A strong governance should be the foundation for achieving long-term value for all stakeholders; and, if we jointly drive financial and societal performance, we will also build legitimacy with our stakeholders. A key role for our governance is to set, monitor and integrate our firm's economic, environmental and social ambitions, and navigate the risks and opportunities that come from these dimensions. This will ensure continuous protection of the interests of all our stakeholders.
Christophe Pittie
Lessons learned and impact on governance
A successful sustainability journey should be built on :
- defining a strategy,
- transforming the organisation and
- measuring and reporting of progress.
What we have learned is that change does not happen simply because a clear strategy is in place. The main key to success is to align the three building blocks as shown in Image 1.
Throughout our sustainability journey, we have identified missing links, and we now feel the need to strengthen our governance in order to improve and enhance alignment and support our mission to embed sustainability into everything we do. We are confident that acting on our sustainability priorities will drive significant benefits, such as boosting innovation, mitigating risks, and unlocking better connections with our stakeholders as well as supporting the broader societal need.
Image 1: Building blocks to a sustainability strategy
Sustain@PwC
In the continuation of our CSR strategy and increased sustainability articulation, we created in April 2021 a new steering committee “Sustain@PwC”, run under the direct leadership of our CEO John Parkhouse and supported by our Corporate Responsibility leader, Valérie Arnold. Our committee is built on the 4 Pillars of the WEF-IBC framework, and is composed of four leaders, with each leader running one of the four Pillars: Principles of Governance; Prosperity; People and Planet.
Image 2: Organisation Chart of SUSTAIN@PwC Committee
The committee’s mission is to select, among the 21 core metrics proposed in the WEF-IBC framework, the priorities that will drive change and which are most relevant for us in the years to come.
Furthermore, it will manage and monitor the effective change by:
- Aligning organisational purpose, strategy and business operating models;
- Setting goals and metrics, measure and report progress;
- Embedding sustainability priorities in operations and value chains; and
- Engaging, collaborating and advocating for change with our key internal stakeholders.
A quarterly exchange with our executive committee is foreseen with the aim to make sure that the priorities identified are aligned with our business objectives.
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