Our Purpose
Living our Purpose
Our purpose is at the centre of everything we do. See how we deliver on our purpose through our work with clients and in our communities.
Emma Cox
Our Head of Purpose, Emma Cox discusses the important role purpose plays in our firm and for our people.
Our Head of Purpose, Emma Cox discusses the important role purpose plays in our firm and for our people.
Purpose: Challenging ourselves to do more
Our purpose is to build trust in society and solve important problems. Articulating it is one thing, living up to it is another - especially in times of change and uncertainty. It’s only possible if everyone is clear about what it means and how it applies to their everyday work. In her video, Emma Cox discusses how this has been a real focus this year - starting those conversations so people can drive our purpose through their client work and maximise the impact of their work.
Our Framework shows how purpose binds what we do, from our client work and operations to our supply chain and communities.
purpose statement
'to build trust in society
and solve important problems'
What working with purpose means to us
We’ve been encouraging reflection, transparency and debate on how we’re delivering our purpose. At events with our senior leaders, our people have had the opportunity to question and challenge how the firm makes decisions and explore the societal impact of our work. We’ve started to look at how we can measure and quantify the outcomes of some of our client work. And we invited inspirational external speakers, like Rebecca Adlington, to share their perspectives on purpose and encourage our people to reflect on their own personal purpose beyond the corporate world. Find out more about our purpose.
Purpose in our work for clients
Reflecting on our purpose means building it into our working day including in our work with clients. This year we've worked on important societal issues such as tackling modern slavery with Sainsbury's to improving health outcomes in the NHS. We've also used our role to convene a debate on the future of the audit profession, drawing on a range of interested parties to inform our approach. We worked with WWF to shine a light on the ecological crisis which will impact all of our clients by supporting the screening of a new film Our Planet: Our Business.
Our community contribution
As well as working with communities in Bradford, we work with schools across the UK, offering masterclasses and mentoring and digital upskilling through the PwC social entrepreneurs club. A third of our people volunteered a total of over 83,000 working hours. Of this, 39% was ‘skills-based’ - and benefitted 33,000 people. And in our annual volunteering day - One Firm One Day (OFOD) - our people raised over £50k in aid of our PwC Foundation charities - UK Youth, Samaritans, Beyond Food and Wellbeing of Women.
contribution was valued at £8.1m.
Becoming a low carbon and circular business
With concern about the climate and ecological crisis at an all time high, our commitment to the low carbon and circular economy is more important than ever before. We've slashed the carbon emissions associated with our operations since 2007, while growing our business, and increased renewable energy use in our offices. We've also updated our statement on climate risks in line with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) guidance. We've reduced our paper, plastic and waste, and pioneered 'circular' reuse and remanufacturing initiatives, especially in relation to our office furniture. While business travel has slightly increased our overall emissions this year, we continue to offset all residual impacts, making us carbon neutral for the twelfth year in a row.
Low carbon
energy consumption*
renewable
energy consumption
carbon emission
from office energy*
*measured against our 2007 baseline
Going Circular
of all waste
now recycled
paper consumption*
less plastic consumption
than FY18
*measured against our 2007 baseline
Being a fair and trusted business
We pride ourselves on being a business that is fair in its dealings with others, not only upholding high ethical standards but using our influence to positively impact society. That’s why we embed sustainability into our commercial arrangements with suppliers and scrutinise their work to ensure we minimise supply chain risks such as modern slavery. We have an aspirational target to spend £10m by 2022 with social enterprises, enabling them to provide employment in their local communities including to disadvantaged groups. Find out more about our Buy Social campaign here.
Bradford video
Bradford office - a game changer?
Bradford office - a game changer?
Supporting social mobility
Alongside our diversity and inclusion agenda, as a major employer we can play a positive role in increasing social mobility through our recruitment and skills training programmes. We’re making progress against our five-year targets: we've more than doubled the number of people from less privileged backgrounds doing work experience with us, and we’ve helped over 21,000 young people gain new skills. We’ve opened our new Assurance Competency Centre in Bradford where we now employ 80 people, giving people in the city access to quality employment and meeting our skills need. We’re aiming to employ 225 people at the Centre in the next two years.