Our Sustainability

Our sustainable impact doesn’t stop at client work. We believe in leading by example, so we embed a deep commitment to social and environmental standards in everything we do.

Sustainability isn’t something we just talk to others about. Certified carbon neutral since 2012 and regularly ranked as one of the best places to work, Bain strives every day to reduce our environmental footprint, enhance employee well-being, practice the highest levels of ethics and procure supplies and services sustainably.

A Letter From Our CEO

"Sustainability has become an imperative for us all. Environmental challenges are growing while timelines for addressing them are contracting. For that reason, we will continue to embed sustainability into our overall firm strategy, our client communications and our procurement practices."

― Manny Maceda, Worldwide Managing Partner

Read the letter

By the Numbers

11

Consecutive years CarbonNeutral

#1

Best Place to Work, as ranked by Glassdoor

A-

Climate change score from CDP

$1.1

Billion committed to pro bono consulting teams by 2025

Materiality Assessment

It’s imperative that we cover every aspect of the business that affects our company’s sustainability, so we developed an exhaustive list of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) topics by analyzing Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards and benchmarking against other companies in our industry. We were then able to define our final list of material topics.

Stakeholder inputs: We surveyed an extensive sample of important internal and external stakeholders and asked them to rate ESG topics in accordance with their relative importance.
Business inputs: To identify the ESG topics that had a major impact on the business, senior executives at Bain took a survey and rated each topic in accordance with its business impact on the organization.
Industry benchmarks: We used industry benchmarks such as CDP and EcoVadis to assess our material topics and identify best practices.

Our Stakeholders

We believe that the most challenging sustainability issues can’t be fixed alone, which is why we collaborate closely with our stakeholders. We engage regularly with the following internal and external stakeholder groups, all of which have been selected based on both the degree of impact our company has on the stakeholder group as well as the degree to which the stakeholder group impacts our company.

Employees

Our company is made up of extraordinarily talented individuals who share a passion for achieving the very best in everything they do. They are integral to our ability to deliver high-quality services to our clients.

We continuously communicate with our employees through events, global intranets, email newsletters, and we solicit their feedback through local, regional, and global surveys; town hall events; and formal and informal meetings

Clients

Our clients are the reason why we exist. We partner closely with them to inform their strategic decision making.

We develop our understanding of clients’ values and priorities through channels such as client meetings, site visits, virtual and in-person events, requests for proposals (RFPs) and Net Promoter Score℠ surveys. We strive to keep open channels of communication with all of our past, present and prospective clients regarding Bain policies.

Suppliers

Our suppliers help us achieve our objectives through the provision of goods and services.

Our supplier code of conduct communicates the expectations we have for our suppliers, including their ESG activities. We continuously engage with our suppliers through formal meetings and surveys to understand the impact of our policies and supplier priorities.

Ecosystem Partners

We work closely with an external network of experts and partner companies to deliver projects to our clients.

We engage with these ecosystem partners through formal and 1:1 meetings.

Communities

Our company contributes to communities around the globe, through our business decisions, volunteer activities, and fundraising efforts.

Our understanding of our communities is shaped by our engagement more than 160+ nonprofits around the globe, that are positioned closely to our communities and their needs. We engage these nonprofits through provision of professional services, meetings and events, site visits, and surveys. We also reach the broader community through press releases, social media, and media engagement.

Planet

Our business depends on a sustainable future.

We ensure that all of our policies and priorities are in line with widely accepted ESG mandates.

Material Topics

Climate Change

Bain’s commitment to the environment is defined by our unrelenting efforts to reduce the footprint of our business operations and to help our clients, suppliers and employees become better stewards of the environment.

This includes identifying, measuring and offsetting the environmental impact of our scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions; empowering green teams to coordinate local sustainability initiatives; maintaining full compliance with applicable environmental laws, regulations and other obligations; and helping clients reduce their carbon footprint and environmental impact, including support with portfolio re-invention.
Anti-Corruption

Guided by True North, we believe in winning business through our expertise, people and integrity. We promote the same values in our suppliers, employees and our clients.

This includes abiding by all applicable laws in all the countries in which we operate, our gifts and entertainment policies, insider trading policies, our supplier code of conduct and our whistle blower hotlines.
Data Security

In the course of working with our clients, we are often granted access to their confidential information. We have an individual and collective obligation to our clients, to each other and to our company to ensure appropriate security for all confidential information and other information assets within our control.

This includes but is not limited to data management, classification, security trainings, penetration tests, global certifications, system and network access and encryption standards.
Diversity and Equal Opportunity

Our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and collaboration is key to building extraordinary teams. We provide support and community/connectivity for our diverse populations, including initiatives to support equity and reduce unconscious bias.

This includes our DEI council, diversity hiring practices, regional transformation offices and sustainable procurement practices (from businesses owned by women, veterans, LGBTQ, minorities etc.)
Economic performance

We are a private company so we do not disclose financial data.

We create jobs through our 59 offices in 37 countries and impact our clients’ ability to transform the world.
Hiring Practices

Our focus is on hiring a community of people with exceptional talents, abilities and potential, and creating an environment where they can become the best version of themselves.

We are focused on increasing diversity of hiring through equitable processes in all functions and regions, at all levels; our six formal affinity groups (Asians at Bain, Blacks at Bain, BGLAD, Latinx at Bain, Veterans at Bain and Women at Bain) support recruiting and retention by driving professional development, connectivity and external impact activities

Climate Change
Anti-Corruption
Data Security
Diversity and Equal Opportunity
Economic performance
Hiring Practices

Bain’s commitment to the environment is defined by our unrelenting efforts to reduce the footprint of our business operations and to help our clients, suppliers and employees become better stewards of the environment.

This includes identifying, measuring and offsetting the environmental impact of our scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions; empowering green teams to coordinate local sustainability initiatives; maintaining full compliance with applicable environmental laws, regulations and other obligations; and helping clients reduce their carbon footprint and environmental impact, including support with portfolio re-invention.

Guided by True North, we believe in winning business through our expertise, people and integrity. We promote the same values in our suppliers, employees and our clients.

This includes abiding by all applicable laws in all the countries in which we operate, our gifts and entertainment policies, insider trading policies, our supplier code of conduct and our whistle blower hotlines.

In the course of working with our clients, we are often granted access to their confidential information. We have an individual and collective obligation to our clients, to each other and to our company to ensure appropriate security for all confidential information and other information assets within our control.

This includes but is not limited to data management, classification, security trainings, penetration tests, global certifications, system and network access and encryption standards.

Our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and collaboration is key to building extraordinary teams. We provide support and community/connectivity for our diverse populations, including initiatives to support equity and reduce unconscious bias.

This includes our DEI council, diversity hiring practices, regional transformation offices and sustainable procurement practices (from businesses owned by women, veterans, LGBTQ, minorities etc.)

We are a private company so we do not disclose financial data.

We create jobs through our 59 offices in 37 countries and impact our clients’ ability to transform the world.

Our focus is on hiring a community of people with exceptional talents, abilities and potential, and creating an environment where they can become the best version of themselves.

We are focused on increasing diversity of hiring through equitable processes in all functions and regions, at all levels; our six formal affinity groups (Asians at Bain, Blacks at Bain, BGLAD, Latinx at Bain, Veterans at Bain and Women at Bain) support recruiting and retention by driving professional development, connectivity and external impact activities

Starting with our 2021 carbon footprint, Bain is net-negative carbon, offsetting more than 100% of Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions with nature-based carbon removal projects. The firm plans to achieve net-negative status every year going forward.
Bain has committed to reduce its scope 1 and 2 emissions—from activities such as heating and powering its offices—by 30% by 2026 from a 2019 baseline, and further commits to reduce its scope 3 emissions from business travel by 35% per employee over the same time period. Our emissions reduction targets have been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative as consistent with levels required to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and are considered ambitious. The SBTi’s Target Validation Team has classified our scope 1 and 2 target ambition as in line with a 1.5°C trajectory.
We have long been a sustainability frontrunner in the industry, achieving carbon neutral status for the past ten years in a row. Since 2011, we have reduced our scope 1 and 2 emissions by 84% by converting to 100% renewable electricity, improving the energy efficiency of our office spaces and finding ways to reduce waste from our operations. In 2014, we set a goal to get to a 90% reduction by 2030.
Since 2012, Bain has been formally certified by Natural Capital Partners as a CarbonNeutral® company across its global operations. We offset 100% of all our Scope 1 & 2 greenhouse gas emissions and all business travel emissions, including all flights, hotels and taxis.
We signed the Business Ambition for 1.5⁰C commitment letter in 2020, committing to achieve 100% net-zero carbon across all of our operations by 2030.
Our local office green teams are made up of employees who are passionate about reducing our environmental impact and who champion local sustainability initiatives. They help us to further minimize waste and conserve energy around the globe.

Diversity, equity and inclusion are central to creating the extraordinary teams required to generate breakthrough results for our clients, and that includes diversity of experience, background, strengths and perspective.

We continue to build our understanding of these issues, including the need to address unconscious bias. Helping to lead these efforts are our aforementioned six formal global affinity groups.

In addition to our internal efforts, we are active participants in the broader dialogue about diversity and inclusion; we have published extensively on this topic, including a number of pieces on gender parity.

Bain continuously strives to conduct business in a sustainable and responsible way by enhancing our governance and risk management policies and procedures, and expanding our training programs on professionalism and ethical standards, and sourcing and procuring in a sustainable way.