Corporate responsibility
At EY, we believe we have a duty to act responsibly and in the long-term interests of all stakeholders, guided by our purpose of building a better working world.
Let’s work together
If you see opportunities to collaborate and scale impact, the EY Ripples team would like to hear from you.
As a proud participant in the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), the global EY organization is committed to advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and to aligning strategy and operations with the UNGC Ten Principles. EY Switzerland is participant of the UN Global Compact Network Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
Through the EY Ripples program, EY people are devoting their time to SDG-focused projects, bringing together the combined skills, knowledge and experience of the global EY network in pursuit of one shared vision: to positively impact one billion lives by 2030.
Overseeing these commitments is the EY Corporate Responsibility Governance Council, which includes several members of the EY Global Executive, and brings together leaders from across EY functions, service lines and geographies. At EY Switzerland, we have established a Swiss Corporate Responsibility Board with representatives from different areas of our business.
Positively impacting one billion lives by 2030
Faced with the urgent and interconnected challenges of climate change and social inequality, we believe businesses must go further, faster, to build a better working world — one that is socially just, economically inclusive and environmentally regenerative by design. Launched in 2018, with the ambition to positively impact one billion lives by 2030, the EY Ripples program embodies our quest to lead EY people and networks in accelerating progress toward the SDGs.
Key milestone
300 thousandIs the number of lives EY Ripples aims to have impacted by 2025 with the effort of EY Switzerland volunteers.
Using EY skills and experience across three focus areas
Together with clients and other like-minded organizations, EY people use their distinctive skills, knowledge and experience to bring positive change across three focus areas: supporting the next generation workforce, working with impact entrepreneurs and accelerating environmental sustainability. These are the areas where we believe our combined capabilities can make the biggest impact — where each ripple we start has the potential to grow and join with others to create waves of change.
Photo credit: Every1Mobile
Utilizing the combined strengths of Unilever, the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, and EY to help impact enterprises scale, the TRANSFORM initiative aims to improve the lives of millions of low-income households across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
Photo credit: Every1Mobile
Building on more than a decade of collaboration, EY has teamed up with global social impact investor, Acumen, to produce an inclusive business playbook. Its goal: to encourage businesses of all sizes to adopt a more systemic approach to inclusion of low-income and marginalized communities.
Photo credit: d.light
Mentoring students, serving on management boards and collaborating on Gen Z research, EY people are long-standing supporters of JA Worldwide’s work to prepare millions of young people for employment and entrepreneurship.
EY Climate Ideation Clinics are channeling university students’ energy and creativity toward innovating better answers to the climate emergency and sector-specific sustainability challenges.
Photo credit: Solar panels
Innovative sanitation enterprises offer the hope of extending the benefits of safely managed sanitation to billions of people that sewers can’t reach. EY insights and capacity-building projects are helping them achieve recognition and scale, and to advance a circular sanitation economy.
Photo credit: Sanergy
EY support has helped Waste for Warmth prepare to scale an ingenious new model for winterizing refugee tents – one that empowers refugees to locally manufacture their own tent insulation from waste thermoplastics.
Photo credit: Hannu-Pekka Laiho, The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
From understanding the impact of new technologies to exploring global sustainability challenges, EY Future Skills Workshops are helping thousands of students in more than 50 countries to prepare for the future of work.
A collaboration between EY and Unreasonable, Impact Hives bring together up to 100 EY leaders with 5–10 high-potential impact entrepreneurs. By applying the power of the collective to the challenges and opportunities of each of their enterprises, these targeted events are unlocking breakthrough ideas for achieving scale.
Using gamified learning and content from world-renowned providers, the EY STEM App aims to close the gender gap in STEM by making learning more fun, engaging and rewarding for thousands of girls.
Modeling climate change, protecting biodiversity and promoting sustainable resource use all rely heavily on citizen science. Thousands of EY people are using the Zooniverse platform to collect and analyze invaluable data for shaping environmental policy and strategy.
Photo credit: Grant Miller, Zooniverse
Committed to broadening access to vital learning on 21st century mindsets and skills, EY and SAP have teamed up to provide text-based courses on entrepreneurship and design thinking for 10,000 students.
Hours of service
5,036hours were devoted by EY Switzerland people to EY Ripples initiatives in FY23.
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Learn how you can mitigate the impact of climate catastrophe, global unemployment, food insecurity and social inequity.
EY Ripples extends the value of EY knowledge and networks to people and places we might not otherwise reach. It empowers EY people to devote their time to SDG-focused projects that apply their skills in different contexts, and help them develop as more inclusive leaders with a deeper understanding of the challenges facing low-income and marginalized communities. As more and more EY people learn to appreciate the social value of the skills they use every day, so creating long-term value for society becomes more deeply embedded in our culture.
By joining forces with clients and other like-minded organizations, we can achieve together what no one organization could achieve alone.
Tackling the interconnected challenges of climate change and social inequality requires systemic change. By joining forces with clients and other like-minded organizations — including the following — across multiple countries, we can achieve together what no one organization could achieve alone. The constellation of organizations we work with includes government bodies, nonprofits, multinational corporations and impact investors, and it’s growing all the time.
EY and Forbes collaborate for impact video series
Hear from impact entrepreneurs, government officials and key strategic collaborators on how we all can accelerate impact at scale.
Operating responsibly
At EY, we believe that when organizations align their aims with society’s, they will be more valuable and viable in the long-term, and we will all be closer to addressing some of the world’s greatest challenges. It is through this lens that we make long-term commitments, including in relation to upholding human rights and innovating toward a net zero future.
EY Global Environmental Statement
EY Global Human Rights Statement
The EY Global Executive has signed this statement to demonstrate its commitment to uphold and promote human rights.
The EY carbon ambition
The global EY organization has set targets to significantly reduce absolute emissions, and to remove or offset more carbon than we emit each year, making EY carbon negative in 2021 and net zero by 2025.
EcoVadis Sustainability Rating
In 2023, with a score of 73 out of 100 EY Switzerland was ranked among the top 2% of companies assessed by EcoVadis in the legal and accounting industry, resulting in a gold medal for our third assessment.
Awards and accolades
The EY Ripples program and EY teams are earning worldwide recognition from clients and collaborators for the impact they’re making. Recent awards include:
- Winner of “Global Good Company of the Year — Bronze” and “Educational Excellence — Silver” at Global Good Awards in 2023
- Winner of the Microsoft 2023 Global Sustainability Changemaker Partner of the Year Award
- Winner of the 2023 International CSR Excellence Award for Corporate Citizenship
- Finalist for the 2023 SAP Pinnacle Award for Social Impact
- Received a Platinum Catalyst Business Commitment badge in 2023
- Winner of the 2022 SAP Pinnacle Award for Social Impact
- Winner of “Most Impactful Business Partner” in the Life Terra Climate Action Awards 2021–2022
- Winner of the 2022 Microsoft USA Inclusion Changemaker Award (for the EY STEM App)
- Winner of “Technology for Good — Silver” at Global Good Awards in 2022
- Winner of “We Excel in Sustainability” at Chiesi Vendor Day Italy in 2022
- Recognized on the MENTOR National Mentoring Honor Roll in 2022
- Winner of 2022 “Best ESG Strategy” Human Resources Online Employee Experience Awards in Hong Kong
- Winner of 2022 “Champion of Good” from Singapore National Volunteer And Philanthropy Centre
- Received 2022 “Deputy Prime Minister of Economic Affairs” Award from Chosun Media in Korea
- Winner of “Best Social Responsibility Project” in China’s 2021 Employer Branding Creativity Awards
- Recipient of the Junior Achievement USA Gold US President’s Volunteer Service Award for 2021–2022
- Awarded “JA Best Volunteer Program 2021” by Junior Achievement Italy
- Received a 2021 “Social Corporate Contribution Award” from Korea Economic Daily
- Received a 2021 “Social Contribution Award” from Chosun Media
In 2023, EY Switzerland was ranked among the top 4% of all companies assessed by EcoVadis in our industry and awarded with a gold medal in recognition of our sustainability achievement. The EcoVadis Sustainability Rating reviews the extent to which we introduce sustainability policies, practices and reporting in our business and helps us to understand the gaps to further improve our performance. We are encouraged by this result but are also committed to enhancing our sustainability performance with corrective action plans.
EY Value Realized 2023
Read the report on our progress in building a better working world by creating long-term value for our people, clients and wider society.
EY Switzerland Sustainability Report 2023
Read in the report how EY Switzerland is creating long-term value and turning ambition into action. The report outlines our ESG commitments, actions and key performance indicators.t
Explore our Sustainability Report 2023 now
