Corporate Responsibility
We’re only as strong as the communities in which we operate. So it makes sense for us to be responsible citizens, by supporting local communities with the skills and resources that we have.
We focus our efforts on two key areas: helping disadvantaged youth achieve their full potential and providing professional services to charitable organisations. We also ensure that our initiatives are sustainable, and that we’re there for our beneficiaries for the long term.
Besides making a difference in society, our people also benefit by learning new skills, gaining personal fulfillment and building deeper relationships with their community. Read on to learn more about how our Corporate Responsibility initiatives and programmes support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
FY19 |
FY18 |
FY17 |
|
|---|---|---|---|
Number of staff volunteers |
462 |
413 |
273 |
Number of volunteering hours |
5,146 |
7,446 |
7,573 |
Number of discounted/pro-bono provision of professional service projects |
18 |
24 |
26 |
Donations and grants (RM) |
217,485 |
210,427 |
120,395 |
We’re proud to share that our number of volunteers continue to increase gradually in FY18 and FY19 though volunteering hours have declined.
We see an increase in the number of volunteers due to our new volunteering programmes, especially the environmental programmes. In FY19, 38% of our total volunteers were involved in our environmental programmes.
The decrease in volunteering hours in FY19 is due to the shorter duration of our Community Outreach Programme (COP) to better manage work and volunteering commitments of our people over the same duration from June to October 2018. We have also discontinued COP at one of the schools as we redirected volunteers to the MYReaders programme. There were also more self-driven volunteering organised by teams across departments in PwC, a positive sign that Corporate Responsibility resonates with our people without the need for the CR team to drive programmes.
We are looking at having more volunteering opportunities for our people to participate in. With increasing interest from our people over the past two years, we are confident that we will be able to meet our FY20 goals on sustaining the number of volunteers and increasing volunteering hours.
There is also an increase in donations, mainly due to PwC's commitment to contribute to society by continuing our support for Teach for Malaysia, funding MYReaders for our school programme annually, and supporting Cancer Research Malaysia and National Council for the Blind Malaysia through programmes like Movember and #UrutPwC respectively. We will continue to fund nonprofits that are aligned with our focus on supporting education and capacity building for underserved communities in FY20.
We are encouraged to hear that our initiatives are making a positive impact on our volunteers too, with our PwC Volunteer Survey 2018 revealing that 30% of our volunteers said they would not have developed the same way through regular work alone.
Creating positive impact on communities
We measure the impact of our community outreach initiatives (COP, MYReaders, Money & Me), as it helps us evaluate their effectiveness in making a change. We are happy to share that our activities have made a positive impact on the participating schools and charity homes, in terms of cost savings on educational programmes.
To gather the results, we asked ourselves, “How much would charity homes or schools have to spend to enroll each child for tuition throughout the volunteering duration?” We then used market rates for tuition and financial literacy courses to calculate the estimated cost.
In 2018, our COP ran for 16 weeks, with 64 students participating. MYReaders ran for 17 weeks, for 24 students, while 21 Money & Me workshops were organised for 29 students. In total, we impacted 117 individuals, who collectively logged approximately 12,800 hours of tuition or financial literacy workshops.
Through the collective efforts of our volunteers, we were able to help the school and charity homes save a total of RM650,000 on tuition costs.
The Community Outreach Programme
The Community Outreach Programme (COP) focuses on providing quality education for underprivileged children. It started in 2002 and is one of our flagship programmes.
Each volunteer from PwC dedicates one or two weeks of their time between June and October to tutor children at the homes and the school we support (Anbu Illam, Karunai Illam, Rumah Juara and SMK Bandar Baru Ampang).
Our volunteers help the children with homework, address literacy issues as well as assist the homes with administrative duties.
As part of our commitment to continuous improvement, we began to track the progress of children at the COP homes in 2015, using an evaluation tool to measure non-academic progress such as attendance, punctuality, adaptability, communication skills, independence, attitude towards learning and self-esteem.
Since then, each volunteer is required to complete evaluation forms for the children at the end of their volunteering stint. Results are compiled at the end of the year. We then visit the homes to go through the results and discuss how we can help them further.
We evaluated 64 students benefitting from the COP across the 3 charity homes we supported. We collected over 500 forms in 2018, averaging 8 forms per student.
The image below shows the distribution of students according to their evaluation in 2018
The image below shows the number of students improving from 2017 to 2018, based on the evaluation forms. We are encouraged by these numbers and will continue to invest time to help the students improve further.
MYReaders
In 2017, we expanded our Community Outreach Programme to SMK Bandar Baru Ampang, collaborating with MYReaders* to help students read better in English, and we’ve seen improvement in the past two years.
The programme ran for 17 weeks in 2018, following a structured syllabus that covers phonics, fluency and comprehension.
24 students, from Remove Class to Form 4, with the reading proficiency of pre-kindergarten to Standard 1 levels, were selected to spend an hour everyday with our volunteers.
To measure the students' progress, they were evaluated through diagnostic tests pre-, mid- and post-programme.
Students were able to recognise more words while reading at the end of the programme. In 2018, the word recognition of participating students grew by 56%, with a 21% improvement in comprehension skills within the five-month period.
The image below shows the students’ reading proficiency after participating in our MYReaders programme in just one year.
Students participating in the programme improved their reading abilities and were able to read more fluently after the programme.
One of the teachers at SMK Bandar Baru Ampang shared qualitative feedback that the programme has helped in remediating the reading and communication skills of participating students.
“Eight students who participated in MYReaders have displayed an average of 12 marks of improvement in their English Language mid-term examination, with the highest at 36 marks of improvement.”
*MYReaders is a non-profit organisation that aims to help illiterate students learn to read in English using a structured, research-based programme by empowering teachers, parents and on-the-ground movers.
2:30
Summary for COP & MYReaders:
Note: COP volunteering information for 2019 is unavailable at the time of reporting as the school year has yet to end.
To wrap up the year, we engaged Engineering for Kids to help us organise a science workshop for students who we support on the COP, where they enjoyed a hands-on experience making ice cream and slime.
Our plans for 2019 includes expanding MYReaders to the COP homes so that students from the COP homes are also able to benefit from the literacy programme. We would also be able to measure the impact on their progress better.
Polaris
“People used to tease me about my physical appearance but I am more confident after this workshop - I will look at things positively!”
Polaris is our soft skills workshop programme that we’ve been running since 2010 at Methodist Girls’ School Kuala Lumpur (MGSKL), reaching out to Form 4 students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. We expanded Polaris to SMK Bandar Baru Ampang in 2018 and focused on students of the same age group and background.
This programme is aimed at helping students build confidence and improve their communication skills, which are essential to ensure a successful transition from school to university and later, from university to the workplace. Our people volunteer as mentors, sharing practical tips and knowledge that the students can then apply to their daily lives.
The workshop runs for two hours per session, three times a year in each school and for the same group of students throughout the year.
Our colleagues in Johor Bahru also ran a Polaris workshop in September 2018. This is their second year running this workshop in collaboration with Teach for Malaysia (TFM). 40 students from two schools in Johor Bahru participated in the workshop where 20 of our volunteers mentored the students on increasing confidence levels and communication skills.
For future workshops, we plan to expand this programme to more of our regional offices across Malaysia, look at building structure into our content and measure programme effectiveness better.
We had a total of six workshops in 2018 which covered the following topics:
Goal-setting
Understanding personality types
Communication
Confidence & positive thinking
Social media etiquette (Netiquette)
To wrap up Polaris at MGSKL, we brought the students to Petrosains for an educational trip. Check out the event video below.
2:30
Numbers above includes all workshops in 2018, at our regional offices and the Petrosains year-end trip. Polaris volunteering information for 2019 is unavailable at the time of reporting as the school year has yet to end.
6 workshops
129 students
72 volunteers
164 hours
Numbers above includes all workshops in 2018, at our regional office and the Petrosains year-end trip. Polaris volunteering information for 2019 is unavailable at the time of reporting as the school year has yet to end.
4.31 I’m able to apply what I’ve learned
4.00 The content is relevant
4.30 The content is easy to understand
3.38-4.35 Understanding of topics before and after the workshops
95% felt more confident and self-aware after the workshops.
Money & Me
In 2018, we continued running Money & Me, a financial literacy programme in collaboration with The Edge Education Foundation (TEEF).
For our third year, we ran ten workshops based on the theme ‘Save, Spend, Earn, Grow, and Give’ for 29 students at Methodist Girls School Kuala Lumpur (MGSKL). The programme ran from March to July 2018, followed by a ‘Sales Day’ and a two-day Boot Camp in September 2018.
During the ‘Sales Day’, students had to use their financial skills and design thinking skills that they had learnt from the workshops to innovate, produce, and compete to market and sell their merchandise of choice.
One team from MGSKL won second place under the team category in a competition with other schools participating in the Money & Me programme and received a smartphone each. The team also secured RM3,000 from TEEF for their school for winning second place in the overall school category.
In 2017, TEEF began evaluating students' understanding in financial literacy through a pre- and post-programme assessment.
The average post-assessment score showed an improvement of 5% from the pre-assessment score of 51% on financial literacy for MGSKL Money and Me 2018 participants. In comparison, we recorded a 3% improvement in 2017. We are also proud to note that 14% of participants made the decision to open a bank account after going through the programme (59% owned a bank account at the beginning of the programme). This was one of the key learnings from the workshop series, which covered the importance of saving with a bank and taught them how to open a bank account.
Money & Me volunteering information for 2019 is unavailable at the time of reporting as the school year has yet to end.
Capacity building for non-profit organisations
We don’t just work with students or individuals. One of our focus areas is to use our work-related experience, knowledge and skills to upskill nonprofits for sustainable, broader and longer term impact.
In 2018, we worked with Yayasan Sime Darby (YSD) to run a pro-bono workshop for its beneficiaries on the topic of good governance, transparency and finance so that they become more sustainable and independent in the long run. The content of the workshops was co-designed by both YSD and PwC volunteers. The workshop was attended by 18 non-profit organisations.
Our long term plan is to look at areas where we can continue to use our knowledge and skills for the capacity building of non-profit organisations so that they can do more for their beneficiaries and the wider community.
Project INTURN
Teach for Malaysia (TFM) is a not-for-profit organisation which focuses on equality in education. We’ve been firm supporters of TFM and their cause from its inception.
In January 2019, TFM brought Project INTURN to our colleagues in the Johor Bahru office. Project INTURN gives students from disadvantaged backgrounds the opportunity for an internship placement after their SPM (Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia, equivalent to 'O' Level), to gain work exposure and understand a particular job role better. One student underwent a month-long internship at the Johor Bahru office with the Assurance team where he job-shadowed the auditors.
We received great feedback from TFM and we plan to continue supporting similar causes in the future in line with our effort to maximise the potential of young people.
“It was like a dream come true because this is my what I want to do in the future, and I am delighted to work with PwC Malaysia as I gained a lot of experience that money can’t buy.”
Planet
Having championed the sustainability agenda in Malaysia since 2007, PwC remains more committed than ever in keeping sustainability top of mind among our clients and walking the talk in our own business operations.
We believe our greatest potential for influence is to impact the environment positively through our work with clients, which is driven primarily by our Sustainability and Climate Change team and our Sustainability Assurance team.
Within PwC Malaysia, we will continue to look into driving efficiency through digitalisation and efficient business practices, improving our awareness and understanding of our environmental impact through carbon measurement and reporting, as well as implementing behavioural change programmes and awareness.
Additionally, we will be offsetting 100% of our emissions from air travel starting from FY19 (July 2018 to June 2019), totalling 1,946 tonnes CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent, which is the standard unit of measurement for carbon footprint).
Overall, our FY19 carbon emission is 3,095 tonnes CO2e - 12 tonnes CO2e (Scope 1); 1,136 tonnes CO2e (Scope 2); and 1,946 tonnes CO2e (Scope 3) based on vehicles owned by the firm, electricity consumption and business-related flights.
Here are a few initiatives we have put in place for the betterment of our Planet:
72% of our people believe that PwC drives positive societal change through our environmental initiatives.
Since November 2018, PwC global has been supporting World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in developing and screening a corporate version of ‘Our Planet’ - specifically for businesses. At PwC Malaysia, we ran two screenings of ‘Our Planet : Our Business’. The 40-minute screening explores the immense value of nature to our economy, the scale of the challenges that we are facing as well as the critical role that business can play in creating solutions at scale and solving the world’s environmental crisis.
The first screening was done in conjunction with our Environment Week in June 2019. This was a private screening for our people to gain awareness of the importance of businesses in leading the movement on saving the environment and the urgency in acting now. We also invited WWF Malaysia for a short sharing session on how we could do better and play a part in minimising our impact on the environment.
“I found the documentary refreshingly different, how they explained the history of earth from the past, to the present, to what is coming in the future if we continue down this path”
121 participants |
We invited our clients and sustainability practitioners for the second screening in July 2019. This included a panel on 'Climate Change & its Impact to Businesses' where business leaders discussed the recently launched World Economic Forum report on climate change governance for boards. The panel session continued with a call-to-action for boards and companies to play a leading role in the innovation, recovery and restoration needed to address climate change.
70 participantsmajority from the sustainability community |
In 2018, 37 participants took part in a tree planting event at Taman Tugu. Taman Tugu aims to conserve 66 acres of urban parks and to develop a pedestrian-friendly city. The half-day event took place at Taman Tugu Nursery as part of their Eco Week which was prior to opening of the park.
Encouraged by good participation and feedback, we looked for other opportunities to do more for the environment. During our Environment Week in June 2019, we worked with Persatuan Pendidikan Dan Kebajikan Jaringan Nelayan Pantai Malaysia (JARING) and Jabatan Perhutanan Negeri Selangor to organise a mangrove planting session for our people.
"The mangrove planting activity was great, and I would definitely go for it again! I liked how different it was, in comparison to our usual 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle). It got us out of our comfort zone, getting dirty in the mud and putting our phones away for a little while. Amazing how these trees can make that much difference in our ecosystems and to our fishermen."
For these efforts to be sustainable and impactful, we intend to follow-up with the growth of our mangrove tree saplings and have planned for more mangrove planting activities in the next financial year.
World Environmental Week - Mangrove Planting Highlights
During our Environmental week in June 2019, we worked with Persatuan Pendidikan Dan Kebajikan Jaringan Nelayan Pantai Malaysia (JARING) and Jabatan Perhutanan Negeri Selangor to organise a mangrove planting session for our people.
On top of volunteering activities that’s organised by the Corporate Responsibility team, we also had smaller teams across the firm organising their own volunteering events in 2018 and 2019 which consists of:
During our Environment Week in June 2019, we also organised a talk on 'Zero Waste Living for Beginners' where we invited the founder of The Hive Bulk Foods to share tips on reducing waste at home and reducing our individual carbon footprint.
On top of that, our people also had the opportunity to learn how to make DIY body scrubs from aromatic coffee grounds as well as beeswax wraps which is a reusable option to disposable packaging. Both workshops were conducted by The Hive Bulk Foods with the aim to create awareness in eliminating the use of single-use plastic and exposure to the toxins found in plastics.
29 participants |
"Well-organised and fun; it was easy to understand and keep up. Eye-opening experience as to how we could do our bit for the environment by reusing and recycling everyday items and recreating something of value again”.
We are continuously looking for ways to reduce the use of paper in the office as part of our efforts to drive efficiency. For example, we have gone paperless by using QR codes for registration at internal trainings since FY19, as well as in our events brochure to link to online reports.
As part of the firm's goal of 'Digitalisation', the Human Capital team assessed their processes and reimagined how they could be more effective and efficient by leveraging technology. This led to them reducing their use of paper by 83% from an estimated 172,000 pieces of paper to less than 30,000 pieces. They did this by discontinuing printing of hardcopy materials for both learners and trainers at internal training events and transitioning to softcopies shared on devices or shared on the cloud; online registration for tuition in the lead up to professional exams (we have close to 900 applicants from PwC Malaysia annually); used online interview assessments on Workday, reducing hardcopy interview packs; and online sign-ins at training events.
Though there are on-going efforts to reduce the use of paper, it is still our biggest form of waste. We run a paper recycling campaign throughout the year (separate from ‘Recycle for life’), where the proceeds of recycled paper go towards our Corporate Responsibility fund. The fund is set aside to help our people who may be in need of financial aid.
The difference in the amount of recycled paper between FY18 and FY19 is due to a delay in scheduling of waste management from one of the teams, which resulted in a lesser amount for FY18 and higher amount for FY19.
We estimate our societal impact* of waste averted from landfills due to our recycling efforts in FY19 to be RM6,272. We will continue to do our part in reducing the amount of waste deposited into landfills, therefore helping to decrease disamenity costs (disadvantages due to location), as well as the release of greenhouse gas emissions and leachate into the environment.
*This impact indicator measures the costs averted from recycling waste instead of sending them to landfills, which is the typical practice in Malaysia. Based on the European Commission’s external cost estimates for landfills without leachate management.
Recycle for Life (RfL) is a recycling programme that rewards PwC employees with cash in exchange for their recyclables.
The programme is initiated by Cenviro Sdn Bhd in partnership with MyKasih Foundation. Powered by MyKasih’s cashless payment system, credit received for recyclables is stored in a smart card, which can be used in selected restaurants and supermarkets.
We implemented the programme in 2017 and we had 266 people registered by June 2019. In total, we recycled 3,383kg of waste over two years, which earned our people a total of RM1,290 since the implementation of the programme.
We also organised a team RfL competition in April 2019 which lasted 3 months in an effort to increase awareness and participation rates. The winning team collected a total of 227kg recyclables worth RM78.42.
Moving forward, we are discontinuing RfL as we were unable to scale the programme to a wider group beyond a dedicated group of participants. Some challenges were due to our people mostly not being office-based and logistic issues (lack of storage space, transportation). Our recycling effort does not stop here, as we are looking at other ways to increase awareness at reducing waste and encouraging recycling. We are also looking at delivering more environmental programmes that have a bigger reach and impact.
In a bid to minimise the use of single-use plastic and paper cups, we introduced the ‘Bring your Own Cup’ programme in our Kuala Lumpur office in 2017. Under this programme, people who bring their own reusable cups to PwC’s in-house café will receive a free drink after their 10th purchase.
We plan to continue this initiative and explore similar options with cafes within the Kuala Lumpur office building.
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