Ernst & Young: Corporate sustainability report released

By Rob Starr, Content Manager, Big4.com

Ernst & Young recently issued their corporate sustainability report for the Americas Area. The report  Patterns of progress: How our people are shaping our sustainability journey provides an update on the firm’s progress on initiatives in key focus areas including diversity & inclusiveness, community engagement and environmental stewardship from the 2011 fiscal year.

Highlights from the 2011 corporate sustainability report include:

·         Reducing the firm’s carbon footprint by 11% in the Americas  since fiscal year 2008 (the base year)   mostly by focusing on energy efficiency but also by promoting travel alternatives such as videoconferencing.

·         As part of Ernst & Young’s Earthwatch Global Ambassadors program  a team from Ernst & Young across the Americas traveled to Brazil to help scientists collect data on how climate change is affecting the rain forest.

·     involvement with Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE). NFTE is a global not-for-profit organization focused solely on bringing entrepreneurship education to low-income teenagers at risk of dropping out of high school.
·  Implementation of “Leadership Matters” program which openly explores unconscious biases through workshops, action-coaching, benchmarking and sharing of best practices. Through workshops, action-coaching activities, benchmarking and the sharing of leading practices, Leadership Matters

Ernst & Young’s full 2011 fiscal year corporate sustainability report can be viewed  here.