2023 PwC Network Environment Report

Creating a more sustainable future together

Birds eye shot of forest
  • Insight
  • 15 Minute Read
  • October 2023

We are feeling the devastating impacts of climate change across the world, with global temperatures now at least 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels, and emissions at record-breaking levels. We need to reverse the path we are on.

Download the full report (11.7MB)

2023 PwC Network Environment Report

To tackle climate change, we need to speed up our efforts to reduce carbon, and drive towards net zero faster and stronger. But that’s not enough. We need to make our businesses, our homes and our lives more resilient to the impacts of climate change. 

The decline of our climate is accelerating the destruction of environmental ecosystems (land, oceans, freshwater, biodiversity), which offer some of the most important solutions for climate change. Solutions for climate and nature must go hand in hand.

We believe business can play an important role in both driving and enabling this systemic change. Through collaboration on a global scale, businesses have the capacity to invest significantly in environmental innovation and the development of new, more sustainable business models. That’s why sustainability is central to our global strategy - The New Equation - delivering on our purpose to build trust in society and solve important problems.

We don’t have time to talk anymore. We need talk to turn to action immediately, on a coordinated and a scaled basis.

Bob Moritz, PwC Global Chair,Global Solutions Summit (May 2023)

The 2023 PwC Network Environment Report discusses our global environment strategy. 
The strategy focuses on the parallel goals of accelerating progress to a more sustainable future and adapting to build resilience against the risks we now face.

Group Copy Environment strategy Governance framework Evolving our services Skills Reducing our impact Physical resilience Risk management Policy engagement & advocacy Strategic risks & opportunities (underpinned by scenario analysis) Mitigation Adaptation Group Environment strategy Governance framework Evolving our services Skills Reducing our impact Physical resilience Risk management Policy engagement & advocacy Mitigation Adaptation Strategic risks & opportunities (underpinned by scenario analysis)

The Environment Report covers all elements of how we are executing that strategy. That includes how we are evolving our services to support our clients to address these challenges, and how we are enabling that by developing skills across our 360,000+ strong community of solvers. It also shares insights on how we are reducing our own impacts on the environment, by decarbonising our business and working to understand what impacts we have on nature.   

The report outlines the journey we are on to understand and adapt to the physical risks we identified last year, to build greater business resilience.

It includes overviews of the frameworks that underpin all our progress. Our enterprise risk management and governance frameworks operate to enable our strategy.

Finally, our report includes our first climate transition plan. This outlines the actions we are taking to decarbonise our own business and the role we are playing within the overall transition of the economy.

We expect our approach will change as the needs of business and society change. Even if our approach changes, our commitment will not. 

PwC remains firmly committed to playing our part.

We share some highlights from our Environment Report below.

Delivering on our net zero commitment

We are committed to playing our part in the global transition to a greener world. A key part of our commitment is making sure we are doing what we can to limit our own impact on the environment and lead by example.

That’s why we have set targets to reduce carbon in our own business. Our near-term science-based targets (SBTs) were validated in July 2021 by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and are aligned to a 1.5 degree climate scenario.

Our near-term science-based targets

50%

absolute reduction in scope 1 & 2 greenhouse gas emissions by FY30 from a FY19 baseline

100%

renewable electricity used in all our territories by FY30 (already over 90%)

50%

absolute reduction in scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions from business travel by FY30 from a FY19 baseline

50%

of our purchased goods and services (PG&S) suppliers (by emissions) to set SBTs to reduce their own climate impact by FY25

To mitigate our impacts today, we offset our emissions through high-quality carbon credits, transitioning to 100% carbon removals by 2030.

Building greater resilience against climate change

It is clear we need to accelerate our collective efforts to decarbonise and to drive towards net zero faster and stronger.  But that is no longer enough.  

Impacts of climate change are already being felt across the world. We are seeing the effects of severe weather patterns all too clearly, from floods to wildfires. And we expect this will continue to deteriorate. We need to make sure we can withstand the challenges that climate change is already delivering, by adapting to build greater resiliency in our homes, across our communities and in our economies. 

That’s why we are working to make sure our network is resilient to climate change, and supporting our clients and communities to do the same.  

We began assessing the physical impacts of climate change on our own business two years ago. We looked across our global network and used physical risk analysis to find areas that are at higher risk. We then used that to develop plans to adapt and make our business more resilient. 

You can explore what we are doing in the interactive experience below or in our 2023 PwC Network Environment Report.

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Building resilience to climate change

Launch the experience to learn about how we are building resilience across our own network and supporting clients and communities to do the same.

Evolving our services

One of the most important things we can do as part of the transition to a greener world is to help our clients understand and handle environmental impacts, risks and opportunities.

To do that, we are evolving our services by: 

  • Adapting our core services to include consideration of environmental matters. This ranges from the inclusion of carbon taxes and green incentives within our Tax services, environmental issues in Deals, reinforcing climate in our Assurance methodologies and processes, sustainability-driven transformation programmes in Consulting and more.  
  • Building and scaling new services. Our sustainability practice helps organisations plan, source, deliver, finance and measure the wider impact of products and services. We’re helping future-proof businesses by making them more resilient, agile and sustainable.

We do that by supporting our clients with their net zero transformations as they work to decarbonise their businesses. We help them to realise their ambitions to develop sustainable supply chains, and to develop understanding of their climate risk and resilience profiles. We help them to implement their objectives to enhance their transparency through sustainability reporting, and support them in raising and deploying sustainable finance and navigating the energy transition. You can read more about our sustainability services here.

One key investment we made this year was to launch our global Centre for Nature Positive Business. The Centre brings together knowledge in biodiversity, water, forestry, regenerative agriculture and geospatial analysis to accelerate the global transition to a nature positive and net zero future.

Man and woman in a field reading a tablet device

As we evolve our services, we also need to transform our knowledge and build new skills across our network. With nearly half our workforce freshly upskilled on sustainability topics, we are ready to play our part towards a sustainable future.

You can read more about these areas and the other steps we are taking to transform our business in our 2023 PwC Network Environment Report.

Download the full report (11.7MB)

2023 PwC Network Environment Report

Contact us

Colm Kelly

Colm Kelly

Global Corporate Sustainability Leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited

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