Accenture Company Analysis – Sustainability Report 1

Sustainability Reporting

Accenture, a global management consulting firm founded in 1989, publishes their

Sustainability Report year after year displaying their commitment to the SDGs in Accenture’s

operations. (https://www.accenture.com/content/dam/accenture/final/capabilities/strategy-and-

consulting/strategy/document/Accenture-Net-Zero-By-2050-Global-Report-2022.pdf#zoom=40)

Accenture began its environmental journey in 2007 and has continued setting challenging

goals for themselves in alignment with climate science. In an effort to be transparent, Accenture

shares their sustainability progress and “report against three ESG reporting frameworks—the

Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), the Task Force on Climate-Related

Financial Disclosure (TCFD) and the World Economic Forum International Business Council

(WEF IBC) metrics—while continuing to align with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)

Standards, the Ten Principles of the UNGC and the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP).”

(https://www.accenture.com/us-en/about/company/reporting-approach-esg-

disclosures#accordion-652e2ac5ad-item-5d73cf5fdd)

Sustainability’s Role in the Company

The Accenture 360° Value Reporting Experience describes that Accenture is committed

to delivering 360° value to all their stakeholders. Additionally, they report that they embed

sustainability into everything they do, with everyone they work with, creating both business

value and sustainable impact, enabled by technology and human ingenuity. Together with their

partners, they are helping solve the biggest problems their clients and the world face to achieve

the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and tackle climate change. Accenture not

only has their own goals to transition to net zero transitions to reduce carbon emissions, but they
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also claim to be guiding their own people, clients, and suppliers in defining their sustainability

initiatives to achieve a low-carbon future.

Making ESG and sustainability a priority, Accenture is embedding sustainability into

everything they do. “As one of the largest orchestrators of technology in the world,” Accenture is

striving to make technology more sustainable, using technology itself to become this as well.

Respecting privacy and establishing trust, they are doing this in a responsible way.

(https://www.accenture.com/us-en/services/sustainability/sustainable-it-technology) In operating

their business, Accenture is committed to environmentally sustainable efforts and claim to hold

themselves accountable to clear and measurable objectives. Their environmental goals focus on

climate, waste, and water.

(https://www.accenture.com/us-en/about/responsible-business/responsible-company-

citizen#block-responsible-company)

Social or Environmental Emphasis

In an article titled “Accenture’s sustainability value promise,” it states that “Accenture,

together with its partners, is helping solve issues such as environmental, social, and governance

(ESG) issues, from transitioning to a zero-carbon economy to human rights to inclusion and

diversity, to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.” This specific article

details the work that Accenture is doing in the Philippines and the four key areas that they

engaged in: caring for their people and accelerating equality, caring for communities, readying

the path to net-zero by 2025, and practicing technology sustainability. By committing themselves

to these four key areas, the work that Accenture has done has been advantageous and favorable

as promoting gender equality, advocating for cross cultural diversity, initiating a community

teaching program for public school students who during the pandemic had a set back in their
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studies, reusing or recycling their e-waste such as computers, servers, and even office furniture,

and lastly their commitment to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2025 to power their offices

with 100% renewable electricity. https://www.rappler.com/brandrap/accenture-philippines-

sustainability-value-promise/

CEO of Accenture, Julie Sweet, had the following to say when interviewed and asked

about Accenture’s focus on environmental and social goods, “you cannot look at Accenture and

our success since 2013 without understanding that when we made a commitment to double down

on diversity and have a 50/50 gender split by 2025, and our commitment to DEI…that is

completely intertwined with our success as a company…Sustainability matters to our employees

from a recruiting standpoint, it matters to our clients, it’s part of our regulatory landscape, it

matters to consumers.” https://fortune.com/2022/09/15/accenture-ceo-julie-sweet-esg-no-

apologies/

Stakeholder Criticisms / Negative Publicity

Accenture has received criticism since announcing their sustainability goals with their

primary objective to achieve net-zero emissions by 2025. Accenture was one of 25 corporations

that were a part of a study done in February 2022 by New Climate Institute and Carbon Market

Watch stating that “many of the world's biggest companies are failing to meet their own targets

on tackling climate change… they also routinely exaggerate or misreport their progress.”

This study highlights Accenture’s net-zero emissions pledge but rates their integrity as

“very low”; this refers to the quality and credibility of the approach. “While Accenture claims

that the nature-based carbon removals will be proprietary to the company, it currently provides

limited information on volume, prices, and permanence of the offset credits it intends to procure.

Accenture could instead shift from making an offsetting claim for their residual emissions in
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2025 to claiming a climate contribution, providing support to climate change mitigation projects

without neutralising their own emissions. In this context, Accenture could build up on early

examples, like their own voluntary cooperation with Climeworks from 2021, to develop a digital

plant solution for their direct air capture carbon dioxide removal technologies.”

https://carbonmarketwatch.org/publications/ccrm_2022/

Refences

Our Reporting Approach and ESG Disclosures. (2022, December 15). Evolving our Reporting.

https://www.accenture.com/us-en/about/company/reporting-approach-esg-

disclosures#accordion-652e2ac5ad-item-5d73cf5fdd

Sustainable Technology. The Twofold Imperative.

https://www.accenture.com/us-en/services/sustainability/sustainable-it-technology

Responsible Company & Citizen. Responsible Company.

https://www.accenture.com/us-en/about/responsible-business/responsible-company-

citizen#block-responsible-company

Accenture’s Sustainability Value Promise. (2022, May 2).

https://www.rappler.com/brandrap/accenture-philippines-sustainability-value-promise/

Accenture CEO Julie Sweet makes no apologies for her company’s focus on environmental and

social goals. (2022, September 15) https://fortune.com/2022/09/15/accenture-ceo-julie-sweet-

esg-no-apologies/
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BBC News – Climate Change: Top companies exaggerating their progress – study. (2022,

February 7) https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-60248830

Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor. (2022, February 7) Corporate Climate Responsibility

Monitor 2022 – Assessing the transparency and integrity of companies’ reduction and net-zero

targets. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/publications/ccrm_2022/

Sustainability Leadership in the Company’s Industry - “Not meeting the promise

of the SDGs is a real concern but, at the same time, an enormous opportunity for

companies that reinvent their enterprises and harness sustainability as one of the key

forces of change in the next decade,” said Peter Lacy, Accenture’s global Sustainability

Services lead and chief responsibility officer. “CEOs are clearly concerned about

resilience, but one leader’s resilience is another leader’s growth opportunity. New

waves of technology investments and breakthrough innovation can put the SDGs back

within reach – but only if leaders turn to sustainability for resilience to help create new
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markets, products and services that can correct the current trajectory and drive growth

amid times of disruption.” https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/alarmed-by-speed-

and-scale-of-disruption-ceos-embrace-sustainability-to-build-long-term-resilience-

according-to-un-global-compact-and-accenture.htm

About the CEO Study Program

The CEO Study program, developed by the UN Global Compact and Accenture, is an

effort to enhance understanding and commitment between the United Nations and the

private sector. The program is an extensive review of the advancing corporate

sustainability movement, and the publications coalesce dominant views of CEOs,

business leaders and UN executives to track developments in sustainability.

References

Our Reporting Approach and ESG Disclosures. (2022, December 15). Evolving our Reporting.

https://www.accenture.com/us-en/about/company/reporting-approach-esg-

disclosures#accordion-652e2ac5ad-item-5d73cf5fdd
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Footnotes
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Tables

Table 1

Table Title

Column Head Column Head Column Head Column Head Column Head
Row Head 123 123 123 123
Row Head 456 456 456 456
Row Head 789 789 789 789
Row Head 123 123 123 123
Row Head 456 456 456 456
Row Head 789 789 789 789

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Figures

Figure 1.

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