Managing our environmental, social and governance impact

Part of public trust is making sure we behave as a responsible corporate citizen and that we contribute positively to society. We do this by sharing our knowledge and expertise through thought leadership programs and active stakeholder engagement (new window), by investing in local communities and by reducing the impact of our business activities on people and the environment.

During 2022/2023, we made investments to further strengthen our ESG expertise (new window), launching an internal ESG awareness campaign, introducing a dedicated ESG traineeship, hosting ESG roundtables and setting out three ESG Golden Rules to guide our approach (see below). We also established a partnership with Naturalis Biodiversity Center to bring their scientific expertise to the business community. Over the past year, 137 KPMG partners and directors, as well as executives from client companies, took part in the ESG executive program, developed jointly with the Nyenrode Business University.

A large part of our ESG impact comes through the work we do with clients on their transformational strategies and operations. Over the past year, we have expanded our ESG business in both Advisory and Assurance – in fact, we more than doubled our business and expect to continue at double digit growth. We provide assurance on clients’ reporting on ESG and help them in the transformation towards more sustainable business models. Compared with the previous year, we increased net sales from ESG by more than 25% in 2022/2023, a reflection of growing demand among clients. We are also assisting clients in starting or improving reporting on their sustainability strategy, targets and results, ahead of the upcoming introduction of the EU’s new Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD (new window)) and increasing national and international ESG related laws and regulations.

Governance looks at how our purpose and values guide everything we do. We are aware of the impact we have in society. Supporting our clients in their ESG transformation is the most powerful tool we have to drive change and truly improve society. Therefore, we are embedding ESG into our Advisory, Assurance and Business Services units. ESG, we believe, should be the watermark that runs through everything we do. In Advisory, we are now incorporating ESG into our client proposals, and looking to include ESG targets in all our sector and account plans. In Assurance, we have started work on a new ESG target operating model, to be finalized in 2023/2024. Our own operations on ESG are guided by the objectives included in the KPMG Impact Plan (new window).

KPIs – ESG developments

Indicator[1]			2022/2023	Target	2021/2022	Change
Impact on clients
•	Number of participants in the ESG Innovation Institute's executive ESG program (including KPMG partners and directors, as well as executives from client companies)		137	100	14[2]	123 up
Impact on the environment[3]
•	Net CO2 emissions [4]		9,500	-	7,403	2,097 up
•	Emissions by headcount		2.26	-	1.95	0.31 up
•	Renewable electricity use (as % of total use)		97.4%	100%	96.9%	0.5% up
Impact on society
•	Doing good for broader society (cash contributions, in EUR)		444,882	-	634,236	189,354 down
•	Doing good for broader society by KPMG employees (7,417 hours in EUR; 3,288 hours in EUR in 2021/2022)		698,371	-	345,294	353,077 up
•	Doing good for broader society (total in EUR)		1,143,253	-	979,530	163,723 up

• 1 Excluding KPMG International and outbound expats. For comparison reasons the 2021/2022 emissions have been restated, see Restatement of prior year figures (new window).
• 2 The ESG Innovation Institute’s executive ESG program only started in September 2022.
• 3 We measure the emissions of our operations by guidelines that are broadly based on the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and from our global firm KPMG International Limited.
• 4 Our Net CO₂ emissions are based on total of scope 1, 2 and 3 deducted with emissions from scope 2 purchased renewable electricity.

Our Impact Plan

Across KPMG, we are pursuing our 2022/2025 Impact Plan (new window), which sets out commitments in four areas: Planet, People, Prosperity and Governance. In the Netherlands, we have translated this plan into goals and targets for KPMG N.V.. The aim of the Impact Plan is to integrate ESG fully into our decision-making – it is important for our entire organization that we practice what we preach regarding ESG.

On climate, as a global organization, we committed to set a science-based target (SBT) aligned with the +1.5°C Paris Climate Agreement objective, which was validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in 2021. Our targets at KPMG N.V. are aligned with this global goal, committing us to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2030. To do so, we plan to halve our emissions over the same period and invest in externally verified carbon removal solutions. [a]

In the Netherlands, our emissions increased in 2022/2023 – the result mainly of a rise in business travel as expected in the first full year not affected by COVID 19 travel restrictions, where traveling again became part of our everyday life. However, thanks to changes in our travel policy and behavior, emissions on air travel are still 32% lower than they were pre-pandemic, in 2019.

We switched more fleet vehicles to electric, part of our plan to phase out petrol and diesel cars as of 2025. We also started implementing an internal carbon price as a key tool in our decarbonization journey. We will continue to work on reducing our emissions, make conscious decisions on the need for travel, and invest in carbon reduction initiatives to meet our 2030 goal.

KPMG N.V. emissions by scope (2022/2023, metric tons of CO₂ equivalent)

• • Currently, we do not measure all Scope 3 emissions – only those related to business and travel. We will report on our extended Scope 3 emissions starting in 2023/2024, which will also serve as a baseline for meeting our emission targets for 2030 and beyond.
• • Scope 1 Natural Gas, Scope 2 Purchased electricity Market Based and Location based, and Scope 3 Water Use apply to usage calendar year 2022.
• • Scope 2 Leased vehicles electric: emissions are calculated using the purchased electricity market based factor, also restated for 2021/2022.
• • Scope 3 Rail Travel: emissions from international rail travel included, also restated for 2021/2022. 
• • We measure the emissions of our operations by guidelines that are broadly based on the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and from our global firm, KPMG International Limited.
• • Excluding KPMG International and outbound expats.
  
  

• For comparison reasons the 2021/2022 emissions have been restated, see Restatement of prior year figures.

On social, our goal is to empower at least 1,000 disadvantaged young people in the Netherlands by 2025, through education and employment opportunities. To do this, we continued our support for the KPMG Jan Hommen Scholarship (new window), the Refugee Talent Hub (new window), the Petje Af Foundation (new window) and the JINC program (new window), which helps create equal opportunities for young people in education. Along with this, as part of our efforts to give people from disadvantaged backgrounds equal career opportunities and diversify our definition of ability, we signed up for Emma at Work’s GAP200 (new window) Membership in July 2023 – an initiative aimed at getting more young people with disabilities into the formal labor market. We also raised money for charities and other good causes, including the Red Cross and victims of the devastating February 2023 earthquake in Syria and Türkiye.

The number of hours spent by our staff on pro bono and volunteering work increased significantly (by 126%) in 2022/2023. Our donations to charitable organizations have decreased, reflecting the exceptional donation that was made in 2021/2022 to support the victims of the war in Ukraine.

Thought leadership and brand

KPMG N.V. is a knowledge company; one of the main benefits we can bring to society is to share this knowledge. Over the past year, we organized regular webinars, courses and other events, and published dozens of studies and articles on subjects ranging from data mining and accounting standards to behavioral science, reporting regulations and the digital euro. We also made available the ESG Health Check (new window), an online assessment designed to help companies identify their ESG risks, strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, as an audit sector lead, we played a significant role in revising NBA Practice Note 1118 regarding ‘The position of the external auditor in the general meeting’ (new window) – providing auditors with clear guidelines for their role in answering questions from shareholders at AGMs.

Thought leadership is an important part of the KPMG brand. We regularly measure the performance of our brand – potential clients within our marketing target audience rank us number one on ESG[b]. We believe the combination of our brand and our thought leadership has the potential to foster change, inspiring organizations to be become more sustainable. 

Our global brand attributes

Compliance with CSRD

Over the past year, we started work preparing for the EU’s upcoming Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD (new window)). While the Directive is due to come into force for companies like KPMG N.V. from our financial year 2025/2026, we are aiming to comply earlier than legally required - part of our ambition to be at the forefront of CSRD reporting.

To achieve this, we have put in place a dedicated CSRD Readiness project under the direction of our CFO and a detailed roadmap. We have begun the process of preparation with a discussion of our 'double materiality' analysis, which will determine our material topics. This will be included first in our 2023/2024 Integrated Report. After that, we will update our double materiality assessment annually. We are drafting a plan for CSRD compliance and, as part of this, we will carry out an initial analysis to identify reporting gaps, and establish a data base of necessary financial and non-financial data.

Currently, we produce our Annual Integrated Report in accordance with the Sustainability Reporting Standards of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI (new window)).

Responsible tax

We have a Corporate Tax Policy, which commits us to paying our fair share of taxation in the Netherlands. Under this policy, we avoid the use of artificial structures, particularly if these bear no relation to the company’s core business and objectives. In 2022/2023, we paid a total of EUR 2.3 million in income tax. Taxable income is shared between KPMG N.V., Coöperatie KPMG U.A. and the practices companies of the individual equity partners; over 90% of taxable income is taxed at the level of the practice companies of the individual equity partners.

Group tax payments (EUR million)

For further information, see Note 12 to the Consolidated Financial Statements (new window).

• a Compared with 2019 baseline. Scopes 1, 2 and 3, as defined under the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
• b Blauw Brand Research 2023