At BDO, we believe we all have a role to play in protecting, preserving, and renewing our resources so that the way we live our lives today does not negatively impact future generations. We recognise the need to adapt our strategy and our services. We want to inspire, educate, and lead a sustainable business practice for our clients, in our markets and in BDO.
We seek to achieve a positive impact on our people, our clients, our communities, and our environment. To achieve this, our leadership teams are working together with BDO globally to develop services and tools that are relevant to us, to aid our journey towards sustainable growth.
Our key goals will remain - proactively meeting our clients’ changing needs, delivering quality advice, creating opportunities for our people, and maximising effectiveness to achieve holistic and integrated sustainable growth, while also delivering on our Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) responsibilities. Our more formalised focus on ESG will help us to do this.
We have established a Sustainability Steering Committee, which reports directly to the Chief Executive Partner and the BDO Board, responsible for driving the adoption of sustainable practices and values across the business. It is also currently working on what’s required to publish BDO’s inaugural Sustainability Report and, consistent with BDO globally, commit to an emissions reduction (net zero) target.
Our people focused vision (People helping people achieve their dreams), and our value set (One, Bold, Human, Strive, Heart), sit at the heart of achieving sustainable growth for our clients, our people, our communities, and our markets. Our strategy, ‘Thrive 2025, Grow Together’, aims to develop and execute a practical yet meaningful approach to sustainability.
We believe in trust and transparency. We publish the annual BDO Transparency Report, focusing on the quality of our audit work. A big part of what we do as auditors is to provide trust in the financial system and support investor confidence. We take our public interest responsibilities seriously and believe the information in our Transparency Report demonstrates how we deliver quality audits that provide trust.
Our vision, values, strategy and brand – taken together – will guide and influence our decision-making and behaviours at all levels, now and into the future. This is an important journey for us, and everyone in the organisation has a part to play.
Our people are the key to our success. We are committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in our workplace. BDO participates in the Diversity Council of Australia survey and was recognised as an ‘Employer of Choice’ for Inclusion and Diversity. The DCA survey allows us to identify employees who:
Whilst we are only able to share the publicly-available Workplace Gender and Equality Agency reports (given the sensitivity/confidentiality of some of the information), we also have a Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and committee with goals and targets. These include:
We also recognise strong governance is critical to achieving our long term sustainability outcomes. At BDO, we are dedicated to treating all people with due respect and facilitating workspaces and relationships that are safe, ethical and transparent. We strive to not pursue relationships that facilitate, endorse or encourage modern slavery practices, whether directly or indirectly. Our published Modern Slavery Statement addresses the mandatory criteria outlined in the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth).
We are creating a blueprint. We acknowledge the growing importance of sustainability in business and the shifting expectations of our stakeholders. We believe laying robust foundations will better position our business for a sustainable future. As part of the process of creating our ESG baseline, we intend this to form part of our organisational blueprint that guides us in delivering a holistic and integrated approach to enable a sustainable future.
As our firm flexes and adapts to the rapidly changing world, we are committed to ensuring the progress we make is focused on the right outcomes for our people, our clients, our communities, and our planet.
Find out more about our sustainability journey.