KPMG Reports Progress on ESG commitments

KPMG's first update of environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitments — 'holding us accountable for progress toward a more sustainable future.'

KPMG publishes 'KPMG: Our Impact Plan 2022' reporting on progress against environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitments. Highlights include:

— Advancements on commitments towards net zero by 2030 

— The creation and introduction of our new Inclusion, Diversity and Equity (IDE) Collective Action Plan 

— New commitments to support education and economic empowerment

HONG KONG, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- KPMG International published an update of its progress towards a broad set of ESG commitments, first published in 2021. KPMG: Our Impact Plan outlines how the entire global organization is coming together to support improvements across four pillars: Planet, People, Prosperity and Governance. Our Impact Plan catalogues the most recent data from across the global organization and charts the progress made against the World Economic Forum (WEF) International Business Council (IBC) metrics, which KPMG played a fundamental role in shaping.

Bill Thomas, Global Chairman and CEO, said: "As the world faces one of the most significant periods of unrest for a generation, more than ever, we are acutely aware of our responsibility to support our people, clients and societies to work together to secure a better, sustainable, more united future. KPMG was among the first in our profession to publicly catalogue our ESG commitments and report against them. As we face ever-increasing challenges in the world, we know we must hold ourselves accountable for the decisions we make which will help shape the future. That is why we are publishing our progress today and will continue to work with stakeholders, colleagues and clients to support the positive changes we need to see in the world."

Honson To, Chairman, KPMG Asia Pacific and China, said: "The need to address challenges the world is currently facing, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the rising prevalence of natural disasters associated with climate change, emphasises that ESG is now more important than ever. As an industry-leading professional services organisation, KPMG is aware of its responsibility and ability to positively impact societies. Our Impact Plan is only a part of our many efforts to influence positive changes in KPMG and along our value chain. Going forward, we will further embed ESG into our business operations and services, putting sustainability into practice, while helping our clients transform their businesses."

KPMG: Our Impact Plan reaffirms our long-standing adherence to the United Nations (UN) Global Compact Principles, a commitment we will continue to strengthen and report on openly. Some of the highlights of this year's update include:

• Planet: We're implementing sustainable and equitable practices within our global organization by evaluating our supply chain and creating science-based transition plans so we can move to net zero in a fair and just way. As part of our commitment to be net zero by 2030, we set an Internal Carbon Price (ICP) that will help us measure and account for our carbon impact. We also committed to a 1.5°C Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) with a target of 50 percent emissions reduction by 2030. Our renewable electricity usage across the global organization increased to 74 percent, up from 56 percent in 2020.
  
• People: We created and introduced KPMG's Inclusion, Diversity and Equity (IDE) Collective Action Plan throughout the global organization. We're taking important steps toward gender diversity, with females representing 48.4 percent of our people, and it's our intention for women to fill more than one-third of our leadership roles by 2025. We've made a commitment to the health and well-being of our people through initiatives that support their physical and mental health, and invested in our own digital transformation by enhancing learning pathways that upskill our talent in areas such as technology and ESG.
  
• Prosperity: We announced last year a multi-billion-dollar investment to embed ESG into everything we do — enhancing our already robust tools and services to help accelerate our clients' ESG journeys. Part of this investment will be used to build ESG hubs on multiple continents and create ESG accelerators to spur investment and innovation in emerging markets. We're also training our more than 236,000 people to become agents of positive change and assisting clients on three pillars of opportunity: ESG transformation, ESG reporting and ESG assurance. We continue to work alongside organizations to make significant contributions toward the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) — including our work with UNESCO to help economically empower 10 million disadvantaged young people between now and 2030.
  
• Governance: Our work with the WEF, to set the IBC metrics for ESG reporting is one example of how we're using our experience and knowledge to help shape the future of sustainable business. We've accepted roles at the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), the Financial Stability Board's (FSB) Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and the Taskforce for Nature-related Disclosures (TNFD). This work is part of the wider role we believe we must play to support the development of consistent and credible information on sustainability matters, including supporting the newly formed International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB).

Jane Lawrie, Global Head of Corporate Affairs, said: "In advancing Our Impact Plan, we aim to focus on the issues that are most important to our people, central to our business and where we can make the biggest difference. We're responding to events that are reshaping our world and taking actions that are core to the sustainable future of our people, clients and communities. Our Impact Plan not only highlights what we stand for as a global organization, it also provides a clear ESG roadmap for the organization and shows us, and our stakeholders, if we are on track."

Tracy Yang, Head of Corporate Affairs, KPMG China, said: "Over the years, China has made a strong contribution to sustainable development throughout Asia-Pacific and the world. As the lead for Our Impact Plan (OIP), I am constantly thinking about the roadmap KPMG China can use to achieve our ESG commitments, including decarbonisation, promoting women in leadership, and building an ecosystem of inclusion, diversity and equity. With the execution of OIP, we are taking important steps in the right direction to ensure transparency and accountability in making our business practices more sustainable. In our China OIP to be launched in April, you can learn more about our efforts to help ensure a sustainable future for all."

Richard Threlfall, Global Head of ESG and KPMG IMPACT, said: "It's incumbent upon business, political and civic leaders to tackle the challenges that impact the future of our planet and threaten our quality of life, now and for future generations. We are wholeheartedly committed to supporting the responsible transformation of organizations — including our own — and encourage one and all to face what seems like an overwhelming challenge with positivity and a sense of collective responsibility."

Wei Lin, Head of Environmental Social and Governance, KPMG China, said: "China's targets to achieve carbon emissions peaking by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060 reinforce the country's commitment towards a sustainable future. With deep knowledge and expertise in ESG, proven track records of helping businesses globally to transform, and our deep commitments to China, KPMG brings global leading practices and deep local market understanding to help Chinese enterprises on sustainability transformation. KPMG is committed to work alongside our clients, shoulder to shoulder, to catalyse and accelerate the ESG-related efforts taking place across the country to contribute towards achieving China's 30/60 goals."

About KPMG China

KPMG China is based in 31 offices across 28 cities with around 14,000 partners and staff in Beijing, Changsha, Chengdu, Chongqing, Dalian, Dongguan, Foshan, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Haikou, Hangzhou, Hefei, Jinan, Nanjing, Ningbo, Qingdao, Shanghai, Shenyang, Shenzhen, Suzhou, Taiyuan, Tianjin, Wuhan, Xiamen, Xi'an, Zhengzhou, Hong Kong SAR and Macau SAR. Working collaboratively across all these offices, KPMG China can deploy experienced professionals efficiently, wherever our client is located.

KPMG is a global organisation of independent professional services firms providing Audit, Tax and Advisory services. We operate in 145 countries and territories with more than 236,000 partners and employees working in member firms around the world. Each KPMG firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such. KPMG International Limited is a private English company limited by guarantee. KPMG International Limited and its related entities do not provide services to clients.

In 1992, KPMG became the first international accounting network to be granted a joint venture licence in mainland China. KPMG was also the first among the Big Four in mainland China to convert from a joint venture to a special general partnership, as of 1 August 2012. Additionally, the Hong Kong firm can trace its origins to 1945. This early commitment to this market, together with an unwavering focus on quality, has been the foundation for accumulated industry experience, and is reflected in KPMG's appointment for multi-disciplinary services (including audit, tax and advisory) by some of China's most prestigious companies.