Environment
We define our core value of sustainability as the creation or enhancement of environmental, economic, and social balance, as realized through client deliverables, business activities, employee actions, and community engagement. Backed by empowered teams, we implement these principles and best practices in corporate operations and customer solutions to address environmental risk and minimize our carbon footprint.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
We have set targets to reduce our Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions 50% and our Scope 3 emissions 30% by 2030, compared to a 2019 baseline. We have also set targets to become net-zero no later than 2045 and achieve 100% renewable electricity by 2028. All of these targets have been submitted to SBTi for verification.
2023 GHG Emissions Distribution By Source And Scope
Scope 1 And Scope 2 GHG Emissions
(MT CO2e)
Facilities Energy Consumption
Flexible work options allow employees to work remotely on a part-time or full-time basis, which reduces the need for office space, and we partner with property owners in our leased facilities to implement energy-saving lighting and HVAC systems. Nonetheless, because we have limited control over our electricity consumption in our leased spaces, we have purchased Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) which has contributed to a 67.5% year-over-year decrease in our Market Based Scope 2 emissions for our grid-purchased electricity.
2023 Facilities Energy Consumption (MWh)
Facilities Water Consumption (cubic meters estimated)
Water
Parsons’ offices obtain water from municipal water supplies. We partner with property owners in our leased facilities to adopt water conserving measured wherever possible to reduce impacts of our leased office facilities. In 2023, we were able to obtain data covering approximately 39% of our leased footprint. Total water use for the entire footprint was calculated by extrapolating based on our total area of leased real estate. In prior years, we only included home offices in our calculations in line with our GHG reporting. In 2023 we began including project offices and estimations of water usage in prior years has been updated to match this change in methodology.
Waste Diversion
Parsons leases 100% of our real estate footprint, and waste charges are typically included in total lessor charges, our waste data has been calculated using employee badge scan data for our home offices and project offices and an estimate of 2.45 pounds per person per day in the office (half of the EPA estimate of 4.9 pounds per person per day). Our office recycling programs vary by location, but we have corporate programs for recycling waste paper and office electronics in a safe and secure manner. In 2023, our North American operations diverted 85 metric tonnes of securely shredded paper and recycled or repurposed notebooks, PCs, monitors, servers, and other electronics equal to 30 metric tonnes of e-waste diverted from landfills. Additionally, in our Qatar and United Arab Emirates offices, we recycled or repurposed 957 hardware units.
Guiding Principles
We know that successful environmental performance must be grounded in effective policies and procedures. We continuously review and update our policies, procedures, training, and solutions to reflect best practices in the industry.
Sustainability Policy
Our sustainability policy, which applies to Parsons Corporation and all our businesses and subsidiaries worldwide as well as our suppliers/vendors per our Code of Conduct, affirms our commitment to sustainability and the mitigation of climate change impacts in our client solutions and in our internal operations.
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Sustainable Procurement
We conduct procurement in an open and competitive manner, using fair and ethical business practices to ensure sustainable procurement, vendor management, and purchasing to enhance our supply chain. We capture environmental reporting governance and services information from our suppliers/vendors as they are added to our system.
Sustainability Handbook
Our Sustainability Handbook outlines procedures and processes for sustainability stewardship, describes our corporate culture of sustainability, identifies best practices, and provides guidance for internal and client sustainable solutions.