their financing, so thinking about access to new funding, also thinking about attractiveness in the market to retaining and attracting new talent. These are all value creation pieces that are coming from net zero and also the wider ESG agenda.

Faye:

You’ve got a range of different actors that need to work together and the roles that they play are slightly different but no-one can achieve that end outcome, net zero by 2050, without the support of one another.

Carl:

Where there is that will, I think individuals and society can come together and make a difference and I think we’ll see some of that really happen over the course of the next few years.