Environmental Stewardship

Climate change and environmental sustainability continue to present opportunities and challenges. Accordingly, we have developed a comprehensive global strategy that spans our entire business operations, the services we provide our clients, and how we engage with our suppliers and employees.

 

Our core values and Code of Business Ethics (COBE) inform our Environmental Responsibility Policy [PDF, 159KB], which we established in 2007 and updated in 2009. Members of our Global Management Committee, who approve all major initiatives, including our carbon-reduction targets, monitor this policy. At the same time, our CEO’s performance objectives, as well as those of the relevant members of our Global Management Committee, include responsibility for achieving our targets.

Additionally, Accenture has an Environmental Management System (EMS) and holds global ISO 14001 certification [PDF, 519KB]. In fiscal 2011, successful audits of Accenture’s ISO 14001 locations merited renewal of our global certificate. We continue to harvest and share innovations from these locations and look for new opportunities to expand our EMS, which we did this year in Mexico City and Chennai.

Our environmental footprint consists primarily of carbon emissions generated from business travel and office energy use. We are committed to addressing both of these as we work to improve our environmental performance. Since more than 80 percent of our overall carbon emissions are derived from electricity for our office locations and air travel, in fiscal 2010 we focused on applying technologies and implementing actions to improve our performance in these areas. Read more in our Corporate Citizenship Report and in our UNGC Communication on Progress.

We continue to provide strategic advice to help organizations integrate sustainability into the fabric of their strategies and operating models. We help them plan and assess corporate sustainability programs and develop sustainability business opportunities related to regulation, technology, consumer trends and/or the broader economy. We also help our clients improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions through large infrastructure projects—across energy, transportation and construction. We can help cities thrive in the emerging low-carbon economy by tailoring solutions that take advantage of innovations in key infrastructure areas, including smart grid services, smart metering, water conservation, waste and pollution. In fact, in the last year, we began a smart grid pilot project for Singapore’s Energy Market Authority, and in the United States we are teaming with Baltimore Gas & Electric to implement a smart meter network for its 1.2 million customers. Learn more about Accenture's sustainability offerings and credentials. 

 

 

Accenture also continues to play an active role in climate change and sustainability thought leadership. In 2010, we partnered with the UNGC to produce a CEO study on sustainability and business. Titled "A New Era of Sustainability: UN Global Compact-Accenture CEO Study 2010," the study found that 80 percent of CEOs said the global economic downturn actually increased – rather than dampened – the corporate commitment to sustainability.

As we strive to improve the sustainability of our own operations, we also seek to influence our suppliers’ business practices. Since 2007, we have asked all new suppliers that come through our procurement process questions about their environmental performance

For example, we ask whether they have an environmental policy; if they have undertaken an environmental assessment of their operations; whether they have set targets for reducing their environmental impact; and whether they are accredited through an environmental management system like ISO. In fact, the percentage of requests for proposals issued by Accenture Procurement that included environmental questionnaires was at 99 percent in fiscal 2010.
 

Further, our global Supplier Standards of Conduct (PDF, 91KB), are now part of our sourcing and contracting process and include our expectations regarding supply chain environmental practices.

Our people around the world have enthusiastically embraced environmental stewardship and embedded it into our internal and external activities. We continue to engage our employees through innovative environmental action programs. Building on the success of our fiscal 2009 employee Eco Challenge, we ran our company-wide Team Eco Challenge competition. This allowed project teams to share environmental practice innovations that deliver client value while reducing environmental impact. More than 100 projects, representing more than 800 Accenture employees, were entered. The winning project team— based in Bangalore, India—reduced power consumption in Accenture data centers by 11 percent. In fact, the team’s work saved 50-150 kilowatts of electricity daily per site and reduced carbon emission by a projected 1,000 tons annually. The winners enjoyed a virtual celebration lunch with our chairman and CEO using our Telepresence network, and we are now implementing the initiative in 45 data centers around the world. Based on this success, we plan to run the Team Eco Challenge again in fiscal 2011.

Additionally, Accenture Eco Teams have sprung up through grassroots employee efforts in many countries, including Spain, the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil and France. For example, we have approximately 550 employee volunteers on Eco Teams across 19 US offices. These volunteers lead local grassroots efforts that include: implementing more eco-efficient office practices such as reducing office waste and emissions; promoting telecommuting and alternative travel options; and hosting United Nations World Environment Day events.