Forvis Mazars secured formal Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) validation for a set of ambitious net-zero targets last October, including a commitment to reduce 64% of its scope 1 and 2 emissions and 34% of its scope 3 emissions by 2030. In the longer term, the firm aims to cut 95% of scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2038 and 90% of scope 3 emissions by 2045.

To meet those goals, the firm launched net-zero toolkits for member countries and sustainability focused travel guidelines. It has also integrated environmental, social and governance into its enterprise risk management system and enforced a sustainable code of conduct for suppliers. 

In addition, Forvis Mazars’ French offices are piloting an app enabling partners and employees to monitor emissions linked to their work. Following the trial, the firm plans to share the app more widely, empowering team members to take ownership of their carbon footprints.

The firm is also helping clients with their own sustainability journeys, consulting on activities such as emissions measurement and reduction mapping.

To find out more about the firm’s SBTi journey and how the validation process works, Insights caught up with Forvis Mazars UK Head of Sustainability Mhairi Poole, and Director and Sustainability Services Lead, William Hughes.

Material factors

For Poole, whose team has an internal focus, none of what the firm has achieved so far would have been possible without senior-management buy-in. “Unless that executive-level sponsorship and backing are in place, it’s very difficult to take action,” she says.

At the start of any SBTi journey, she explains, an organisation must measure and understand material emissions and then consider reduction levers. So the firm’s first step was to gather and interrogate emissions data across its entire, global operation. “In terms of materiality, we found that the vast majority of our emissions sit within Scope 3 – and the most material area is purchased goods and services,” Poole says. “That covers everything within our supply chain. After that, it’s business travel, then employee commuting.”

Following that analysis, Poole’s team began to work closely with the firm’s procurement arm to help it strengthen its supplier engagement programme and to get a better understanding of where emissions occur within the firm’s supply chain. Another was to find out where suppliers were on their own sustainability journeys. The firm also set specific, near-term targets for business travel and commuting, and enhanced its travel policy with a much stronger focus on sustainability.

“We’re not saying: ‘no travel’,” Poole stresses. “But we’re asking partners and employees to consider why they’re travelling, whether it’s essential and what mode they’re using. We’re incentivising team members to use cleaner, lower-carbon forms of transport, and we’re about to launch a resource of powerful management information: a dashboard that will combine data on all our travel emissions and the travel itself. That will empower our leaders to manage the impacts.”

In tandem, the firm has set targets around renewable energy across its entire estate.

Behavioural change

In contrast to Poole, Hughes has an outward-facing role, working with clients. He points out that the SBTi mandates global companies to enter the process as a group, rather than one country at a time. That required the firm to take stock of its local variations. As Hughes notes: “Some countries we work in don’t even have enough electricity yet – let alone electric cars.” Goals for individual territories had to be carefully calibrated in a way that would support the overall, group objectives.

As sustainability is such an integral part of its strategy, Forvis Mazars has set higher interim targets than those recommended by the SBTi. However, Hughes says, the final hurdle is exacting. “You’ve got to hit a 90% reduction across Scopes 1, 2 and 3 by 2050,” he explains. “You can use offsetting to get through that final 10% – but not before clearing that 90% threshold.” The rationale behind that is simple: organisations that lean on offsetting are unlikely to foster behavioural change.

Unlike the process that companies go through to become a B Corporation, or ‘B Corp’, the SBTi does not consult. It plays a wholly transactional role and the onus is upon any business on the pathway to live up to, and deliver on, the targets it has set. For Hughes, that suits how Forvis Mazars works, as the firm has already built significant, in-house expertise in sustainability.

“Once you’ve registered and paid your subscription, there’s a process you follow to populate a number of templates with your reduction activities,” says Hughes. “That information goes through scrutiny in a series of committees and eventually the SBTi comes back to say you are validated, which it also announces on its website. We monitor progress quarterly. If we report to the SBTi that we are underperforming on our goals, we must communicate that to our stakeholders.”

He adds: “It’s important to influence our partner businesses within our network, as we won’t be able to meet our targets without them.”

For any other accounting or auditing firm that may be mulling the SBTi route, Poole has three pieces of advice. “First, you need that top-management endorsement, and second, communicating and collaborating with your team members is essential for creating long-term, behavioural change. Just setting a target doesn’t mean you’ll achieve it. Third, you must have high-quality data to understand your baseline and track your progress.”

Asked whether smaller firms would have as much to gain from the SBTi as their large counterparts, Poole says: “We’re feeling increasing expectations around sustainability from clients, prospects, job candidates and existing employees. So, there’s a very commercial lens for looking at this that may be a more pressing issue for larger firms at present. But I don’t think it’ll be long before smaller firms will need to think about this, too.”