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Environmental change starts in our own offices

June 2, 2022

Environmental Change Starts in Our Own Offices
Environmental Change Starts in Our Own Offices

With Accenture locations and operations across 200 cities all around the world, putting sustainability commitments at the center of our workplace efforts is a top priority for Lisette Smyrnios, managing director and global workplace lead.

It’s something she’s passionate about.

Here’s what Lisette and her team are doing—and why it matters.  

“We’re committed to making sure each space represents the best of Accenture, encouraging creativity, productivity and the well-being of our people, as well as working with our suppliers and partners to make our offices more sustainable,” says Lisette.

Making changes through technology

As part of the move to zero waste, Accenture has committed to reuse or recycle all e-waste, such as computers and servers, as well as all our office furniture by 2025. In 2021, over 99% of Accenture e-waste avoided landfills. And, post-pandemic, we are committed to eliminating single-use plastics in our locations.

That’s the kind of action that helps everyone.

And we are doing so much more. Reducing our carbon footprint takes ingenuity, smart collaborations and innovative technology. This means working with key partners such as caterers and vending machine providers to reduce reliance on single-use plastics, negotiating more environmentally focused contracts with landlords and teaming up with Accenture’s clients and ecosystem partners to leverage the power of technology and create solutions to help manage Accenture spaces more sustainably.

Here’s what this looks like in action.

To manage our office waste, we’ve modernized our enterprise asset management system, a ServiceNow-based solution, which enables us to track the life of office items such as furniture, fixtures, kitchen equipment and TVs.  When an asset appears to have reached the end of its office life, we can proactively take action, such as refurbishing and reusing or reselling to prevent it from ending up in a landfill.  

Where we have offices in geographic locations at high risk of flood or drought, we’re leveraging the World Resources Institute’s Aqueduct tool to identify areas of water risk and impacts to local communities. In addition to developing water resiliency plans, we can now measure and report the total percentage of water we consumed in regions with high or extremely high baseline water stress.

Additionally, cloud technology assists us in driving progress toward our net-zero emission goals by bringing together data from various sensors, platforms and tools, which allows us to manage our spaces in real time. These data insights help us monitor and adjust environmental controls such as air quality, temperature and relative humidity and understand how our spaces are being used so that we can make better decisions to save energy.

It takes a team with passion

Meet Lisette’s team who are helping make Accenture—and the world—a better place.

    For Lisette, nature and conservation have always been areas of interest.

    “When I can combine a personal passion with what I do at work, it’s that much more rewarding. I’ve had the opportunity to put my interests and passions to good use at Accenture to help drive change in the world.”

    Join us and do extraordinary things.

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    WRITTEN BY

    Lisette Smyrnios

    Managing Director – Global Workplace