Protecting our environment
We’re committed to minimising the impact of our business on the environment.
We offset our carbon emissions
Our team is exploring opportunities for carbon reduction
We support our staff in using lower-carbon transport for commuting
Working with a respected environmental consultancy, we have calculated our carbon emissions. We offset these emissions by sponsoring environmentally and socially beneficial projects around the world. Our investments include tree planting projects in the UK and the Amazon rainforest, initiatives to provide renewable energy in Aruba, India and Indonesia and a project to rehabilitate a borehole to provide drinking water for communities in Uganda.
“We all have a responsibility to tackle climate change. But it’s far from easy. The United Nations itself has stated that “transitioning to a net-zero world is one of the greatest challenges humankind has faced”.
“If we’re to be successful, we’re all going to have to transform how we work, relax and move about. We can’t leave it to somebody else to do the hard work and hope that it’ll be enough.
“At PKF, we’ve started our journey towards net-zero and look forward to continuing to make progress in the future.”
Stephen Goderski | Partner and Leadership Team member |PKF London & Leeds
We realise that offsetting our greenhouse gas emissions is not enough. We have introduced a number of initiatives to reduce the amount of carbon that we produce as a business:
- Moving to new offices in London and Leeds that have facilitated a reduction in our carbon emissions. Our London office is configured for agile working and therefore has a smaller floorplate with correspondingly lower energy needs; our Leeds office is located centrally, making it convenient for our staff to commute by public transport
- We were early adopters of Teams and Zoom online communication platforms to give our Partners and staff a viable alternative to face-to-face meetings. We continue to promote these technologies as alternatives to in-person engagement, recognising that around 90% of our carbon emissions prior to the pandemic were generated from air travel
- Prior to the pandemic, we expanded our agile working policy to give our Partners and staff more flexibility in their working patterns. Following its success during the lockdowns, the policy has been further enhanced, with most of our people adopting a hybrid model. This has led to a reduction in commuting and may in the future enable us to reduce our office space requirements relative to our size further still
- When staff are required to commute to the office or clients’ premises, we promote greater use of public transport through annual season ticket loans. We also encourage more sustainable travel by offering a Cycle to Work scheme and a salary sacrifice Electric Vehicle (EV) leasing scheme, and providing secure cycle parking and changing facilities within our offices.
There is more that we need to do, which is why our team is exploring further opportunities for carbon reduction in our business and supply change. We hope to implement further measures such as partnering with our landlords to reduce energy consumption in our offices and to source renewable electricity. We are also reviewing our travel policy, to help us to make conscious, climate-positive decisions when booking trips.