Our four strategic pillars help bring our mission to life and guide us in fulfilling our environmental commitment.
Infusing environmental stewardship into our culture
At RSM, we define stewardship as leaving the world better than we found it, and we recognize that the actions of our people, both personally and professionally, make a significant impact on the environment.
We provide on-demand educational opportunities and resources to empower our people to make environmentally responsible decisions to reduce their carbon footprint by reducing waste through recycling, composting and traveling more sustainably.
We engage our people by offering local and national environmental stewardship opportunities hosted by our environmental employee engagement committee and environmental office champions.
Integrating environmental sustainability into our everyday business operations
We strive to integrate environmental policies and procedures into the way we do business to minimize our impact on the environment and reduce waste.
We’re taking steps to reduce our square footage by nearly one-third per employee to better align our real estate strategy with how our people use our office space.
We continue to prioritize buildings that are LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-certified and internationally recognized by the certification system of the U.S. Green Building Council. We prioritize sustainable practices for new office spaces and design our office build-outs to meet or exceed the latest energy conservation codes and LEED parameters. In addition, we procure furnishings from manufacturers committed to environmental sustainability.
Our video conferencing tools enable our people and our clients to collaborate virtually, which reduces the need for travel and in some cases enables completely virtual service delivery, thereby reducing our carbon footprint.
We leverage additional technologies, including DocuSign, SecurePrint, CrowdCompass and Caseware, to reduce or eliminate our use of paper whenever possible. Our digitized processes, electronic forms and digital apps continue to streamline processes and eliminate waste and physical storage needs.
Our office operations team has implemented a variety of waste management guidelines for ordering consumable products, recycling (including printer toner cartridges), composting, and hosting sustainable meetings and events.
Our decommissioned technology equipment gets a second life through our vendor relationships. Functioning equipment is sold, and nonfunctioning equipment is broken down into raw materials that are sold in the secondary market.
Reducing and monitoring our greenhouse gas emissions
We recognize the importance of developing and communicating our environmental impact. Our greenhouse gas inventory, which highlights our material scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, is developed using guidance from the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
We calculate our greenhouse gas emissions annually and continually work to improve our data collection processes and reporting. Our top two emission categories are energy utilities (gas, electricity, etc.) and business travel.
We prioritize virtual meetings and continue to evaluate our travel policy and internal meetings guidance, which has contributed to the reduction of our emissions from business travel.
Our environmental advisory group includes leaders and employees responsible for assessing our greenhouse gas emission inventory and carrying out our mission to reduce our carbon footprint.
Collaborating with strategic ecosystems
Strategic ecosystems include a much broader set of mutually beneficial relationships that allow us to contribute and derive value on behalf of our firm, clients, colleagues and communities. These relationships enable us to enhance our environmental efforts while deepening our relationships with like-minded businesses.
As part of our commitment to the UN Global Compact, we support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges and are actively undertaking initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility.
RSM’s sustainable advisory services practice assists public and private companies, as well as government and nonprofit organizations, with their sustainable priorities. Our vast global network of industry analysts provides critical insights and capabilities to support our clients.
We expect all vendors and suppliers to act responsibly and adhere to our code of conduct. We work closely with them to enhance our reporting and implementation of sustainable products and services that help reduce the impact our operations have on the environment.
Environmental sustainability at RSM
Through the encouragement of the environmental employee engagement committee and Davenport office leaders, we have changed the way we look at trash and are now proud to be sustainably active in our office and our community. This past fall we held an electronics recycling drive that was a huge success! PCs for People took over 100 pounds of old e-waste and responsibly recycled them. We donated what was still usable to the community to support equal access to technology for low-income families. Being the local environmental office champion has been a very rewarding experience and has opened my eyes to ways that we can better support our planet.
Crista DeVore, locations services coordinator, RSM US
We know from experience, and from scientific studies, that kids who have access to learning gardens have better nutritional habits, perform better academically and are better adapted socially ... Together, we are creating generations of happier, healthier and more engaged kids with a close connection to their food and community and engaged in nurturing a healthy planet. We can't thank you enough for joining us in support of this important mission.
Em Shipman, executive director, KidsGardening
I had the opportunity to co-develop as well as be one of the judges of the ‘Road to Net Zero’ case competition for students at University of California – Irvine. My involvement in the competition fostered community engagement by promoting awareness of net-zero initiatives, showcasing RSM’s environmental, social and governance services, encouraging collaboration among participants, and ultimately, contributing to the development of feasible strategies for a more sustainable future.
Kyra Pollack, consulting senior associate, RSM Canada
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Digitized annual reports
To reduce our use of paper, we moved to an all-digital experience for our annual reports, adding compelling interactive components and making them easily accessible for all stakeholders via our website.
