Consulting firm EY has set a target to reduce carbon emissions due to business travel by 35 per cent by 2025, compared with a 2019 baseline. The move is part of a broad range of measures designed to help EY be carbon negative in 2021 and net zero by 2025.
Steve Varley, EY¡¯s global vice chair of sustainability, said, ¡°We believe that becoming carbon negative in 2021 and net zero in 2025, reducing our emissions in line with a science-based target, is the right ambition to have. ¡°
The company says that air travel accounted for 75 per cent of its global carbon emissions in the financial year 2019, although this was drastically reduced by the Covid pandemic.
¡°The Covid-19 crisis cut our business travel emissions and EY teams were still able to provide exceptional client service. This gave us a new perspective on what a low-carbon future could look like and made us challenge the easy option of reverting to old habits as the world recovers,¡± it said.
The firm plans to reduce emissions by ¡°continuing to encourage the use of virtual collaboration technologies¡± and ¡°using new tools and technologies that help EY people make better travel choices and encourage greener alternatives wherever possible¡±.?
If the firm achieves its target, it says it will avoid emitting more than two million tons of CO2 from FY19 to FY25.
EY is also planning to work more closely with suppliers on their sustainability efforts. It has set a goal that by 2025?suppliers representing three quarters of its spend will have set an approved carbon-reduction target with Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), a partnership between the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute, the World Wide Fund for Nature and global non-profit CDP.?
¡°We will collaborate with all suppliers to help them on their journeys to SBTi accreditation and the decarbonisation of the products and services we procure from them,¡± the company said.