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PwC Celebrates Global Diversity Week With a Talk Amongst Themselves About Diversity

Posted on by Adrienne Gonzalez

Those of you who could not possibly care less about diversity can disregard the following. Those of you who enjoy mocking the ridiculousness of "diversity initiatives" are invited to read on:

At the beginning of the year we shared that we had a lot of exciting diversity activities planned for 2014 and I am thrilled to let you know that we are currently in the midst of delivering ‘Global Diversity Week’.

This week, we take a significant step in our diversity journey as our PwC firms all over the world celebrate Global Diversity Week.  This is a wide-scale inclusion intervention that will touch every single PwC professional across the globe, that’s over 180,000 people.

I know you guys are really excited about this. Unfortunately, PwC is excluding anyone who doesn't work for PwC from the festivities, which sort of goes against the whole core idea of diversity, ya know. Inclusion, blah blah:

Continuing with the theme of development we have also released a number of global tools for all of our people. 

Wait a second, what do you mean our people?

We have provided our people [emphasis mine] with access to a number of PwC specific implicit association tests, which create awareness of unconscious biases. These tests will drive greater levels of self-awareness, allowing our people to gain a better understanding of their attitudes and preferences regarding different kinds of people with different attributes, for example women and men with family and career.

I will give a crisp $20 bill to the first person who can explain what the hell the last part of that last sentence means. Just come out and say "people who are not caucasian workaholic males" so we can have a good laugh and go home. I think what this means is they're offering a test to find out if you're a racist, sexist, non-inclusive dickwad but don't quote me on that, I'm having trouble gleaning any context from the above jumble of buzzwords. And then when you are fully self-aware of the fact that you're kind of a racist, somehow this will help you be less of a racist and therefore a better person with which to work.

Anyway, that's what PwC has going on this week. Don't you feel a whole bunch more inclusion-y already?

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Newly autumnal-hued PwC still has nature on the brain, this time reflecting on the kick-ass job they did by reducing their carbon footprint 20% since FY07.

For those of you scoring at home (read: Al Gore) that’s two years ahead of schedule.

Through a two-fold strategy, consisting of solutions around workspaces, air travel and commuting, as well as through the engagement of its people to make behavior changes, the firm has reduced its carbon emissions by more than 62,000 CO2 metric tons since FY07, its baseline emission levels.

Being a shameless tree hugger, we applaud the efforts of PwC and also KPMG who announced the reaching of their greeny goals – also ahead of plan – back in July.

However, the thing we’re a little skeptical about are the goals that each firm set for themselves. If they are blowing these carbon emission reduction targets out of the water and ahead of schedule it seems like they may have set the bar a little low. You figure that if you throw some recycle bins in the common areas, encourage more video conferencing and replace all the old light bulbs with the long-life version, you’re already ahead of the game.

PwC did a good job at detailing how they’ve been recognized for their efforts but they still remain vague about any future plans to continue their efforts:

“At PwC we take an integrated approach to reducing our waste, emissions, and discharges by elevating our green efforts and embracing new business practices,” said Shannon Schuyler, corporate responsibility leader, PwC. “We will continue to work toward sustaining the reduction we have already made, as well as partner with our experts in the S&CC practice to set new goals and targets in the future. To us, supporting a healthier and more sustainable environment is part of being a responsible leader.”

KPMG, on the other hand, was very specific about their efforts and what they had planned for the future including the Living Green Teams (with uniforms), recycling laptops and taking a stab at this paperless audit idea.

Granted, getting serious about reducing emissions is something that has only been sexy for the last 2-3 years so maybe the firm will ratchet up the goals, along with detailing specific measures, over the long-term.

PwC Meets 20 Percent Carbon-Reduction Goal Two Years Ahead of Schedule [PR Newswire]

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