We have adopted five initiatives to improve our impact on the environment worldwide:
Educating the next generation about sustainability and corporate responsibility (Japan)
Kazutaka Okubo, our Area Corporate Responsibility Leader for Japan and a Climate Change and Sustainability Services partner, is an active contributor to the public debate on how to curb greenhouse gas emissions. He’s been able to expand the reach of his message by teaching courses on corporate responsibility and sustainability in the universities, reaching more than 10,000 people each year.
EcoCare (Americas)
This network of 1,000+ passionate Ernst & Young volunteers constantly finds new ways to make us greener. In a recent interview with Accounting Today, Leisha John, Americas Director of Environmental Sustainability (pdf, 79kb), outlined the sustainability strategy for the Americas and the important contributions of our people.
Day of Energy Conservation (Greater China)
Our Taiwan practice began by encouraging everyone to turn off the office lights for one hour during lunch every Friday. This was so successful they are now extending their “lights out” lunch to every working day.
Environment Champions (UK)
In order to encourage a green mindset in Ernst & Young’s people, our UK practice has enlisted the help of volunteers on every floor to be “environment champions” and to educate their peers about leading practices related to reducing waste and energy use.
Sustainability Reporting (Germany)
As part of their corporate responsibility efforts, our German practice published its first sustainability report, which included an inventory of activities, key indicators and short and long-term goals. It is the first such report published by Ernst & Young using the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) as a guideline and the first among the Big 4 accounting firms in Germany.
