EY US Sustainability Impact: Reporting progress for EY US in 2021. Read the EY US Chair and Managing Partner and EY Americas Managing Partner's letter.
As proponents of stakeholder capitalism, we believe in creating value for everyone. Doing what’s right and good for our clients, people, communities and the planet is equally good for business. To be a sustainable business means we actively think about our role and act accordingly in society now and for the future.
Our commitment to creating, protecting and measuring long-term value is emblematic of our purpose: Building a better working world. When we do what we say and are accountable to our values and all our stakeholders, we help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in the US economy, and beyond.
We have been on a sustainability journey for some time now. We entered into a renewable energy virtual power purchase agreement in 2019 to finance and construct two new large-scale wind farms. These projects now generate enough renewable energy credits to match 100% of the estimated electricity consumption of our US operations. In early 2020, we named our EY Americas Sustainability and ESG Markets Leader, Orlan Boston, and our Chief Sustainability Officer, Velislava Ivanova, both of whom lead our sustainability and environmental, social and governance (ESG) services from the US. In addition, we named our Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Yele Aluko, and our Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Susan Garfield, to focus on health equity, and we named our first EY Americas Chief Wellbeing Officer, Frank Giampietro.
While our diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) journey began more than 30 years ago, the pandemic and social unrest in 2020 became a pivotal call to do more for both the US and the Firm. We intensified our efforts with our commitment to anti-racism, including many critical investments. These include $4 million to four historically Black colleges and universities to help increase the number of Black Americans in professional services. Additional investments include $1 million each in the National Urban League and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. And we have allocated a total of $1 million to be contributed to the local communities across the US in which we work and live.
We also created the EY Social Justice Fund, a platform where our people can recommend national social justice organizations, or contribute to funding organizations focused on addressing inequity, discrimination or racism in the areas of education, technology, health care, the environment or economic empowerment. In addition, we established the EY Entrepreneurs Access Network (EAN), focusing on Black and Latinx entrepreneurs, to help connect EAN participants to peers, sponsors, capital and customers. Through these efforts, we are expanding our commitments to advancing awareness and driving meaningful change in our communities.
We make critical commitments in sustainability and ESG efforts to be better stewards of stakeholder value. In addition to building global collaborations through participation in COP26, cofounding the S30, and working alongside our clients to determine and deliver on their sustainability journeys, we are making strides in our own ESG journey.
As we look forward, we continue using the virtual habits we formed during the pandemic while also supporting in-person client relationships required to drive top-line growth, offer the most effective learning experiences and help our people maintain critical interpersonal connections. As we connect in person, we are also simultaneously focusing on smart travel and overall carbon reduction to achieve our net-zero ambition for 2025.
Our steadfast determination to create trust is rooted in transparency. This report is one of many ways we share our progress in our sustainability journey and how we assist our clients in theirs, while we hold each other accountable, measuring and reporting on ESG standards.
We are honored and humbled that research and advisory firm Verdantix recognized us as an overall leader for ESG services and sustainability consulting services in its latest report, Green Quadrant: ESG & Sustainability Consulting 2022.
Verdantix recognized EY US for our leading ESG and sustainability program strategy, climate change strategy, and risk and governance performance management. The report recommends our Firm to corporate bodies seeking a consultancy organization to manage multiple types of ESG and sustainability engagements, as well as to multinational organizations wishing to develop and meet ESG targets. The Verdantix report also highlights our long history of engagement with the C-suite on ESG and sustainability initiatives and our ability to offer strategic advice across a broad range of areas.
Additional ways in which we track our efforts in sustainability include our annual EY US DEI report, Building a more equitable working world, as well as our Transparency Report 2021 and our 2022 audit quality report.
As we collectively face new and unforeseen challenges, creating sustainable value has even greater meaning to our business and that of our clients. It is even more important to our people, communities and future generations. That’s why we continue to invest in ESG and expand our sustainability-focused services to meet the growing demands of our clients and community.
While there is more to do to create a sustainable future for all of us, we’re confident that, together, we will continue to build a better working world.
