Working on a social impact case at Bain
Working on a social impact case at Bain
A senior associate consultant shares how he helped private investors turn climate ambition into practical action
When people think about social impact work, they often picture nonprofits or public sector projects. But at Bain, impact also means helping businesses tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges in ways that are practical and commercially sound.
For Frederic Michaelsen, a senior associate consultant in our Zurich office, that meant working on a case team helping private investors across Europe build a shared framework for reducing emissions. Collaborating with Bain teammates across sustainability and tech, he helped turn that framework into something investors could use in practice.
In this post, he shares what that experience taught him about making sustainability practical and impactful.
Meaningful progress requires translating climate ambition into practical, financially grounded actions that teams can actually implement.
Frederic Michaelsen
Senior Associate Consultant
What was the organization’s mission, and how did we support them?
The organization’s goal was to help private markets investors reduce emissions across their portfolios in a structured, transparent way. They wanted to create a shared language that investors could use to understand where companies stand on their decarbonization journey across industries, regions, and levels of maturity.
Importantly, the aim wasn’t to set strict rules or act as a regulator. It was to provide practical guidance that investors could realistically apply in their day-to-day work.
Our role at Bain was to help evolve and strengthen this framework. That meant gathering feedback from investors, reflecting new regulations and market expectations, refining how progress is measured, and improving the tools that support implementation. In short, we helped turn a strong idea into something that could be used at scale.
What did a typical day look like for you on this case?
A typical day involved close collaboration with sustainability leaders at major investment firms. We worked together to test ideas, review drafts, and discuss practical “how-to” questions, like how to measure emissions consistently, or how to factor climate considerations into real investment decisions.
We held regular working sessions, often multiple times per week, to understand what was truly feasible for deal teams and portfolio companies. The focus was always on making sure the guidance reflected how investments actually happen, not just what sounds good in theory.
Behind the scenes, we also partnered closely with Bain colleagues. Climate experts helped refine the technical details. Our tech team supported the build of an emissions tracking tool. And our marketing colleagues helped share the work more broadly with the investor community. It was highly collaborative across offices, capabilities, and borders.
Was there a standout moment from the case that really stuck with you?
The official launch of the updated framework in November was a real standout moment.
After months of incorporating feedback from more than 250 contributing organizations and aligning many different perspectives, seeing the strong reception and growing adoption across private markets was incredibly rewarding It was a tangible example of industry-wide collaboration translating into practical action.
How did this experience shape your perspective on social impact work at Bain?
On a content level, I gained a much deeper appreciation for what it really means to embed sustainability into private equity in a way that is commercially credible.
Decarbonization in private markets is not straightforward: ownership structures are complex, investment timelines are finite, and incentives are tightly linked to value creation
I learned that meaningful progress only happens when climate ambition is translated into practical, financially grounded actions that investment and management teams can actually implement, rather than treating sustainability as a separate initiative.
Just as importantly, I learned how to align stakeholders with different priorities, regulatory environments, and levels of ambition around a shared but flexible framework. That balance between rigor and flexibility is what makes impact scalable.
