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Accenture
Nicole van Det & Wytse Kaastra
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Accenture: “Sustainability by design is at the core of everything we do”
We spoke to Nicole van Det, Country Managing Director Accenture the Netherlands, and Wytse Kaastra, Sustainability Services Lead Accenture Europe, about the importance of sustainability within Accenture and its activities, their efforts to reach net-zero emissions by 2025 and why climate change should be on everyone’s agenda.
Why is addressing climate change important to you and your company? N: Because it quite literally matters to everyone. One of the greatest challenges of our time is to reduce and eliminate carbon emissions, and we are committed to addressing climate change through our own actions and through helping our clients make and meet their commitments. If we don’t act collectively we won’t be able to limit or stop global warming.
What is Accenture doing to limit their environmental impact? W: Of course we are doing everything in our power to achieve zero emissions, just like we are advising our clients. We have been working actively to cut our emissions - of our buildings and our business travel, among others. We are walking the talk with climate change with our public commitments - setting a Science-Based target, pledging to do our part to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, and committing to achieve net zero emissions by 2025.
This is table stakes and with this we are striving to set an example for others which will hopefully follow. N: We have also made a promise to our clients to embed sustainability by design into everything we do with them. Most of the companies we advise have sustainability goals but struggle to achieve them. That’s why we work with them to integrate it into their business strategy and operations.
Can you share a positive outcome of these sustainability efforts? W: Aside from doing the obvious things like recycling waste and furniture, one of the more noticeable things we have implemented within Accenture the
Netherlands is the change in our lease cars. By 2025 we will have exchanged all of our fossil fuel cars for electric vehicles in the Netherlands. N: Additionally, we now power all of our offices and centers worldwide with 50% renewable electricity, and we are on track to reach 100% in 2023. With this we are living up to our commitment as a member of the RE100, a global initiative bringing together the world’s leading businesses in their journey to renewable energy.
How has your company changed its products and services to reduce your customers’ greenhouse gas emissions? N: We help our clients in their sustainability journey in two ways. Through our sustainability services we help clients address the most urgent sustainability issues, including the transition to net-zero emissions and
the ability to measure and manage their environmental impact. Secondly, through sustainability by design, we embed sustainability into everything we do with clients, whether it is for instance in cloud migration or new product design. We believe that sustainability data are critical to all of this. The ability to measure and manage sustainability impact through Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) performance data is a significant challenge for all of our clients, but particularly in financial services. We help them make sense of non-financial data so they can have more confidence that their lending and investment decisions deliver positive impact as well as a good return. W: Together with our ecosystem partners we have also deployed a suite of electric mobility solutions to accelerate the development of infrastructure and charging services. Again this shows how we view sustainability as one of our greatest responsibilities. N: This is the decade that organizations must deliver on their promise to improve our communities and do their part for the planet. It is truly our privilege to help our clients make the leap needed to a sustainable future.
Accenture Gustav Mahlerplein 90 1082 MA Amsterdam +31 (0)20 493 83 83 www.accenture.com
