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'Blessed to live in UAE that has an ambitious sustainability vision'

Alexis Lecanuet, Senior Managing Director at Accenture, praises the young nation while elaborating on the IT major’s aggressive net-zero goals

In October 2020, Accenture, a Fortune Global 500 company specializing in information technology (IT) and consulting, announced new sustainability commitments, including industry-leading net-zero emissions goals and a newly created leadership role. Alexis Lecanuet, Senior Managing Director at Accenture, recently elaborated on its ambitious journey to net zero in the backdrop of the COP-27 summit at Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt during an exclusive interaction with Khaleej Times.

He said, “The global pace of sustainability and the corporate net zero goals is gaining momentum. We’ve published a report, Accelerating global companies toward net zero by 2050. Every year we measure how many companies set that goal. We reached 34% this year, up from 27% last year. Data shows that only 7% of the companies are on track to deliver their goal. But roughly 80% of them need to double their pace to achieve the goal that they had set for themselves.”

He spoke about decarbonization efforts via digitisation.

“If a sustainability plan needs to be put in place, data holds the key. Migrations to the public cloud can reduce CO2 emissions by 59 million tons annually, equating to taking 22 million cars off the road. Besides, there is the digital twin, which has a huge potential in saving carbon emissions,” he said.

Lecanuet outlined Accenture’s sustainability vision for the UAE next year.

“We’re blessed to live in a country like the UAE with an ambitious sustainability vision. We’re serving in the UAE, what we call the national champion. Altogether, 85% of our businesses are made with national champions in every key industry, such as banking, telcos, energy, etc. We try to support them into a holistic transformation journey, what we call a 360-degree value creation,” he added.

Accenture is “aggressively looking to become zero e-waste by 2025”.

Lecanuet cited Accenture’s chairperson and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Julie Sweet, who is the proponent of the “sustainability-is-the-new-digital” mantra.

“Renewables are a way that each industry has to embark upon to translate sustainability initiatives into a net-zero reality,” he added.

And, Accenture has put its best foot forward on the sustainability front.

joydeep@khaleejtimes.com