Environment

ADVANCING
SUSTAINABILITY

Fostering sustainable economic growth for our company and our stakeholders is at the heart of our environmental strategy. Our culture of digital collaboration helped make 2016 the most energy-efficient year in our company’s history.

30%

improved energy efficiency against our 2007 baseline

10%

reduction in air travel carbon emissions per employee compared to 2015

75%

of our key suppliers disclosed emissions reduction actions and 70% disclosed targets

CARBON REDUCTION
JOURNEY

Since setting our initial carbon target, we have reduced carbon emissions per employee by more than 47% against our 2007 baseline.

Directions: Hover over the bars in the chart to view a percentage breakdown of our carbon emissions for that year.

ENVIRONMENTAL
IMPACT

Our progress is the result of equipping and inspiring our people to advance our sustainability goals. Explore the tabs below and click on each icon to learn how our global eco commitment makes a difference in communities worldwide.

OUR
COMMITMENT

Accountability for our environmental strategy starts with our Chairman & CEO and cascades to our governance bodies, which oversee our environmental policy and corporate objective of fostering environmentally sustainable growth. Our Environmental Responsibility Policy, established in 2007, is reviewed annually.

READ OUR POLICY

“Not only is accelerating the shift to a low-carbon economy good for the planet, it will drive economic growth and create jobs around the world. I am extremely proud of the ongoing commitment of Accenture and our people to make a difference.”

PIERRE NANTERME

CHAIRMAN & CEO, ACCENTURE

OPTIMIZING OPERATIONAL
EFFICIENCY

LEVERAGING NEW TECHNOLOGIES TO MANAGE ENERGY

We surpassed our energy efficiency target—a 30% improvement against 2007 baseline—ahead of projections by continuing to execute our environmental strategy, increase efficiencies, improve infrastructure and monitor energy use.

SAVING CARBON BY REDUCING TRAVEL

Compared to 2015, we reduced our air travel carbon emissions per employee by more than 10% from fiscal 2015. This resulted in a saving of over 40,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide and more than US$150 million in travel costs, while helping to improve work-life balance for our people.

USING DIGITAL TO MITIGATE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

We use technology to collaborate, learn and connect with our teams and clients in a more efficient and eco-friendly way. For example, in 2016, we averaged more than 200 million audio and 9 million video minutes per month across multiple collaboration tools.

ENABLING CLIENT & SUPPLIER
SUSTAINABILITY

POWERED BY
OUR PEOPLE

COLLABORATION REDUCES ENERGY CONSUMPTION

With 21 teams from nine countries, thousands of colleagues were involved in our first International Energy Efficiency Tournament. Teams tracked and compared their energy consumption via access to real-time data from each smart metered office on our "Energy Central" website. During the competition, teams averaged a reduction in energy consumption of 24%.

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POWERED BY
OUR PEOPLE

WINNING WAYS TO REDUCE FOOD WASTE

The Accenture Innovation Challenge gives US college students the chance to submit ideas to support a priority goal of a non-profit organization. The 2016 winning team, from the University of Chicago, chose to help the World Wildlife Fund build an innovative industry coalition on food waste, create a digital platform to benchmark waste and establish data-driven standards for waste reduction.

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POWERED BY
OUR PEOPLE

RISING TO THE TRAVEL SMART CHALLENGE

Accenture people worldwide took part in our fifth annual Travel Smart Challenge, an event that runs in the six weeks between Earth Day and World Environment Day. In the five years that we have held the event, participants have collectively avoided more than 15,000 flights, saving more than $11 million in travel costs and approximately 2.5 million ground transport miles.

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