Press release
BOSTON & LONDON—January 6, 2023—Bain & Company today announced a worldwide strategic partnership with Schneider Electric, a leading global sustainability and engineering consulting business focused on energy management and decarbonization.
More than 4,000 companies have committed to achieve science-based carbon reduction targets over the next 25 years, yet many are struggling to meet these goals. Further, mounting pressure from investors and increasing compliance legislation on emissions, climate risk, and transparency are driving additional urgency for companies to act.
The new partnership will combine Bain & Company’s deep advisory expertise in decarbonization and its capabilities across industries in manufacturing excellence, including supply chain enhancement, performance improvement and operational delivery, and Schneider Electric’s market-leading experience in strategically designing and implementing clients’ carbon reduction and energy use transformations. The partnership follows a series of existing, highly successful collaborations that have demonstrated the impact of the companies’ combined expertise for clients.
“At Bain & Company we are constantly enhancing the breadth and depth of our capabilities and expertise to help our clients accomplish their ESG goals and secure the greatest potential and value from their decarbonization and energy efficiency journeys. Our partnership with Schneider Electric will be a critical accelerator of our ambition in this arena, providing us with a key partner as we work with leading companies to forge a more sustainable and profitable future for their businesses, investors and communities,” said Hernan Saenz, partner and leader of Bain’s Global Performance Improvement practice.
“The global demand for corporate decarbonization has accelerated rapidly, driving new pressures for companies to make meaningful progress on energy efficiency, renewable energy procurement, and electrification,” said Steve Wilhite, President of Schneider Electric’s global Sustainability Business. “Our partnership with Bain & Company will advance decarbonization and the energy transition for our clients, driving greater resilience and faster results.”
Strong sustainability commitments and record
Bain & Company, which has been carbon neutral since 2011, announced in April its commitment to science-based target emissions reductions, as well as the pledge to be net carbon negative in every year going forward. This will see the firm remove more than 100% of its scope 1, 2 and 3 carbon emissions by supporting projects that extract carbon from the atmosphere. This is part of the Bain’s bold, multi-year ESG commitments set out in our 2022 ESG report.
The firm launched its Sustainability and Responsibility Practice over ten years ago and has seen the area grow by more than 65% per annum over the past five years, with more than 950 sustainability projects undertaken by its consulting teams during this period, including more than 800 which touched on climate transition cases. In September, Bain launched the Further Academy, which will see it train all consultants worldwide in ESG within months, in partnership with 12 world-class universities.
Schneider Electric is also a recognized global sustainability leader, and the new partnership will harness the company’s growing portfolio of digital decarbonization solutions and its network of more than 2,500 experts in over 100 countries in the areas of energy and carbon management, renewable energy procurement, ESG, and efficiency. The company is the world’s leading corporate energy advisor, managing more than $40 billion in energy spend on behalf of its clients annually, and having consulted on hundreds of utility-scale renewable PPA purchases since 2014.
In 2022, Schneider was honored as a Top 10 member of the Corporate Knights Global 100 Index most sustainable companies in the world and recently announced its 12th consecutive year on the CDP “A” list. The company is committed to net zero emissions across its operations and value chain by 2050. To achieve this goal, Schneider launched its Zero Carbon Project in 2021, a program to help its top 1,000 suppliers reduce emissions 50% by 2025.
Media Contacts
For any questions or to arrange an interview, please contact:
Bain & Company:
Dan Pinkney (Boston) — Email: dan.pinkney@bain.com
Gary Duncan (London) — Email: gary.duncan@bain.com
Schneider Electric:
Clifton Passow (Colorado) — Email: clifton.passow@se.com
About Bain & Company
Bain & Company is a global consultancy that helps the world’s most ambitious change makers define the future.
Across 65 cities in 40 countries, we work alongside our clients as one team with a shared ambition to achieve extraordinary results, outperform the competition, and redefine industries. We complement our tailored, integrated expertise with a vibrant ecosystem of digital innovators to deliver better, faster, and more enduring outcomes. Our 10-year commitment to invest more than $1 billion in pro bono services brings our talent, expertise, and insight to organizations tackling today’s urgent challenges in education, racial equity, social justice, economic development, and the environment. We earned a platinum rating from EcoVadis, the leading platform for environmental, social, and ethical performance ratings for global supply chains, putting us in the top 1% of all companies. Since our founding in 1973, we have measured our success by the success of our clients, and we proudly maintain the highest level of client advocacy in the industry.