Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) is not new, but it’s now more important that ever. These threewords have immense meaning in terms of howtheworld is to adapt and change: and our role in shaping this direction.
Key stakeholders, including employees, customers, suppliers, regulators, and local communities are demanding organisations consider howtheir operations impact the world, their contribution to society and howthey conduct themselves.
What can we at BDO do?
We are increasingly expected to lead transformative change and help build a sustainable economy. At BDO, we act on climate change because it is the right thing to do, our employees expect it, our clients and future generations deserve it.
As a firm, BDO:
- Signed up to the UNGlobal Compact Agreement
- Has committed to going carbon neutral
- Has offset our identified carbon footprints from
2020, 2019 and 2018 combined (via independent
sustainability consultant, Avieco Ltd) - Have been reducing our actual carbon footprint at a
steady rate year-on-year: we consecutively reduced the
firm’s intensity per FTE by 13% for the last two years - Have reduced our energy consumption, total emissions
and emissions intensity for a third consecutive year - We review supplier contracts for their environment and
sustainability commitments - We continue to be recertified for important
environmental credentials which our clients and
employees expect of us - More than half of our office locations are rated either
very good or higher, with six offices rated ‘excellent’, by
independent environmental consultants - We are working with our travel booking provider to
measure and promote the carbon impact of each
business journey requested in a post-COVID-19 world - Our people can now order and choose carbon-neutral
BDO stationery and merchandise - We planted 300 trees in the UK as part of our Sunday
Times Fast Track marketing partnership.
Working with others:
No single firm or individual can tackle climate change
alone. The solution is collaborative.
- As Senior Partner, I have joined Chapter Zero, a climate
forum for Board Chairs and Non- Executive Directors to
ensure climate change appears on the agenda of every
boardroom table this year - We are helping many clients succeed on a variety of
sustainability projects, including the development of
Circular Economy, forest protection technology and
renewable power programmes - The accountancy and business advisory work we do to
help Renewable Energy companies with their corporate
finance, forensics, audit or tax requirements is growing.
Our partner, Marc Reinecke, has taken on the role as
leader of BDO’s Global Renewables sub-sector, a team
which is now receiving further attention and investment
from across BDO globally - We partner with CleanGrowth, supporting tech start
ups find funding and a space to develop tech - Our Model Audit team is ranked #1 globally in the
Renewables sector.
As individuals:
We want to keep working with our employees to identify the next right things to do
- Our last Carbon report reveals something very stark: 74% of our carbon output was generated as a result of travel pre-C19. There is one very obvious way to bring
that down! We are encouraging all our people to think twice before travelling as we ‘build back greener’ - We have trained Environment Champions in each office to help activate environment programmes locally
- BDO employees can contribute to charities that deal with carbon offsetting, for example the Woodlands Trust, through bespoke Give As You Earn benefits
- Our partners are also showing their commitment by personally paying to offset their individual footprints each year
- At BDO, we offer a generous ten CSR days each year. We are asking our people to think about how they can use some of their days to get involved in local Sustainability or Climate Change initiatives.
Through our environmental and social enterprise partnerships we are leveraging business spend for good. As we continue with our ESG and Sustainable Procurement strategies we hope to explore working with a number of social enterprises and that this will be a positive journey that we can share with clients and business connections as an effective way to address some of the big global issues of our time.
Below are some highlights from our current ESG partnerships:
AVIECO
As part of our commitment to become carbon neutral we partnered with independent sustainability consultants, Avieco. Working with them, we have offset our identified carbon footprint 2018, 2019 and 2020 combined. Offsetting our emissions in this way helps to fund an African climate project, which provides efficient and safe Gyapa cookstoves to families across Ghana.
FROM BABIES WITH LOVE
At BDO, we want all our working parents to feel valued and appreciated. We have partnered with award-winning social enterprise From Babies with Love, to give all our new parents a gift to welcome their new addition to the family. From Babies with Love give 100% of their profits to abandoned children around the world. Through our partnership, we’ll be supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals and making a positive change in line with our Sustainable Procurement Strategy and ESG agenda, helping us to have a positive impact on those around us. To date, From Babies with Love has supported over 26,000 children in 39 countries.