Our environmental impacts

Low carbon / Reducing our carbon emissions

Our carbon emissions are now 83% below 2007 levels, against a target of -40%. Over the same period, we’ve grown our revenue by 84%. Although our emissions increased in 2022, following the easing of pandemic-related restrictions, we remain on track for our commitment to reach Net Zero by 2030. 

We’ve reduced our scope 1 and 2 emissions from our offices by 98% since 2007 and continue to decrease the energy our offices consume. We achieved an additional 4% reduction this year - despite higher post-lockdown office occupancy rates - meaning we’re 62% below our 2007 baseline, exceeding our 50% reduction target.

Our new Belfast Office, Merchant Square, which opened in July 2021 had sustainability at the core of its design. It is the first office in Northern Ireland to be awarded the BREEAM Excellent status. The office doesn’t use gas, meaning it is 100% powered by renewable energy, and a big reason we’ve been able to reduce overall energy consumption.  Read more about our new destination office in Belfast.

In fact, this year we completed our five-year programme to have all our UK offices supplied with renewable electricity generated by wind or solar. Eliminating our scope 2 emissions is a key milestone in our journey to net zero by 2030 and a contribution towards the Global PwC Network’s The RE100 commitment. This means that 93% of our energy overall is now sourced from renewable sources and we are continuing to reduce our use of natural gas. 

Our emissions per FTE from Scope 3 business travel were down by 84% against our target of a 33% reduction compared to our 2007 baseline. Although travel emissions have gradually increased since pandemic restrictions were lifted, we have a programme in place to ensure we remain on track to meet our 2030 Net Zero commitments.

We’ve continued to offset our reported carbon emissions (Scopes 1, 2 & 3) each year since 2007.  In 2022, as part of a portfolio of initiatives supported by the global PwC Network, we used three REDD+ deforestation projects in recognised biodiversity hotspots across the world to offset our total emissions. We also made a commitment to 2028 to purchase high integrity carbon credits. These credits are verified against the independent and rigorous ART/TREES standard, as part of the private-public joined the LEAF Coalition in 2021 (Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest finance), which is aimed at protecting the world’s tropical forests at scale.

Some 68% of our key suppliers have now set Greenhouse Gas reduction targets. Although short of our target of 80% by 2022, it remains a significant improvement over our baseline.  Our supplier forum this year was focused on climate-tech, and we also launched our ‘Net Zero Springboard’, a programme to help accelerate our suppliers’ decarbonisation journeys. We continue to focus on our long-standing supply chain sustainability programme and lessons learnt.

Circular business

Although our consumption of resources increased slightly this year as people returned to our offices, overall levels remained much lower than our baseline - with paper procured and water use at 93% and 61% below 2007 levels, respectively. 

Similarly, we generated 82% less waste than in 2007, ahead of our -75% target, and we recycled or reused 90% of it - consistent with levels of recent years and ahead of our 80% target. We have continued, since 2012, to meet our goal of sending nothing to landfill.

Water and land

After 15 years of improving our environmental performance, we are renewing our sustainability approach to deliver our science based net zero targets to 2030. Below we publish for the first time a detailed view of our water and land usage impact data. This is an important addition to our reporting and will form a key part of our transparent approach in future.