Ernst & Young – David Yang – 2011

Goals

David Yang, a dual-degree MBA/MS student at the University of Michigan’s Erb Institute, spent his summer as an EDF Climate Corps fellow with Ernst & Young LLP, a global professional services organization. Yang focused his time on understanding Ernst & Young’s Americas carbon footprint from a building energy use perspective, developing strategies that can encourage greater energy efficiency at Ernst & Young’s offices in the United States.

Solutions

Previously, Ernst & Young underwent an important exercise to measure and identify its overall carbon footprint in the Americas for fiscal years 2008-2010. While the numbers indicated a decrease in carbon intensity over the three year period, Ernst & Young was eager to understand what factors contributed to the decreasing trend. Yang analyzed the underlying data, performed a deeper dive into nine office locations and uncovered energy efficiency efforts at lower-intensity offices that could be implemented in higher-intensity locations.

Potential Impact

The net of Yang’s efforts yielded a perspective on how to enhance Ernst & Young’s building energy efficiency strategy to drive down energy use and costs at select offices. Further, he recommended projects to enhance ongoing internal efforts around employee engagement to continue to promote Ernst & Young’s environmental initiatives.