Sustainable at Heart - PwC Channel Islands

We were delighted to receive the Sustainable at Heart award for a second year running.

As the leading professional services firm in the Channel Islands, we believe we have a duty to lead by example, both in terms of what we do and how we do it. We are dedicated to sustainability and environmental responsibility across our business, including our offices, travel, technology and AI adoption, use of offshore delivery centres, our suppliers, our clients, thought leadership, employee value proposition and more.

Here are some 2024 progress highlights since our first award, in the hope this inspires others:

●      We launched our refreshed Place & Purpose Strategy to prioritise our contribution to the Channel Islands economy and society across four pillars: Environment, Trade & Investment, Inclusion, and Empowering Communities. Our environmental performance, including our SBTi-accredited net zero commitment with 2030 goals, is fully integrated into this. We reinvested over £1m resources in additional activity supporting local sustainable development in 2024, and also built a tool to enable us to better capture the resulting value to society.

●      We disclosed under TCFD as part of PwC UK Group. This year we strengthened governance of climate risks in our local risk register, with a focus on how we support clients. PwC is also a TNFD early adopter and locally we contributed to our first global TNFD disclosure this year.

●      Business travel remains challenging. This year we tightened approval thresholds and processes, further restricted our business class travel policy, and shared monthly emissions data firm-wide via our new Business Travel Dashboard. This dashboard has been transformative in helping us track and reduce carbon emissions. For instance, one client team reduced their emissions by an impressive 73%, demonstrating the impact of thoughtful travel decisions.

●      We extended our Scope 3 emissions coverage to staff commuting. Over 65% of Jersey staff walk or cycle to work, thereby giving us useful information for future facility planning.

●      In 2024, 21% of our Channel Islands suppliers had committed or set science-based targets. Whilst some larger suppliers are managed through the UK, we help local suppliers take action.

●      Despite doubling in size locally since our 2018/19 baseline, in 2024 we continued decoupling business growth from emissions in the Channel Islands firm. We have more than halved our revenue and staff carbon intensities since our 2018/19 baseline. On an absolute basis, scope 1 and 2 emissions were 89% below our FY24 budget. Scope 3 business travel remains hard to abate but overall emissions remain 21% below our baseline, on track for 2030 targets.

Winning the Sustainability at Heart award for the second time is both an honour and a motivation to keep pushing forward. We thank our people, partners, suppliers, clients and community for prioritising sustainability in ways that make a tangible difference. We promise to continue our journey of responsibility and innovation. We are always open to new ideas and collaborations so please do get in touch if you would like to explore opportunities.