Environmental Sustainability

Practical steps towards environmental sustainability

Our stated objective is to measure our carbon footprint every year and ensure that our impact on the evironment is reduced. Practically, the use of electricity has been reduced through the installation of motion light detectors, and air conditioners in some offices have been fitted with cut-out timers. We have set out to achieve our goal by gaining the support of everyone at Deloitte for various activities.

1. Engaging the support of all our people by promoting environmental awareness in the workplace on an ongoing basis
2. Video-conferencing facilities are used to reduce staff air travel
3. International awareness days are utilised to promote and educate staff on environmental issues
4. We use IMPACT Day as an opportunity to get involved in various greening activities in the schools and communities we support
5. The Deloitte Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town offices have implemented waste recycling initiatives
6. Keeping international air travel to a minimum.

Lee Swan’s professional passion may be sustainability and climate change, but few would go to the lengths she recently did to prove her commitment. In 2011, she became the first African-born woman to win the Polar Race, literally walking the talk of our firm’s Sustainability and Climate Change practice.

Returning triumphantly from the biggest challenge of her life, Lee, a manager in our Sustainability and Climate Change team, says her experience has made her more determined than ever to  help make South African business understand the opportunities and risks in sustainability and climate change.

The Polar Race is a test of endurance, a race of passion and a challenge of inner strength. Known as “probably the world’s toughest race”, it starts from Resolute Bay in the former North West Territories of Canada. It takes the contestants some 650 km, by ski or foot, across some of the most desolate terrain in the world, until these brave explorers reach the finish line, namely the 1996 certified position of the Magnetic North Pole.

On 28 April, after 22 days of walking, Lee reached the Magnetic North Pole.

With the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP17) held in Durban in November 2011, Lee’s success in this race truly demonstrated our brand is Always One Step Ahead.”