EY has recently announced its ambition to be carbon negative in 2021 by setting targets to significantly reduce its absolute emissions and removing and offsetting more carbon than it emits.
In a new statement on sustainability, EY set out the seven key components of its plans to not only become carbon negative but to reduce total emissions by 40% – consistent with a science-based target – and achieve net zero in 2025.
The EY commitment to sustainability is an integral part of its NextWave strategy and ambition to create long term value for all stakeholders. Launched in 2019, the NextWave strategy supports EY’s purpose of Building a Better Working World.
This new ambition builds on the global organisation’s achievement of carbon neutrality in December 2020 and underscores the EY commitment to the environment and to driving long term, sustainable growth. Key elements of the ambition include:
- Reducing business travel emissions by 35% by FY25 against a FY19 baseline.
- Reducing overall office electricity usage and procuring 100% renewable energy for remaining EY needs, earning membership to the RE100, a group of influential organisations committed to renewable power, by FY25.
- Structuring electricity supply contracts, through virtual power purchase agreements (PPAs), to introduce more electricity than EY consumes into national grids.
- Providing EY teams with tools that enable them to calculate, then work to reduce, the amount of carbon emitted when carrying out EY client work.
- Using nature-based solutions and carbon-reduction technologies to remove from the atmosphere or offset more carbon than EY emits, every year.
- Investing in services and solutions that help EY clients profitably decarbonise their businesses and provide solutions to other sustainability challenges and opportunities.
- Requiring 75% of EY suppliers, by spend, to set science-based targets by no later than FY25.
Andrew Dann, EY’s Managing Partner in the Channel Islands, said: “We believe that combatting climate change is a vital element of building a better working world. While this challenge is unique and different for each organisation, we are inspired by those that are setting ambitious targets despite the difficulties they face.
“Locally, we are delighted to have recently joined the ESI Monitor’s Environmental Business Operations Award to enable us to measure, manage and minimise our impact on the environment more closely and make positive changes to our environmental footprint on a local level.
“Our people are passionate about tackling big challenges and with the power of 300,00 people in our global network, we will not only transform EY to become a leader in sustainability, but also help EY clients do the same”.
Andrew concluded: “EY has set this ambition because it is increasingly clear that, collectively, we need to do even more to help avert a climate change disaster. EY people are proud that we met our ambition to become carbon neutral in 2020. Inspired by our people and others undertaking major steps, we challenged ourselves to go further, faster. We are deeply concerned about the science and what that means for our planet.
“We believe that becoming carbon negative in 2021 and net zero in 2025, reducing our emissions in line with a science-based target, is the right ambition to have. We realise that these challenges are different and more difficult for certain industries. That is why there are also investments in new solutions and services to help EY clients protect and create value from becoming more sustainable too”.
