BrazilBain offers sustainability program to French and Dutch teams
Global strategy consulting firm Bain & Company has teamed up with two leading European academic institutions to develop a tailored sustainability program for its consultants.
In a bid to stay ahead in the rapidly evolving world of sustainability and environment, social and governance (ESG), as well as internalise the firm’s ambitions to walk the talk, Bain & Company is sending all its consultants in France and the Netherlands to a new sustainability course.
Developed in collaboration with HEC Paris and TU Delft for the firm’s French and Dutch teams respectively, all fee-earners – from associate to partner – will be enrolled to complete the program by the end of this year.
“Climate change has become a strategic priority for our customers and a major concern for our employees. We must all be able to understand these trends and their evolution,” said Ada Di Marzo, Managing Director of Bain & Company in France.
At the same time, “the complexity of climate challenge and the rapid pace of technological change mean that our consultants must continue to develop their expertise in these areas in order to provide their clients with the latest knowledge and insights,” Di Marzo added.
Veronique Pauwels, Managing Partner of Bain’s Amsterdam office, added: “At Bain, we all strive to remain on top of the latest trends, technologies and emerging solutions. In this rapidly changing environment, we plan to further strengthen our ESG skillset through continuing education for all of our people, in order to help our clients ‘do the right thing’ while finding ways to generate value by building toward a more sustainable future.”
The program with HEC Paris and TU Delft covers crucial themes in the sustainability and ESG space, including climate change modelling, carbon transition, energy transition, circularity, food transition, sustainable supply chains, and ‘green’ consumer mega trends.
“Sustainability and responsibility topics are at the heart of a growing number of our assignments, from low-carbon strategies to circular business models, and scientifically based objectives are increasingly the standard. That’s why we’re investing in this in-depth and unique training program,” said Alejandro Navarro, Partner and Head of the Sustainability & Responsibility practice in the Netherlands.
According to releases from the business schools, Bainees (as Bain consultants are dubbed internally) will receive a total of 40 hours of training per consultant.
François Montaville , Head of Bain’s ESG competence center in France, said the firm picked the academic institutions for their frontrunning national and pan-European position in the climate and energy landscape.
Going forward, Bain & Company plans to set up similar training programs for all its teams worldwide. “These development in France and the Netherlands are a milestone in our broader ESG training curriculum globally” said François Faelli, who earlier this year was named the firm’s inaugural global leader for ESG.
Meanwhile, in a similar move Deloitte has committed to providing all its 330,000 employees worldwide access to a sustainability training course. Bain & Company’s top rivals however – McKinsey & Company and Boston Consulting Group – have so far not unveiled any plans for a company-wide ESG training.
Internally, by the end of 2022, Bain & Company aims to have to have transitioned from a carbon net-zero to a carbon net-negative business. Globally, the firm has over 13,000 employees across 63 offices in 38 countries.
