KPMG release ESG strategy ahead of the COP26 climate summit

As the COP26 Climate Summit draws closer, the leading industries are making their pledges to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. KPMG announced a further US$1.5bn investment as part of its ongoing multi-billion-dollar investment programme as a contribution to its ESG agenda. 

The new investment will be spent over the next three years to make positive changes. Its ESG strategy is underpinned by the KPMG: Our Impact Plan. The company’s ESG strategy sets out some of the ways in which it will make lasting changes: 

• Solutions - Dedicated hubs will be established to support global decarbonisation across large multinational corporations that have committed to net-zero emissions and house its ESG advisory team, which will offer market-leading support.
• Talent - The company will provide ESG training across its 227,000 person workforce to ensure positive changes are aligned across the board. It is also working with two leading global institutions to provide ESG training, including The University of Cambridge Judge Business School and The NYU Stern Executive Education.
• Support developing nations - Providing advisory services to less economically developed areas in the Mediterranean, Africa, APAC and Latin America, where experience and necessary resources are lacking. 
• Collaborating and building alliances - KPMG understands the importance of collaborative working and is committed to building working relationships with organisations like UNESCO, Enactus and the Global Reporting Initiative. 
• Taking action - By offering a platform called Voices for a Sustainable Future, KPMG will action the views of new and established minds to provide a voice for critical issues like racial equality and acceptance of gender. 

The global ESG strategy follows the launch of the KPMG: Our Impact Plan less than a year ago. The plan sets out various science-based targets, including net-zero, as well as the organisation’s commitments to ESG-related areas. 

‘How you grow matters, and what worked for us and other businesses in the past will not work in the future. The world faces crises on multiple fronts, which is why we’re putting the Environmental, Social and Governance agenda at the heart of everything we do’, says Bill Thomas, Global Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at KPMG. ‘ESG will be the watermark running through our global organisation; from empowering our people to become agents of positive change, to the services with our clients and our partnerships with critical stakeholders. KPMG has the global scale, expertise, technology, and relationships that give us the ability and responsibility to use our position to provide solutions and services to overcome the challenges facing our planet and society’. 

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