Janette O’Neill rejoins PwC as first chief sustainability officer for Australia
PwC has appointed its first ever Chief Sustainability Officer in Australia: Janette O’Neill, who returns to the firm and commences her new role today.
“We are delighted to welcome Janette to PwC Australia. Her appointment as our inaugural Chief Sustainability Officer is a critical part of our effort to build meaningful growth and value, for our clients and our firm, as we strive to deliver on our sustainability goals,” said Liza Maimone, PwC’s Chief Operating Officer.
O’Neill brings a wealth of experience in sustainability to the largest of the Big Four in Australia, including in sustainability strategy, transformation, reporting, people and culture.
Returning to PwC fourteen years after she departed the firm’s UK organisation for a career in industry, O’Neill most recently was the Group Head of Sustainability at QBE Insurance since 2017. Before that, she was General Manager for Culture, Leadership & Transformation at electricity and gas distributor Vector, Head of Sustainability at National Australia Bank and Group Manager Sustainability at Amcor.
Meanwhile, O’Neill served for six years as Director of the Centre for Sustainability Leadership, a Melbourne-based not for profit dedicated to developing the next generation of sustainability leaders.
In her new executive role, O’Neill will provide expertise to PwC’s clients across the country, with a focus on the financial services industry. “Organisations and governments are facing a wide range of complex, interconnected and disorderly ESG issues.”
“Our ability to help clients bring clarity to that disorder, uniting a broad range of expertise, experience and technologies to solve seen and unseen problems, allows them to manage and mitigate risk whilst being a catalyst for environmental, social and economic prosperity,” said O’Neill.
In addition, O’Neill will also play a key role in leading the firm’s own sustainability agenda. In Australia, PwC aims to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
PwC’s global targets include reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent in absolute terms from 2019 levels by 2030, in line with a 1.5 degree scenario. These targets go beyond scope 1 and scope 2 emissions, and also include indirect scope 3 emissions.
