KPMG, ACI restate commitment to environmental sustainability

KPMG Nigeria, a global network of professional firms providing audit, tax and advisory services and the African Clean-up Initiative (ACI), have restated their commitments to environmental sustainability.

They expressed the commitment on the sideline of a clean-up exercise at Oniru Beach, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Mr Uzodinma Nwankwo, Partner with KPMG Professional Services Nigeria, said KPMG’s journey to environmental sustainability and governance had been two years old.

Nwankwo said that in recent years businesses had realised the need to assess the impact of their activities on the environment and to initiate needed changes.

“That is why Environment, Sustainability and Governance (ESG) have become a big thing for us at KPMG.

“We in KPMG, as part of connecting to that global journey have come up with our impact plan; that is our channel through which we are driving our strategy commitment toward the ESG.

“There are four pillars:  Planet, People, Prosperity and Governance.

“I am specifically responsible for leading the planet pillar, and the planet pillar is looking at what we are doing in ensuring the sustainability of the environment for future generations.

“This has been a two year journey and we are looking at the future; it is a long-term journey toward 2030 and beyond,” Nwankwo said.

He said the ESG agenda is built on the decarbonisation strategy, nature, biodiversity and stakeholder engagement and ensuring that KPMG is engages the participation of clients.

He said KPMG was going beyond rendering financial services to speaking to their clients about the sustainability agenda and reporting requirements.

Nwankwo said companies were now required to report on what they were doing about environmental sustainability.

He said that the Oniru Beach clean-up exercise was one in the series of activities embarked by KPMG over a couple of months to ensure a sustainable environment.

“We joined the international community to mark the World Environment Day 2023 on June 5 with the theme “Beat Plastic Pollution.”

“On June 8, World Ocean Day, was marked by the global community reminding everyone of the increasingly negative impact of activities on the ocean, and that one of the greatest pollutants is plastic.

“On July 3 was the International Plastic Day; so you can see that there is an emphasis on plastic pollution.

“We at KPMG believe the solution to this problem requires collaboration; that is why our people decided to partner with the ACI to embark on this clean–up activity here at Oniru Beach.

“It is a statement of intent that we have started taking measureable action and steps towards being the change that we want to see,” Nwankwo said.

He said plastics are among the significant inventions of the 20th century with 150 million tonnes produced every year, which averages one million tonnes of plastics introduced daily into the environment.

He said that as useful as plastics were, they had become a problem in the ecosystem with only nine per cent of plastics ever produced recycled and 79 per cent ending up in landfills.

Nwankwo said eight million tonnes of plastics end up in the ocean and at the rate they were being mishandled, it was projected that there would be more plastics in the sea than fishes.

He lamented that most marine life inject these plastics, taking them for jelly fish or prey which builds up toxins in the fishes which humans ultimately consume.

He linked the proliferation of cancers in humans to consumption of toxic fishes which had plastics as food.

“At KPMG, we want to be part of the solution and not the problem in the environment.

“We want to advocate changes in lifestyle around reuse, reduce and recycling of plastics,” Nwankwo said.

Mr Shedrack Bright, the Monitoring and Evaluation Manager for ACI, said the clean-up exercise at Oniru Beach was to sensitise the people on environmental sustainability.

Bright said that there was the need to entrench the values of sorting and waste separation at the beach.

He said that the ACI was excited at the partnership with KPMG which was in furtherance of their Cooperate Social Responsibility.

Blessing Onyelekwe, Partnership and Engagement Manager for ACI, said that ACI is the implementing partner for the KPMG Oniru Beach clean-up

Onyelekwe said that KPMG, having seen the impact of ACI on the environment, came onboard to partner with them on environmental sustainability.

By Fabian Ekeruche