Reducing our own impact
EY is proud to have become carbon negative globally in FY22. We aim to be net zero by 2025. EY Luxembourg is strongly committed to playing an active role in this global ambition. EY’s net zero path has been validated by the Science Based Targets initiative in July 2021.
To reach this goal, EY will reduce, at global level, the absolute emissions by 40% across Scopes 1, 2 and 3 by FY25, against a FY19 baseline, consistent with our 1.5°C Science Based Targets.
As a service provider, employee travel is our main source of CO2 emissions. To reduce these, our transport policy enforces the use of trains for any journey of less than four hours. As Luxembourg’s Government provides free public transport to all the citizens and workers, EY Luxembourg encourages the use of public transportation or of bicycles, which we ensure are at the disposal of our employees.
As part of our sustainability efforts, EY also provides a personalized dashboard for our business travelers, offering insights into booking behaviors and the consequential impacts on cost, efficiency, well-being, and the environment.
Reducing travel also involves the roll-out of video-conferencing tools to support our business. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to adapt our way of doing business by engaging with our clients and employees through various digital tools and platforms, such as MS Teams.
EY Luxembourg decided to implement the “Workplace of the future” in its new office building, inaugurated at the end of 2015. EY wants to create a trust based, flexible environment, enabling our people to deliver exceptional client service, individually and through high performing teams, whilst attracting and retaining talent.
To this end, EY Luxembourg is constantly:
- Developing a range of creative solutions to strengthen our culture and improve client service, employee engagement, productivity, and well-being.
- Ensuring our working environments support greater collaboration and improved engagement with our colleagues and our clients. Offices and workspaces are purposely not assigned with the intention of increasing ideas and the leave of collaboration.
- Enabling people to work effectively anywhere using the best technology.
- Supporting our changing business mix by delivering greater flexibility in how we work and use office space.
- Improving our space utilization, reducing our occupancy costs and reinvesting the savings in our business.
In this context, our office has become “an” environment and not “the only” environment in which employees are expected to work.
To limit our digital footprint, technology is a mean by which we can support office mobility. We make use of new top of the range and certified products, and we make sure that our IT Devices have a second life. Our IT leaser is strongly committed toward circular economy, which is fully integrated in its and our business model. They have already remarketed more than 690,000 assets in the global secondary IT market.
To reduce our carbon footprint, we use the highest energy efficiency class in Luxembourg (BBB energy efficiency category). Our building is fitted with an intelligent facade design that integrates high thermal insulation, low radiation intake and efficient window screens with intelligent control, so we can maximize the use of natural light and recycle the energy we produce. We installed intelligent artificial lighting and green roofs in parts of the building that improve the micro-climate in and around the building and increase rainwater retention.
To supply heat and hot water to our employees, we use the community heating. Moreover, we limit the usage of hot water in the building to the kitchen areas.
Following the challenges posed by the pandemic, our business has undergone significant development, resulting in an increase in in-person trips and meetings, impacting Scope 1 (company vehicles) emissions, Scope 3 (business travel) emissions and our overall travel and fleet data. This upsurge in emissions within these scopes can be attributed to this shift in our operational approach. However, our commitment to reducing unnecessary electricity usage has led to a slight decrease in Scope 2 emissions as we continue to prioritize sustainability measures in our electricity consumption practices.
EY Luxembourg has been proactively addressing waste management. During the fiscal year 2023, due to construction activities on the premises, there was an increase in construction, demolition, and electrical waste, leading to a rise in the overall waste quantity. It's worth highlighting that when we exclude this specific event, our broader strategy continues to prioritize sustainable waste management practice. EY Luxembourg is trying to reduce paper consumption. Since we moved into the new building, we have been working in a paperless environment. We have implemented a print release system using badges (the so-called “follow-me” printing) and all employees are provided comprehensive trainings on less paper use as part of their onboarding. Furthermore, our audit teams have already embraced electronic signatures for almost all audit reports, paving the way for the entire organization. In line with this initiative, the marketing and advertising departments are actively transitioning towards digital campaigns, eliminating the use of traditional paper-based methods. This strategic shift collectively contributes significantly to the substantial reduction of paper usage at the organizational level.
EY Luxembourg is gradually transitioning to a greener fleet. In fact, almost 50% (49.5%) of leased vehicles ordered by employees in FY23 are electric and hybrid, compared to 5% in 2019.