Helping leaders and organizations rewrite the climate math equation
Featured video
Leading on Business Sustainability
“You can’t outsource sustainability.” McKinsey Sustainability leaders Daniel Pacthod, Dickon Pinner, and Laura Corb, explain why businesses will need to embed sustainability in every part of the company
What we do
Net zero and portfolio strategy
We help clients assess the full potential of their sustainability efforts and analyze implications for portfolio, green growth, and decarbonization. We also help them communicate their strategies and the reasoning behind them to the capital markets.
Environment, Social, Governance (ESG)
We help ESG-focused organizations benchmark their own performance against peers, set ESG goals, quantify value at stake, and develop roadmaps for improving ESG performance.
Business inquiries
Looking for sustainability solutions?
Examples of our work
Clearing a path to net zero
We worked with a leading energy company to decrease its reliance on fossil fuels in line with Paris Agreement targets and meet expectations of investors and creditors calling for faster transition. We mapped out investor expectations, assessed the client’s emissions across three scopes, identified green growth options, and created a set of targets to communicate to the market.
Reviewing and rebuilding to improve sustainability
We helped a plastics producer perform an “ESG teardown” by re-examining its entire operating model and value chain through the lens of sustainability. We baselined the client’s footprint and governance against industry peers, identified and evaluated multiple business model options, and prioritized decarbonization initiatives.
Optimizing performance to eliminate carbon emissions
We assisted a leading auto manufacturer in developing a bold game plan to reduce CO2 emissions across the vehicle lifecycle and regain its position as a sustainability leader. We benchmarked ESG performance against peers, defined and communicated a set of features to enhance safety, and developed a set of programs to promote skill building and employee wellness.
Featured Experts
Lucy Pérez
Senior PartnerBoston
Leader in McKinsey’s Life Sciences practice, advising pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical-product companies, and healthcare...
Michael Birshan
Senior PartnerLondon
Global coleader of our Strategy & Corporate Finance Practice, partnering with bold and determined leaders to set strategy, transform...
Rory Clune
PartnerBoston
Brings broad experience in strategic and operational topics to companies across the energy value chain, along with deep expertise...
Featured Insights
Article
How to make ESG real
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While ESG is likely to evolve both in substance and name in the coming years, its underlying impulse is here to stay. Here’s how companies can take a more systematic and rewarding approach to ESG.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
Does ESG really matter—and why?
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Although valid questions have been raised about ESG, the need for companies to understand and address their externalities is likely to become essential to maintaining their social license.
Article
Spotting green business opportunities in a surging net-zero world
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Explore how 8 industries may transition to reach a 2050 net-zero scenario, and how organizations can respond with new green businesses that create value along the way.
Podcast
Solving the net-zero equation in the United States
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Achieving net-zero carbon emissions will require investment and action on a massive scale. How can the United States meet the challenge of this moment?
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
Playing offense to create value in the net-zero transition
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Decarbonization will reshape the economy, opening new markets and imperiling others. Now is the moment for companies to spot green growth opportunities and move boldly to take advantage.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
Climate math: What a 1.5-degree pathway would take
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Decarbonizing global business at scale is achievable, but the math is daunting.
Survey
The ESG premium: New perspectives on value and performance
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In a new survey, executives and investment professionals largely agree that environmental, social, and governance programs create short- and long-term value—though perceptions of how have changed over the past decade.