Belgium

Environment 

Climate change is perhaps the biggest environmental challenge we all face; and to tackle it, concerted global action is required. We, as members of KPMG and inhabitants of this planet, have an important role to play both in terms of our own operations and the services we provide to our clients. We can do this by inspiring our own people to take action at work and at home, and contributing to the debate on climate change in the national and international arenas.

Global Green Initiative

The Global Green Initiative (GGI), launched in 2008, is KPMG’s global response to the challenges of climate change. It demonstrates KPMG’s commitment to reduce our impact on the wider environment. As part of the GGI, our initial objective was to reduce our combined greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2010 from a 2007 baseline – this was surpassed with a 29 percent reduction. Going forward, the GGI has set a new challenge to further improve on our environmental performance. Our next target is a 15 percent reduction in net emissions per full-time equivalent employee by 2015 from a 2010 baseline.

KPMG Forest

In the framework of BRIGHT 2010-2011 and the internal One Tree for 1 EURO campaign, KPMG planted a KPMG forest of 3.3ha (almost 7 football fields). A total of 1.65ha of KPMG forest was planted in Flanders. A comparable KPMG forest was planted in the Walloon region. This KPMG forest will make our office ‘paper neutral’ for the next 8.25 years and at the same time, KPMG will be able to reduce the yearly CO² emission produced by the KPMG Fleet by about 1.3 percent.

KPMG fleet and CarE

With a Fleet of about 800 cars, we at KPMG in Belgium think it is vital to participate in the evolving green movement. For several years, we have adopted a policy of using cars with low CO² emissions in our preferred range of cars on offer. We strongly encourage choosing hybrid cars. Since 2011 KPMG has put two electric cars at the disposal of its employees. This initiative is part of the pioneering project “CarE” and is related to KPMG’s ambition to limit its impact on the environment, as much as possible. These cars are made available to staff members who visit clients, or attend seminars or other professional events, on a daily basis. In order to recharge the two cars daily, an charging station was installed in the outside parking area near the front of the Brussels office. Customers and other visitors can also take advantage of charging stations to “fill up” their electric cars.

 Participating in World Environment Day

World Environment Day is an annual event that aims to be the biggest and most widely celebrated global day for positive environmental action. World Environment Day activities take place all year round but climax on 5 June every year, involving everyone from everywhere. The theme for World Environment Day 2012 was “Green Economy: Does it include you? “

 iPad

In August 2011, all professionals in KPMG received an iPad 2. This investment is an example of how KPMG adapts it policies to a green approach to office management. Additional examples of green initiatives are the systematic recycling of paper, carton boxes, cans and plastic bottles, glass, the use of recycled paper and default double-sided printing in black and white. The iPad 2 is the next step towards paperless communication and will offer the 850 KPMG professionals new opportunities in the fields of networking and gbusiness development.

 Participating in Earth Hour

Hundreds of millions of people, as well as many businesses and governments around the world unite each year to support the largest international environmental event: Earth Hour. During this symbolic action, almost 2 billion people from 150 countries and in more than 6500 cities express their concern over climate change and their desire to take action. KPMG in Belgium also took part in Earth Hour 2012 by putting out the office lights.