UK: engaging and empowering our people

Eco-Innovators – EY UK people making a real difference for our planet

Eco-Innovators is a network of EY employees that uses smart thinking and smart technology to solve environmental pr​​​​​​​oblems.

Our mission is to make EY the leading UK professional services firm for climate and environmental action. EY’s purpose is to Build a Better Working World – to us, that includes protecting and caring for the natural world, both because we depend on it to do business and because it’s the right thing to do.

Eco-Innovators focuses on how we as EY employees can:

1. Empower EY people to make positive personal changes: Our people have told us that they want to make personal changes to mitigate a climate and ecological crisis but don’t know where to start. We also want to create a community that supports and inspires people, because we know embedding new habits takes time and encouragement.
   
   
2. Support EY to make positive environmental changes in our operations: We want EY to have the best environmental performance in the professional services industry. We’ve already implemented several leading and award-winning initiatives to address the key environmental impacts of our operations. And we’ll continue to strive for best practice across all areas of the business.
   
   
3. Empower EY people to support our clients on their sustainability journey: By integrating climate and ecological risk management into our existing client work, we can help clients respond well to challenges and take advantage of opportunities. From tax to strategy to M&A, every part of what we do has an environmental agenda.
   
   
4. Build our external brand on the environment: We want to use the power of EY’s brand to build awareness of environmental issues and solutions. We know that this will also help us attract the best talent.
   

Eco-Innovators was started by a small group of passionate UK employees, and continues to be employee led, with more than 100 volunteers donating their time to develop activism campaigns, learning experiences, client engagement ideas, communications and engagement opportunities and much more. We explore critical sustainability themes impacting on our planet, including sustainable finance, fast fashion, food waste and energy – and encourage our members to take personal and collective action. 

Since our launch in April 2019, we’ve grown from 30 to 1,000 strong, with members from right across the globe. We have the support of the firm’s leadership as we seek to grow our community of passionate, energised EY people who are taking action to make a real difference for our planet.