2.2.1 Policies related to climate change mitigation
Having set our emission-reduction targets, we have implemented policies and action plans to achieve them, which relate to our three business units: Assurance, Advisory, and Business Services.
Our Impact Plan serves as the overarching policy, outlining our vision for reducing emissions across all scopes. Complementing this, we have three key policies linked to our four decarbonization levers:
an Environmental Management System with an accompanying handbook,
an Air Travel Policy,
and a Supplier Code of Conduct that applies to all the suppliers that produce goods and/or provide services for KPMG N.V.
These policies were developed through engagement with key stakeholders and outline the critical actions being taken to meet our emission-reduction targets.
Our key policies are described in more detail in the table below.
Overview of key policies addressing climate change mitigation
|
Policy name |
Key contents |
|
Our Impact Plan |
This plan outlines KPMG N.V.’s sustainability commitments across four categories: People, Planet, Prosperity, and Governance. It states the yearly targets for each category and the key actions to reach them. These lead all our efforts to embed sustainability in our business operations. Within Planet, we address the most impactful CO2e sources per scope and how to decrease these emissions, including emission reduction from energy, business travel, and our supply chain. |
|
Environmental Handbook |
The Environmental Handbook contains KPMG N.V.’s environmental policy plan and describes our environmental management system, governance, and audit process. It also sets out our environmental objectives up to 2030 as well as interim progress on these targets. |
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The Environmental Management System contains a register of environmental aspects, including ambitions, objectives, and key performance indicators (KPIs). This system supports progress on the actions set out in the handbook and encourages necessary and/or desired preventive and corrective measures. |
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|
Environmental Management System |
These two frameworks provide structured insights into our impact on the environment and how we reduce it. This also fulfills our stakeholders’ demands for more concrete evidence of how we aim to reduce our environmental impact. KPMG N.V.'s ISO 14001 certification serves as a starting point for continuous improvements in how we measure and steer on our climate targets. |
|
Air Travel Policy |
Our Air Travel Policy aims to drive a 40% reduction of our emissions from air travel by 2030. To support our sustainability objectives, the policy mandates that journeys under 600 km or eight hours should be traveled by rail or car, unless exempted In addition, business class may only be booked for flights longer than six hours. |
|
Supplier Code of Conduct |
The KPMG N.V. Supplier Code of Conduct reflects our ambition to establish a proactive collaboration with our suppliers in the promotion of lawful, professional, and fair practices that integrate respect for human rights, business ethics, and the environment. Our suppliers are a key part of our value chain, and their performance and adherence to high business standards are extremely important to us. The policy lays down principles for our procurement activities to reduce Scope 3 emissions from purchased goods and services. |
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We therefore expect our suppliers to uphold and comply with the principles of the code. We prefer to follow a continuous improvement approach with our suppliers; nevertheless, in cases of non-compliance, we apply corrective actions. |
Each of these policies includes detailed action plans, some of which we are updating with more concrete actions and a clear reduction pathway for meeting our 2029/2030 targets. These developments will be reported in the next reporting period.
2.2.2 Actions related to climate change mitigation
We have identified key actions across our four decarbonization levers.
Renewable energy and energy efficiency
Achieving 100% renewable energy use by 2029/2030 is a key target, primarily for the electricity used in our buildings and, increasingly, for charging our electric fleet. This is expected to reduce our Scope 2 emissions by 100% by 2029/2030, compared to 2018/2019 levels. To meet this goal, we have tightened our requirements for the owners of office buildings when renewing our contracts; we now mandate either renewable energy certificates or Guarantees of Origin to ensure sustainably sourced energy, as well as requiring higher energy-label standards.
In 2023/2024, we achieved 97% renewable electricity use in our offices. We will continue to raise this level in the coming years until the 2029/2030 target is met. For vehicle-related electricity consumption, we plan to invest in renewable energy certificates for our electric car fleet in 2024/2025, with the aim of reaching 100% by 2029/2030.
Beyond renewable energy use, our environmental policy also prioritizes energy efficiency in our buildings. We are exploring the adoption of smart building technology, including occupancy sensors, at our Amstelveen headquarters to monitor our use of space and reduce energy consumption on a yearly basis.
Sustainable travel and mobility
After purchased goods and services, business travel - especially air travel - is our second-largest emission source. To reduce emissions from mobility and move toward sustainable travel, we have set a 40% emission-reduction target for business travel and employee commuting by 2029/2030. To meet our emission-reduction targets, we follow the guidelines and action plans in our Impact Plan and Air Travel Policy.
For business travel and for employee commuting by car, our sustainable mobility approach is to phase out fossil-powered cars from our lease fleet. As of 2024/2025, only electric lease cars will be offered, and we expect that in 2027/2028 our entire lease fleet will be electric. In 2023/2024, 80% of our lease car fleet was electric, versus 9% in our baseline year of 2018/2019.
We aim to reduce our air travel emissions by 40% by 2029/2030 compared to our baseline year. As part of our Air Travel Policy, we encourage the use of video conferencing as the default option for meetings, reserving travel only for situations where it is necessary and serves a clear business purpose. Our key actions include mandatory travel by train rather than by plane for journeys up to 600 km or eight hours’ travel time. We are also taking the next step with our ICP policy, stimulating sustainable travel and reducing our emissions from air travel. As of 2024/2025, ICP will be charged to the relevant department or team in accordance with the “polluter pays” principle. This means that cost centers will be charged extra (internal costs) based on the emissions from flights booked on that cost center. These actions will remain in place until we meet our 2030 reduction target. In 2023/2024, emissions from business travel increased by 15% compared to the previous year, owing to a rise in travel associated with business growth, but were 1% lower than in our baseline year. Growing business and client requests make air travel reduction a challenging target.
We will revamp our mobility policy in 2024/2025, shifting the focus toward more sustainable travel and commuting, including shared mobility options and a broader range of possibilities for electric car leasing. We will also set yearly targets translated into more concreate actions to reduce air travel emissions.
Sustainable supply chain and embedding circularity
We recognize that ongoing and proactive engagement and collaboration with our suppliers is critical to achieving our decarbonization ambitions. Purchased goods and services make up an important portion of our total Scope 3 emissions and are part of our emission reduction plan. While we are already engaging with our suppliers and taking steps toward reducing these emissions through clear procurement guidelines in our Supplier Code of Conduct, we are also working to make our targets and action plan more concrete. In 2023/2024, we started to gather the data needed for more detailed insights, to set an emission-reduction target for this category, and to determine an effective strategy to realize it.
One key action in 2023/2024, among other initiatives, was implementing the product carbon footprint method for IT devices, allowing us to assess and minimize the carbon impact of these products throughout their life cycle.
To ensure that our procurement process aligns more closely with our sustainability goals – promoting responsible sourcing and reducing our overall environmental footprint – our Procurement department started sustainable procurement training during the year and will continue this in 2024/2025.
The coming year will also see us focus on creating a more sustainable supply chain through the development and implementation of a comprehensive sustainable procurement policy. This policy will establish clear guidelines and expectations for our key suppliers, prioritizing ESG factors in all procurement decisions.
Actions related to mitigating climate change are part of our annual business plan and are revisited every year. Due to the nature of our business activities, the resources needed for these actions are OpEx relating to sustainable choices and do not require any significant CapEx; the OpEx are also not significant, since these initiatives are an integral part of our day-to-day expenses and procurement decisions.