Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has been a pioneer in business strategy since its 1963 founding in Boston, Massachusetts. The firm’s core purpose has always been to enable businesses to adapt to an evolving corporate landscape and build lasting competitive advantage. Today, BCG has a global presence with 22,000 employees spread across offices in more than 90 international cities and clients from the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors.
BCG has brought the same ethos and commitment to sustainability too. The firm prides itself in being guided by the highest standards of ethics and conduct, with values that aim to do right by people and planet.
> 22,000 employees spread globally across 90 cities
> CarbonNeutral® since 2018
> Net zero by 2030 - 20 years ahead of the Paris Agreement's timeline
BCG has been a CarbonNeutral® certified company since 2018. This means the firm:
- measures its footprint aligning with the GHG Protocol and corporate best-practice*,
- has set science-based targets to reduce emissions over time, and
- purchases and retires a volume of independently verified high-quality carbon credits that is equivalent to its annual carbon footprint.
By working with Climate Impact Partners, BCG has financed an array of high-quality projects that either avoid the release of emissions, such as projects that prevent deforestation, or remove emissions from the atmosphere, such as reforestation projects. In 2020, BCG retired carbon credits from 14 projects across 12 countries, and its ratio of removal projects increased from about 30% in 2019 to ~40% in 2020.
How BCG communicates its pathway to net zero
In September 2020, BCG moved beyond the CarbonNeutral® certification, and pledged to achieve ‘net zero-climate impact’ by 2030.
To do so, the firm has increased the ambition of its greenhouse gas emissions targets, and now aims to cut its emissions intensity in half by 2025 (target validated by SBTi as aligned with the goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5°C). As part of this goal, BCG will:
- reduce its energy and electricity-related emissions (Scopes 1 and 2) by 92% per full-time equivalent employee (FTE) by 2025 and
- cut its business travel emissions (Scope 3) by 48.5% per FTE by 2025 (both against its 2018 baseline year).
The firm expects to meet this target largely through planned changes to ways of working and travel norms, and to achieve the remaining reductions by supporting the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for flights taken by BCG employees** and through expected efficiency gains from airlines.
While BCG continues to focus efforts on reducing emissions, the firm understands that taking responsibility for the carbon emissions it emits today is a crucial part of any robust climate strategy. BCG will work to neutralize 100% of its emissions by 2030 but also maintain carbon neutrality en-route to net zero.
To achieve this the firm will begin directing more of its finance to carbon removal credits so that by 2030, BCG will solely finance projects to remove the emissions it is unable to avoid. It publicly announced its expectation to pay $80 per metric tonne by 2030, for high-quality credits that deliver verified carbon removals alongside sustainable development benefits.
BCG is also exploring opportunities to integrate engineered removal credits into its carbon offset portfolio, from technologies ensuring more permanent carbon sequestration such as Direct Air Capture and Storage.
BCG will not stop there.
- Beyond the 2030 net zero mark, the firm has committed to become climate positive whereby it will remove more carbon from the atmosphere than it emits each year.
- While BCG continues to focus efforts on reducing emissions, the firm understands that taking responsibility for the carbon emissions it emits today is a crucial part of any robust climate strategy. BCG will work to neutralize 100% of its emissions by 2030 but also maintain carbon neutrality en-route to net zero.
As a leading management consulting firm with global reach, BCG’s greatest climate impact comes from working in collaboration with its clients, to maximize the effectiveness of their sustainability policies. As such, the firm has committed $400 million to drive climate impact and action with clients and partners. Climate and sustainability consulting is the fastest-growing topic across all areas of BCG’s business.
BCG has already invested over $240 million in climate and sustainability action so far this decade and was one of the leading consultancies engaged in shaping global climate action, for example through its exclusive consulting partnership with COP26.
Recognizing the firm’s leadership, BCG was the only global management consulting firm and one of only 200 companies globally to receive an A rating in the 2021 CDP Climate Disclosure.
To find out more, visit: www.bcg.com/about/net-zero.
*BCG includes all relevant Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions sources, as well as non-GHG sources, such as the radiative-forcing impact of air travel. The firm independently verifies and reports its footprint via the Annual Sustainability Report and CDP Climate Disclosure where BCG is featured on the A-List.
**For example, through the SkyNRG BoardNow Program, United Airlines’ Eco Skies Alliance, or Neste’s My SAF for business program, virtually replacing a share of the kerosene consumption induced by BCG’s travel with Sustainable Aviation Fuel.
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