Corporate Client: Deloitte

Deloitte, a leading professional services company, is committed to accelerating the global transition to net-zero.

Deloitte is committed to achieving net-zero emissions with 2030 goals and has had its greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goals validated by SBTi. Deloitte is also fostering alliances to help all sectors decarbonize while supporting innovative environmental solutions.

Beyond Value Chain Mitigation (BVCM) is a framework from the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) that helps companies tackle emissions beyond their own operations to support global net-zero goals, while also setting and working towards near- and long-term science-based targets.

Our work with Deloitte North and South Europe (NSE) forms a key part of its BVCM portfolio, supporting innovative solutions outside their value chain. Deloitte is using skills, influence and targeted investment to catalyze environmental and social impact across the energy transition, circularity, sustainable food systems and nature restoration.

Challenges

• Beyond Value Chain Mitigation is a recent and evolving concept – Deloitte North and South Europe (NSE) was searching for innovative solutions that align with SBTi’s latest guidance and industry best practices.
  

• Looking to lead the way in corporate sustainability, Deloitte NSE wanted to implement a program that further supports its existing net-zero commitment while driving skills, influence and targeted investment to existing and new scalable climate solutions.
  

Solutions

Our team of industry experts worked with Deloitte North and South Europe to identify innovative solutions that could feature in Deloitte’s overall BVCM portfolio. Together, we looked to leverage our range of innovative solutions (e.g., nature-based and other climate mitigation projects) while meeting the latest industry guidance. This enabled Deloitte NSE to both take responsibility for its own emissions today, and also pick options that would accelerate the global transition to net-zero by advancing scalable and transformational climate solutions for the future.

Our aim was to ensure that Deloitte NSE’s personalized solutions were aligned with SBTi’s goals for delivering BVCM:

BVCM Goal 1: ‘Deliver additional near-term mitigation outcomes to achieve the peaking of global emissions in the mid-2020s and the halving of global emissions by 2030.’

• Deloitte is purchasing high-quality carbon credits to deliver near-term mitigation outcomes.

BVCM Goal 2: ‘Drive additional finance into the scale-up of nascent climate solutions and enabling activities to unlock the systemic transformation needed to achieve net-zero globally by mid-century.’

• Deloitte is driving skills and targeted investment to scale up a portfolio of nascent climate solutions to unlock transformation towards net zero, including a blue carbon and seagrass project.

In addition to delivering the high-quality carbon credits required, we are helping Deloitte NSE support an innovative blue carbon solution, financing an early-stage project that is increasing the ocean’s capacity as a carbon sink and enhancing underwater biodiversity, as well as funding critical research to unlock large-scale financing for seagrass restoration in the UK and beyond. We established a collaboration between Deloitte NSE, Project Seagrass and the UK’s National Oceanography Centre.

Impact

As an industry leader, Deloitte NSE is helping pave the way for future climate solutions by laying out a blueprint for an ambitious BVCM program that supports existing and innovative solutions with the potential to scale.

The seagrass restoration program is one that Deloitte NSE is providing both skills and investment toward, enabling critical research across UK seagrass meadows, focusing on mapping these ecosystems and creating scalable restoration techniques. This effort is vital for supporting the development of a new Seagrass Carbon Code in the UK and beyond (in other words, a seagrass carbon methodology).

In coordination with Project Seagrass, a team of volunteers from Deloitte and Climate Impact Partners helped harvest seedlings from a healthy seagrass meadow for the recovery program.

The research includes:

• Advancing the understanding of carbon sequestration and storage of seagrass meadows.
• Lowering costs and improving scalability of restoration efforts.
• Evaluating the community impact of restoration projects.
• Developing pilot restoration sites.
• Increasing the capacity to monitor and assess biodiversity impacts.
• Accelerating efforts to map restoration sites along the UK coastline.

The seagrass restoration program contributes to 16 out of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), helping to create a thriving future for all life on Earth.

If you want to learn more about BVCM and Deloitte’s innovative BVCM program, watch our webinar which features an exclusive presentation from Deloitte.