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PwC India’s road to Net Zero
PwC’s commitment
In 2020, PwC India joined PwC network firms in a commitment to achieve net zero GHG emissions, with near-term science-based targets set for 2030 in line with a 1.5-degree scenario to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. Our net zero commitment is underpinned by a science based target to reduce our scope 1 and 2 absolute emissions by 50% from a FY19 base by FY30, as well as a 50% absolute reduction in scope 3 business travel emissions by FY30. Our long term target is to reduce scope 1, 2 and 3 absolute emissions by 90% from a FY19 base by 2050.
It also includes:
Transition to 100% renewable electricity in all territories by FY30, and
Commitment that 50% of our purchased goods and services suppliers (by emissions) have set science-based targets to reduce their own climate impact by FY25
Climate change is no longer a challenge for tomorrow but a responsibility for today. We must leverage human ingenuity to create a more sustainable ecosystem – one in which we cannot just coexist but thrive. While a driving change of this magnitude starts with each one of us, what is crucial is that this must be tackled at speed and scale. Businesses, being the most trusted institutions in society, have a responsibility to lead the transition to a net zero economy – and we are committed to doing just that. As a reflection of our strategy, we are dedicated to meeting the urgency of this challenge with defined steps towards decarbonisation – we are taking steps towards a brighter tomorrow.
Our context and Approach
India is primarily a coal-based economy with more than 70% of electricity being generated from coal-based power plants. Our conventional infrastructure systems hence continue to rely heavily on such non-renewable sources contributing to high carbon emissions.
As a professional services firm, our environmental impact is small compared with many other industries. But our clients, our people and other stakeholders still expect us to minimize our impact, and as a responsible business whose operations ultimately rely on natural resources, we want to do everything we can. So, becoming a low carbon and more circular business is an important element of our Purpose.
Our commitment to accelerate towards Net Zero would encompass reducing our absolute emissions and offsetting the growing emissions due to our growth in the next few years. This is a challenge we are willing to embrace and are taking concerted actions to decarbonise our value chain. Our approach is based on the carbon mitigation hierarchy:
Avoid
Eliminating our impact by rethinking our strategies
Reduce
Focus on efficiency and eliminate unnecessary contributors
Replace
Pivot towards sustainable alternatives
Offset
Offset emissions that are not eliminated by the above
Most of our operational impact comes from carbon emissions generated by business travel and the use of energy in our buildings. So, our carbon mitigation programme is central to our efforts, and we also offset our operational carbon emissions as reported each year.
Decarbonising Our Value Chain
Business operations
As a professional services firm, our carbon emissions rely heavily on business travel and consumption of energy in our offices across locations. In order to mitigate the carbon impact and create a circular economy, we are collectively undertaking structural and behavioral shifts supported by design thinking principles to achieve our 2030 Net zero agenda. The sectors we are working across include:
Encourage our people to engage in conscious responsible travel practices and reduce non-essential travel. These include investing and supporting digital collaborations, replacing air- travel with surface travel wherever possible, exploring local resourcing to mitigate travel necessities. This encompasses updating our travel policies and collaborating with our clients, people and stakeholders to drive down our carbon footprint.
We are working towards transitioning to renewable energy sources across our offices and pivoting towards EV vehicles to lower our carbon emissions. To do this, we are procuring substantial energy in our offices from renewable sources, leveraging the use of motion sensors and LED lighting to reduce electricity consumption.
Our Net Zero program is embedded with deep awareness of travel behaviours, employee comfort and priorities, and takes a design thinking approach to behaviour change. Since our commitment, we have launched multiple firmwide initiatives to help employees make direct linkages between their choices and climate change. These include knowledge sessions, campaigns, contests, and online and offline engagement events.
Suppliers
As a services business, our operations require limited natural resources compared with businesses in many other sectors but we want to do what we can to reduce the impact of this consumption.
Our suppliers are an integral part of our Net Zero commitment and journey and we endeavor to partner with them to reduce emissions across our entire value chain. Our commitment states that 50% of our purchased goods and services suppliers (by emissions) have to set science-based targets to reduce their own climate impact by 2025. With that in perspective, we have started engaging with our key suppliers to sensitise them about climate change and encourage them to register on SBTi and undertake science-based targets. In addition to working with the existing suppliers, we are also creating a 'preferred supplier list' based on the suppliers registered on the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) portal to identify alternate suppliers for all recurring contracts.
Clients
Together with our clients, we aim to accelerate the transition to a sustainable circular economy. We assist our clients in their Net Zero transformation by helping them identify and adopt business or economic activities that add no incremental greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. We work with our clients to ensure they take informed decisions and integrate climate resilient practices by helping them in strategy development and adopting environmentally friendly business targets. Learn more about our ESG Services.
Our targets
Our commitment entails the following targets
PwC will work with its clients to support their efforts to decarbonise and transition to a Net Zero future. Building on existing client work in sustainability and net zero transformation.
PwC has made a worldwide commitment to achieve net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with near-term science-based targets set for 2030 and long-term science-based targets set for 2050. We will reduce emissions in line with a 1.5-degree climate scenario, including a 50% absolute reduction in scope 1 and 2 emissions and a 50% absolute reduction in business travel emissions from a 2019 baseline by 2030. In addition, PwC will accelerate its transition to 100% renewable electricity and mitigate its impacts today. PwC will continue to offset its emissions through high-quality carbon credits.
PwC will engage with key suppliers, encouraging and supporting them to achieve net zero. We commit that 50% of our global purchased goods and services suppliers by emissions will have set their own science-based targets to reduce their own climate impact by 2025.
PwC will continue its long-standing programme of research and collaboration with business, policy makers, and NGOs to accelerate the transition to a net zero economy.
Building Green Culture
- We have embedded design thinking throughout our approach to Net Zero to build a communication and strategy roadmap for our workforce. This includes designing and communicating avoidance and reducttion strategies for Net Zero specific to the Indian context
- Collaborated with our consulting (advisory) team to articulate the existing persona types through
- Launch of an in-house community of environment changemakers who champion sustainability
- Adoption of single use plastic mandate.
Following is some of the initiatives:
- Replacement of plastic bottles with glass bottles
- Use of biodegradable cutlery and crockery in place of plastic disposables and packaging items
- Office decor replaced with environment friendly options
- Green Week, promoting and educating sustainable practices among employees
As PwC India, we are keen to contribute to the Renewable Energy (RE) development of the country by continuing to buy RE credits from the domestic market and making significant investment in community, landscape and afforestation projects across India. Link here for various projects undertaken.
Net Zero vs Carbon Neutrality
How is Net Zero different from Carbon Neutrality
Broadly, ‘net zero’ refers to the goal of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (often referred to as carbon emissions) and then balancing what’s left by removing an equivalent amount from the atmosphere. Net zero can apply to a business or other organisation, a country, or the global economy. The terms ‘net zero’ and ‘carbon neutral’ both refer to reducing net GHG emissions and climate impacts and so are often mistakenly interchanged. In the market, the terminologies do have differences when referring to climate ambitions. Over time we have seen carbon targets evolve from mitigating carbon emissions through offsetting (including carbon neutral claims), essentially compensating for emissions through financing emissions reduction projects outside a company’s own value chain, to more ambitious commitments to reduce emissions within the value chain which are aligned with climate science.
Net zero, unlike carbon neutrality, is based on first and foremost reducing emissions, but typically goes beyond carbon neutrality in several areas:
- Setting science-based targets to reduce emissions
- The broader scope of the emissions covered which must include indirect emissions along the value chain (known as scope 3 upstream and downstream emissions)
- Commitment to neutralize remaining emissions using carbon removal (as opposed to avoided emissions) to reach and maintain ‘net’ zero emissions
- Engaging in broader advocacy around decarbonisation and climate action
Creating value through ESG
How PwC can help
The global landscape is undergoing unprecedented shifts. Economic volatility, geopolitical tensions, escalating climate events, demographic changes, and rapid technological disruptions are profoundly reshaping business environments and operating models for investors, consumers, and companies alike.
In India, the increasing regulatory pressure, particularly with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) mandating Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) and introducing stricter norms for ESG debt securities, underscores the growing importance of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) norms. These challenges are symptomatic of a deeper issue: our economies are failing to deliver sustainable, secure, affordable, and inclusive outcomes for society.
At PwC India, we recognise that businesses must transform to thrive in this evolving reality. Our unwavering dedication lies in developing the capabilities necessary to build stakeholder trust through sustainable transformational outcomes. As a leading sustainability consulting firm in India, PwC's sustainability experts bring deep sector and industry knowledge, a keen understanding of the regions in which you operate, and insights into the specific challenges you face. We are uniquely equipped to guide you on your journey towards Net Zero and broader sustainability goals. We understand that a one-size-fits-all approach simply won't work for your unique sustainability needs. That's why we offer a comprehensive suite of specialised sustainability competencies, enabling us to provide tailored Net Zero and sustainability services.
We assist organisations in understanding the profound impact and urgency of action on current and emerging stakeholder expectations, translating them into actionable sustainability priorities. ESG regulations from authorities, evolving customer preferences, and intensifying societal pressures all necessitate a strategic framework that can help our clients seamlessly integrate sustainability into their corporate DNA and embed its aspects deeply within their core business strategies.
PwC offers a comprehensive approach to climate and sustainability strategy, serving as your strategic compass. This includes developing robust ESG roadmaps, implementing effective information management systems, and providing expert guidance on climate policy. We conduct thorough climate risk analysis and support the adoption of leading frameworks like TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures) and TNFD (Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures). Our advisory extends to navigating climate finance, leveraging carbon credits, and developing innovative net-positive strategies that drive both environmental and business value.
Our services facilitate significant emission reductions through the accelerated adoption of renewables, targeted industrial decarbonisation strategies, and the integration of sustainable practices within the built environment. We provide expertise in e-mobility, sustainable cooling solutions, and advanced energy systems modeling to drive comprehensive and impactful decarbonisation across your operations and value chain.
Beyond emissions, we guide you towards a truly regenerative future. PwC provides advisory on embracing circular economy practices, optimising water and waste management, and fostering innovation in sustainable product design. We enhance your resilience to environmental challenges through robust disaster risk finance strategies, comprehensive preparedness plans, and the development of resilient business models.
Our expertise in sustainable supply chains covers critical areas such as transportation and logistics optimisation, and the implementation of ethical sourcing practices. We meticulously analyse sustainability risks, help transform value chain tax practices for greater sustainability alignment and conduct thorough product life cycle assessments to ensure a truly responsible and transparent supply chain.
Our services support impact investing and value creation in corporate deals, offering comprehensive corporate intelligence and forensic investigations to ensure ESG integrity. We also facilitate the mobilisation of sustainable finance through the issuance and management of social and green bonds, connecting you with responsible capital markets.
PwC utilises specialised tools for streamlined sustainability reporting, intelligent supply chain management, and advanced risk analysis. Our proprietary accelerators and alliance platforms, such as the Carbon Data Lake, enhance climate technology solutions across vital areas like energy storage, green hydrogen, and energy efficiency.
We provide comprehensive corporate governance advisory services, with a specific focus on human resource management frameworks that integrate ESG principles, robust cybersecurity governance, and effective human rights strategies. Our aim is to strengthen your climate and sustainability governance frameworks, embedding sustainable business practices at the core of your organisation.
Our services in social sustainability include developing impactful corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies, implementing effective social performance management systems, and delivering targeted impact training. We help you address critical issues such as modern slavery and human rights and conduct total impact measurement for comprehensive and measurable social outcomes.
We assist with developing robust sustainability reporting strategies, ensuring full compliance with BRSR regulations, and providing comprehensive disclosure support. We ensure your reporting aligns with evolving sustainability global standards, laws, and regulations, embedding relevant metrics within your enterprise risk management framework for robust reporting and independent assurance.
We integrate ESG considerations into your tax strategy. Our ESG tax services cover governance frameworks, policy development, and transparent reporting. We aim to align your tax practices with your broader sustainability goals, ensuring compliance and enhancing transparency in your financial reporting.
At PwC India, we are committed to partnering with you to achieve your Net Zero ambitions, drive sustainable growth, and build a more resilient and responsible future for your business and for India.
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