Fastening fleet electrification for effective decarbonization

Ever since EY Belgium has been encouraging its employees to travel by train, more than 800 employees chose to use public transportation, whether or not combined with another means of transport. The employees even had the chance to opt-out of a company vehicle or decide to drive a smaller car. Since 2020 270 first-year professionals drive a plug-in hybrid company vehicle and 100 employees commute by bike.

Research shows that our employees have a tremendous interest in the further greening of the fleet. Their willingness has reaffirmed our commitment to renew the fleet, but of course our organization needs some years to adapt. Currently we have a total of 1950 vehicles, 255 plug-in hybrid and 1695 diesel or gasoline. By the beginning of 2025 we are looking at 600 electronic-, 800 plug-in hybride- and 550 fuel engine vehicles. This estimation is based on the preferences of our employees, taken into account they need to recharge at home, something that isn’t possible today for 30 percent of our employees who can’t install a charging point.

It’s clear there is huge potential – financial, practical and technical feasibility taken into account, when our employees are able to switch to an electronic vehicle. Financially we are already seeing benefits today. The leasing or purchase of an electronic vehicle is still expensive, but the investment is earned back quickly thanks to fuel savings and the tax regime that penalizes cars with fuel consumption harder.

Belgian companies need to be aware of this change and already take the necessary steps to an electronic fleet. On basis of European funds, the incentives of the government will be used degressively to support loading infrastructure. Who changes sooner rather than later, will be able to enjoy these benefits.

It goes without saying that the electrification of the fleet is part of the global ambition to lower carbon emission, be carbon negative as organization this year and even be net zero, achieving a balance between the greenhouse gases put into the atmosphere and those taken out, by 2025. As a business, we believe we have a responsibility to go further, faster. We have set targets to significantly reduce our absolute carbon emissions, and then remove or offset more than the remaining amount of our emissions, every year.

Our ambition to become carbon negative in 2021 is built on our achievement of carbon neutrality in 2020 and helps us create long-term value for our stakeholders. Like the electrification of the fleet. We expect to have more than 250 installed charging points spread across all our offices in the future. This carbon ambition positioned us as a sustainability leader. On a global level we will reduce our total emissions by 40 percent in fiscal year 2025, business air travel emissions by 35 percent from fiscal year 2019, use 100 percent renewable energy for office electricity by fiscal year 2025, have 75 percent of our suppliers working with SBT (Science Based Targets) by 2025, remove or offset more emissions every year than we emit and eventually reach net zero in fiscal year 2025. All in our efforts to build a better working world.