Our environmental impact
Being an environmentally friendly workplace
In 2019, the Earth’s Overshoot Day fell on July 29, the earliest date in 30 years. On this date, human demand for natural resources and services has officially surpassed what our planet can realistically regenerate within a year. This means that we are using our resources 1.75 times faster than Earth can produce. Unfortunately, Luxembourg’s Overshoot Day fell even earlier on February 16.
"We have only got one Earth - this is the ultimately defining context for human existence. We can't use 1.75 without destructive consequences"
Fortunately, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development promotes development by addressing global economic, social and environmental challenges. Luxembourg, a signatory of the 2030 Agenda, identified four challenges arising from the SDGs, one of which is “the pressures on the environment and climate in a globalised world”. In view of these challenges, six priority fields of actions were identified, two of which are especially relevant to align PwC Luxembourg’s environmental actions with those of the nation: protect the climate and ensure sustainable mobility.
Protect the Climate
To protect the climate, Luxembourg will assume responsibilities in the context of the Paris Agreement that was agreed upon during COP21, namely, by reducing greenhouse gases. While driving efficiency to reduce our absolute carbon impact, PwC Luxembourg has committed to the PwC Networks’ Global Ambitions. The PwC Network has set new carbon ambitions that reflect their desire to accelerate the journey of reducing PwC’s impact across the globe, which are: 1) offsetting air travel emissions from FY19 and 2) to sourcing 100% renewables for our electricity consumption and offsetting residual energy use by FY22.
Offsetting air travel emissions
Air travel remains one of the largest sources of carbon emissions, and one of the most difficult to reduce. In the FY18/19 6,012 flights were taken by PwC staff, totalling a distance of 16,265,785 kilometers. Even though air travel is required for our business, it is not sustainable to keep up these distances without compensation. As such, the PwC Network is encouraging territories to support a carbon-offset project. By doing so, the firm’s, and the Network's carbon ambitions will not only reduce atmospheric carbon emissions, but also achieve a number of additional social, environmental and economic benefits. We have not yet committed to certain projects, but we are planning on offsetting all our air travel emissions.
Sourcing 100% renewables
At PwC Luxembourg, we can proudly say that we are completely aligned with this Global Ambition. In 2014, we moved into our new building, Crystal Park, which obtained an excellent rating from BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method). Some of our strengths that BREEAM highlighted are: the optimisation of natural light and our waste-recycling process. Additionally, since we moved into Crystal Park, we have been able to reduce our electricity consumption by 31%, redesign our data centre in order to lower cooling and electricity needs, and ensure that the heat generated by the data centre is being recycled in the building’s heating process.
Ensure Sustainable Mobility
For Luxembourg and for PwC Luxembourg, ensuring sustainable mobility will curb the negative impact traffic has on climate change, land use and economic competitiveness.
Mobility remains a hot topic for the firm and for the nation due to the large number of cross-border commuters travelling to Luxembourg every day for work. Out of the 2,745 employees that PwC Luxembourg has, 55% are commuters: 32% travel daily from France, 16% from Belgium and 7% from Germany. The number of commuters has steadily been growing over the years and is expected to grow further. Consequently Luxembourg is becoming one of the most congested countries in the world.
Also impacting the level of congestion is the fact that the most preferred way of travel is by individual car usage and motorcycles. While this statement may be relevant for all commuters in Luxembourg, it is especially true amongst our staff as 62% of PwC employees use this method of travel. Unfortunately, we have remained stuck at this percentage since 2016, as can be seen in the graphs below that conclude the results of our Annual Mobility Survey.
With the introduction of our new initiatives such as Work@Home and Work@Borders (our satellite offices), however, we are hoping to decrease the number of kilometers travelled by our staff and the amount of time they spend on their commute to and from work (see our Employee Journey chapter for more information). As such, we are hoping to improve the traffic congestion in Luxembourg and further promote alternative travel and work options for our staff.
The survey also shows that there has been a slight decrease in carpooling activities in recent years despite the actual incentives and the development of various tools to promote it. To spark an interest in carpool and car sharing, PwC has joined Flex, the car-sharing scheme run by the national railway CFL. Flex is advertised as the car sharing solution throughout Luxembourg, offering cars available at 35 different stations throughout the country, most of which are also connected to the public transport network. PwC employees will have “unlimited” access to Flex’s national network.
In order to promote soft mobility, PwC introduced a Vél’Oh bike-sharing station that was put into place in October 2018. The station holds 20 bikes available to all Vél’Oh members – enough to have slightly increased the percentage of soft mobility users at PwC!
