KPMG Switzerland develops market ready ESG framework

Getting smarter about ESG initiatives

KPMG offers audit, tax and legal, and a broad range of advisory services to businesses across the world. KPMG Switzerland is the Swiss member firm of the KPMG network.

KPMG has a reputation for turning insights into opportunities and better outcomes for its clients. As environmental, social, and governance (ESG) challenges become increasingly important to the way companies do business, KPMG Switzerland (the “firm”) is emerging as a leading trusted advisor in this space.

The firm has the know-how to help businesses execute on their strategies to contribute to a more sustainable economic system, build customer and stakeholder trust, and deliver positive business results.

“We practise what we preach at KPMG Switzerland. ESG is a relatively new concept, so we are using our own ESG transformation to develop skills and best practices we can take to market,” says Veit Schulz, Partner, Management Consulting at KPMG Switzerland.

Calculating reliable emissions data

The firm’s ESG strategy has four pillars: ‘governance’, ‘people’, ‘planet’, and ‘prosperity’. Sustainability initiatives, including the goal to become carbon neutral by 2030, sits under the ‘planet’ pillar.

Calculating emissions can be a complex process involving multiple stakeholders and manual touchpoints. To obtain a comprehensive picture of their carbon footprint, companies must track three types of emissions; (i) Scope 1 direct emissions from fuel burned by company vehicles and natural gas heating, (ii) Scope 2 emissions generated by electricity consumption, and (iii) Scope 3 emissions generated across the value chain.

To simplify carbon accounting and gain end-to-end visibility of its emissions, KPMG Switzerland implemented ServiceNow ESG Management.

“The ServiceNow platform has supported our business for years. It integrates seamlessly with our ERP system, and we have the skills to manage the platform in-house. It made a lot of sense to roll out the ESG Management module for our own business and use the learnings to develop a framework for serving our clients,” says Veit.

Driving more informed conversations

ESG Management provides a central tool for staff across the finance, facility management, and corporate responsibility teams to submit data, such as energy bills and staff travel data. Approvals, which were previously managed manually, are now automated and standardized, which is faster and more efficient.

The ESG solution calculates the carbon footprint of activities, such as keeping the office running, taxi rides, or the impact of flying. These insights are displayed in user-friendly dashboards. The tool also provides a clear audit trail, which helps the company be accountable to its customers and other stakeholders.

“Air travel is a challenging issue to address in the professional services industry because we’re expected to fly abroad to meet clients. Combatting climate change will require a large-scale cultural shift to a more sustainable approach,” says Patrick Schmucki, Director of Financial Services Climate and Sustainability at KPMG Switzerland. “We use our monthly reports to have more informed and constructive debates about how we can reduce travel in the future.” The ESG solution also informs on activities beyond travel policy, with greater data oversight supporting decisions around ESG policies and framework development.

Developing a reusable framework

Alongside the solution, KPMG Switzerland designed a governance structure to designate responsibilities to the appropriate people.

“Most companies are starting from scratch. Our internal ESG Management solution rollout is helping us build knowledge and trigger more conversations with clients,” says Veit. “Every business has different needs. We developed an easily adoptable framework so we can support them to establish strategies and capture the right data. ServiceNow is very flexible, which makes it adaptable to different industries.”

KPMG Switzerland has just launched the solution for its internal use and has more accurate, comprehensive data to help achieve its targets.

With the cultural shift required in response to the climate crisis, making processes as simple as possible is vital for user adoption and to get enterprise-wide buy-in. Next, the firm is looking into further automation opportunities and is getting ready to take ESG management services to market in partnership with ServiceNow.

“We now have a strong proposition to bring to the market, to show how this tool can support ESG throughout the value chain, from aligning with regulations and setting the right strategy to reporting and measurement,” says Veit. “We have already had positive interest from a number of clients.”