Deloitte Implements Green Agenda Across Firm
Author:
John Gray
John Gray, Head of IT & Operations at Deloitte, outlines how the firm put its ‘Green Agenda’ into practice – from the initial planning stages to the implementation of a large number of initiatives designed to reduce the firm’s impact on the environment. A number of factors were crucial to the ongoing success of the programme, not least ensuring all the firm’s people were fully engaged and aware of the part which they needed to play…
Energy efficiency, recycling, reusing, thinking green, carbon neutral etc. are all buzzwords which have very much become part of our daily lives in recent times. They cover one very important concept – the overall responsibility we have for the environment. Media coverage on climate change and global warming in recent times has certainly reinforced the fact that everyone has a role to play in this important area.
Business and industry have a significant responsibility in this area and for this reason Deloitte Ireland decided to implement a plan of action to ensure that we were doing as much as possible to reduce the impact of our operations and services on the environment.
With over 1,100 people working for the firm across 5 locations throughout Ireland, it was clear from the outset that there were a myriad of issues to be considered. However, with the collective commitment of the entire firm, we have firmly established our ‘Green Agenda’ programme as an important pillar in our corporate social responsibility programme, and overall firm strategy.
In Deloitte the IT and Property & Facility areas form one single department which allowed us to implement the change programme in a fully coordinated way. From the outset, the firm’s goal was to work hard on reducing both the direct and indirect impact of our operations, and thus we have made significant investments in this area over the past 18 months.
The starting point – where are we now?
The starting point for any change programme is the commitment to that change. At Deloitte, we wanted to ensure we were carrying out our operations in as environmentally friendly a way as possible. With commitment from the Executive, thinking green became a key objective.
While a number of green initiatives had been introduced throughout the firm on a piecemeal basis over the past number of years, we felt it important to formally agree an overriding strategy and implement a definite plan of action. As a starting point the firm needed to establish what exactly our carbon footprint was. Once we knew where we were in that regard, we would be able to pinpoint the areas where improvements could be made and measure our results.
Over a 30 day period we examined a number of areas across the firm including our buildings and facilities in addition to our consumption, suppliers, technology, travel, waste management, catering and conference facilities with a view to establishing our carbon footprint.
Taking Action!
Following the results of our carbon footprint assessment, it was time to put the wheels in motion on the activities that would form part of our Green Agenda. Thanks to our collaboration with the global Deloitte firm - for whom the project is very much a priority also - we were able to share best practice and ideas from a number of Deloitte firms in Europe. A course of action was decided upon for each of the areas examined in our carbon footprint assessment, with investments prioritised around the potential reduction in overall Co2 emissions.
Some examples of initiatives carried out and in progress include:
Buildings and facilities
- Re-balancing our main mechanical and ventilation components throughout our buildings, coupled with the implementation of new sensor equipment as necessary.
- Installation of an energy management system for our gas boilers.
- Replacement of light bulbs with energy efficient, low wattage units. The installation of motion detector lighting in common areas of our facilities.
Consumption
- Introduction of new high-end printing technology, which outputs double sided print as standard.
- Compiling usage data to include wastage on paper, and other consumable items.
Technology
- Replacement of large end printing devices with high energy rated units.
- Introduction of smartcard printing for hi-end printing devices to reduce paper waste.
- Replacement of low capacity, inefficient printing devices.
- Implementation of server virtualisation technology, which will see a reduction in the number of required servers – generating savings in space, power & cooling needs.
- Replacing desktop and laptop technology with energy efficient units (as part of our scheduled replacement programme).
- Introduction of a desktop faxing solution.
- Re-cycling old technology hardware with a WEEE compliant organisation.
Travel
- Registered to participate in the Dublin Bus/ Irish Rail/ Luas and Bus Eireann tax saver schemes. Almost 100 employees have taken up the offer of tax saver tickets.
- A survey assessing travel patterns will be issued shortly to our people.
Waste Management
- Full re-cycling programme in place in conjunction with our waste contractors.
Catering
- Introduction of mains filtered and cooled water in a number of our sites.
- Introduction of Fairtrade tea/coffee for catering kitchens, and tea stations.
Conferencing Facilities
- Introduction of improved voice and video conferencing facilities in all Deloitte buildings.
- Promotion of web based conferencing.
Getting everyone on board – communicating the challenge!
Once the plan of action was agreed we embarked on a fully branded internal communications programme to ensure that everybody was fully aware of what we were trying to achieve. On the launch day, to really drive home the message, we distributed a CFL light bulb to everyone!
In addition, a dedicated Green Agenda website was launched on our intranet which provided a one stop shop for all things environmentally friendly – from a full update on the progress the firm was making in becoming as sustainable as possible to top tips on how to conserve energy – both in the office and at home.
To help get our message across we highlighted various environmental facts and figures which would illustrate how by making small changes we could make a big difference.
Examples include:
- “Office lights left on overnight use enough energy in a year to heat a home for 5 months”
- “Leaving a PC on overnight for a year creates enough CO2 for fill a double-decker bus”
- “Leaving the air conditioning on for one hour each day uses enough energy in a month to power a TV for one year”
The Green Team
Deloitte’s Green Agenda is about what the firm as a whole can do – not just senior management or the IT & Operations team – it really is about everybody. For that reason we formed our ‘Green Team’, with a view to coordinating the various activities underway in support of our campaign and to ensure that we are continually promoting our green initiative to our people.
We also sought input from the whole firm and the feedback that we have received, along with constructive suggestions on what we can further do has been very welcome and useful!
Keeping the momentum going!
Our Green team has been tasked with the responsibility of tracking the firm’s progress, and ensuring that we keep up the momentum. We are on the right track in achieving our goal of ensuring our operations are as environmentally friendly as possible. However we are cognisant that this is a goal that will never be ‘complete’ – it’s a continual challenge. Therefore we are very much committed to continually looking at new and improved ways of meeting the green challenge – from keeping abreast of new developments to reinforcing the green message with our people.
We know that we are very much at the start of the journey and we will continue our efforts. We will measure our progress on a continual basis, and continue to make improvements where possible.
Our duty to protect the environment may present some challenges, but in time we hope it becomes an integral part of everything we do.
Recent Comments:
At
1/19/2009 9:18:48 AM
Adrian J McCabe
said:
I refer to the aforementioned article and found it of great interest.
I represent a Building energy management company and we would be very interested to see how Deloitte have implemented the above. If at all possible I would welcome an opportunity to meet with with your FM manager to discuss the above.
Kind Regards,
Adrian J, McCabe