PWC
As a professional services business, PWC found that the majority of their emissions is in business travel. As an organisation with clients all over the world, much of their travel is by air to other countries. Business travel is a necessary part of the way PWC works, and they have reduced their carbon emissions from travel by 4%, while almost doubling the size of the business (between 2007 and 2017).
Strategy
The simplest way to cut emissions caused by travel is to avoid it. The PWC strategy for reducing travel emissions involves both reducing the number of journeys people make and also looking for less carbon-intensive ways of working. They’ve reduced unnecessary journeys, encouraging both internal and client-facing teams to use video conferencing platforms instead.
Travel Policy
Their travel policy encourages people to use their internal systems to book travel, giving them greater influence over how they travel. It has helped to reduce their emissions from non-client related air travel, which fell by 90% between 2007 and 2017.
Low Carbon Driving
PWC have raised awareness of low carbon driving options among staff, promoting hybrid, electric and low carbon vehicles available through their staff company car scheme.
The fleet’s emissions currently average 117 g/km, below the industry average of 125g/km, and down from 118 g/km in 2018.
Cycling Support
Using the Cycle to Work scheme has enabled PWC to lend bikes and cycling safety equipment to their team as a tax-free benefit. They reimburse people with mileage expense payments for work-related journeys, as well as making improvements to their buildings such as double tier bike racks, extra showers, lockers and a bike repair station.
Commuting
In addition to business travel, there is also a carbon impact from their people commuting to work. Making sure their offices are located close to public transport links is a key real estate strategy. PWC are also periodically measuring and modelling how their people travel to and from their offices.
There is still work to be done but PWC have taken steps to measure their baseline when it comes to business travel and employee commuting and which have a huge impact on their overall carbon footprint.