KPMG corporate citizenship report

Helping make a better world

Commitment to the Environment: Living Green

As important as any area covered in this report is our firm's impact on the environment. Without a healthy planet, the most noble corporate citizenship endeavors will fail. That is why KPMG has launched Living Green, a firmwide commitment to reducing the amount of waste we generate, the natural resources we consume, and our carbon footprint.

Living Green marks our commitment to taking a leadership role in promoting environmental improvements in our communities. Through Living Green we are identifying best practices across the U.S. firm and with other KPMG International member firms, and establishing new programs and processes to support our environmental goals. These will be implemented at both the national and local levels. An example already in progress is our alternative work arrangement program, which addresses the problems of automobile congestion.

Some of our goals for the next three years include:

  • Reducing the amount of paper we use by 15 percent
  • Increasing our use of recycled paper
  • Reducing office-related energy usage by 5 percent
  • Reducing our volume of waste by 10 percent
  • Incorporating LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards into renovation and new construction projects.

KPMG's Global Green Initiative

Living Green is the U.S. firm's program to support KPMG International's Global Green Initiative. This initiative sets the overall direction for all KPMG member firms regarding environmental matters, with a special emphasis on the global challenges of climate change.

To help achieve the goals of the Global Green Initiative, KPMG commits to:

  • Making a global effort to reduce its overall carbon footprint by 25 percent as of 2010 through emission reduction and renewable energy
  • Investing in projects that achieve social and environmental benefits and have a positive impact on the climate
  • Proactively working with employees, suppliers and clients to help them measure, report and improve their climate-change impacts.

Green Example: New Data Center Plan Earns State Recognition

Upgrading the firm's Central Data Center at its Montvale, N.J., campus is business-critical. The center needs advanced technology to keep up with the firm's growing operational and client service demands. In drawing up the plans, we recognized the tremendous electrical needs of the project. Given the imperatives of Living Green, the firm made a commitment that the new Central Data Center would be environmentally friendly.

The centerpieces of the new data center are 14 gas micro-turbines from United Technologies. These power units run on natural gas, provide exceptional energy efficiency, and produce ultra-low carbon dioxide and particulate emissions. The system also recovers heat that would otherwise be wasted.

"A traditional power system returns only about 20 percent of the energy in the fuel in usable electricity, while the rest is lost as heat. Our new data center captures the exhaust heat and uses it to heat and cool the building. The result is that 80 percent of the energy in the gas is used."

— John Reina, Director, Technology Services, and a member of the data center project team.

In recognition of KPMG's commitment to energy efficiency, the State of New Jersey awarded the firm an $800,000 incentive toward the cost of the renovation project through its Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Program. The CHP program allows for businesses, colleges and universities, local government agencies, and other organizations to receive up to $1 million for installing eligible CHP systems.

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