What's Your Carbon Footprint?
Firms take on travel to reduce impact

Shannon Schuyler spends a lot of her time thinking of ways to reduce the carbon footprint at PricewaterhouseCoopers. "We look at everything from travel to paper usage to the impact of our employees commuting," says Schuyler, who is a managing director with PwC. "More and more we're finding that clients are demanding to see what we're doing internally before they decide to have us work with them on a sustainability project."

Although the new initiative is only a few months old, Schuyler has already found ways for PwC to reduce its overall impact. "As a company, we're one of the largest purchasers of rental cars. So, we've gone out to the car-rental firms and have encouraged them to add more hybrids to their fleet," she says. "And then we'll want to work more with the ones that do."

"Making a difference: PwC is looking
to rent more hybrid cars while A.T. Kearney is developing a new delivery model that relies less on air travel."

Another area that drives up a carbon footprint in a hurry is air travel. "Obviously, we travel a lot, and that has a very big impact," she says. "But we're also looking into ways to reduce our air travel."

Daniel Mahler, a partner at A.T. Kearney and the firm's global coordinator for sustainability, is also trying to reduce air travel. When Mahler began to calculate A.T. Kearney's carbon footprint, he discovered that about 79 percent of it was due to air travel. And of that 79 percent, three-quarters of it was client related.

"Travel is not a sacred cow," Mahler says. "We understand that we need to provide great service to our clients, but do we need to have five consultants on site full time five days a week? Can we deliver the same quality of work without traveling like we have traditionally done?" These are the questions Mahler is asking as he and A.T. Kearney embark on an aggressive campaign to become carbon neutral by 2010. As part of the pledge, the firm is working on "non-traditional delivery models" of its consulting services that include client service models not so heavily dependent on air travel. In addition, A.T. Kearney has appointed sustainability "czars" in each of its profit centers and will begin semi-annual progress measurements this year.
—JK

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