PwC Luxembourg’s Carbon Emissions and Environmental Statistics

Our operational boundary 

The study of CO2-eq is carried out by listing the emissions according to the different Scopes. It is detailed as follows: 

• Scope 1: Fuel oil consumption; Petrol consumption by controlled or owned passenger transport in cars (Company cars)  fuelled by petrol; Diesel consumption by controlled or owned passenger transport in cars fuelled by diesel; consumption of electric and hybrid cars.
• Scope 2: Total purchased electricity; Purchased heat, steam or hot water for our main office building, Crystal Park.
• Scope 3: Air travel emissions by short, medium and long haul flights, landed-based travel in taxi and train, Flexi cars (salary sacrifice Fleet scheme)  accommodations included the room night.  

Figure 1: The details of the different Scopes to calculate the emission of CO2.

Calculating Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions 

PwC Luxembourg follows two methodologies to calculate its GHG emissions. For Scopes 1 and 2, we use the emission factors proposed in the Bilan Carbone, which ADEME (Agence de la Transition Energétique) developed in 2004. We follow the PwC global network methodology based on the GHG Protocol and the Carbon Disclosure Project, using the UK Government Conversion Factors to calculate our GHG emissions from business air travel in Scope 3.

For both methodologies, the following equation was used:  

Activity data x Emissions conversion factor (kg CO2e / kWh) = kg CO2 equivalent 

Explanation of the results and limitations 

Our carbon inventory was carried out using a 'manual' approach, and the acquisition of all the data remains complex due to the diversity of sources to be consulted. In the future, we would like to automate the data collection to ensure better reproducibility of results from year-to-year. An automatically updated dashboard will allow us to display real time status and engage our people to reduce our CO2 emissions. 

Scope 1 emissions include our direct emissions from owned or controlled assets, including the consumption of fuel oil to run our generator and the amount of petrol and diesel used for PwC-owned tractors (to remove snow, etc).

In FY22, we revised the calculations for our long-term leased cars. The methodology now focuses on the number of kilometres driven by each of our leased cars to include only business trips, which has significantly impacted our 2019 baseline emissions. 

Scope 2 emissions are slightly down from FY21 but remain still high compared to our FY19 baseline. For health-related reasons due to the pandemic, our main buildings were heated with only fresh air (100% new air), as opposed to recycled air, which we relied upon before the pandemic. For the calculation of C02 emissions related to energy consumption, we used the "market based" approach. This choice is justified by the fact that we have a contractual commitment with a green energy supplier. 

Concerning Scope 3 emissions, we reviewed the firm’s air travel policy in FY22, which significantly changed our 2019 baseline to include all business travel: flight data broken down by class, road and rail travel, and hotels.

For air travel, the categorisation of flights was revised this year, and the emission factors were adapted according to class type. The categorisation of flights has been improved, and the emission factors have been adapted according to the class type. We have also extended Scope 3 to include more relevant data for accommodation, rail, taxi travel and our Flexi car fleet scheme.Consumption related to purchasing is not included in scope 3 because it is C02 emissions that are the responsibility of the supplier.

Results

Table 1: Scope 1 - GHG released directly from assets PwC Luxembourg owns or controls 

Table 2: Scope 2 - GHG associated with producing the energy PwC Luxembourg buys

Table 3: Scope 3 - Emissions from any other activities upstream or downstream in our value chain