Huron Consulting

Carbon per million dollars of revenue. The legacy industry-standard reference (CDP, MSCI). Useful for cross-sector context, but distorted by margin — high-margin firms appear artificially efficient. Read alongside the operational and asset intensities for the full picture.

OpEx (operating expenditure) is the running cost of the business — staff, services, energy, materials. This shows how carbon-intensive operations are per million dollars of spend. Removes the margin distortion that revenue-based ratios introduce.

EVIC (Enterprise Value Including Cash) is the firm's total capital footprint — equity + debt + cash + minority interest. The EU's standard intensity measure (SFDR PAI 3) — answers: how much carbon does each million of capital deployed in this business produce?

PP&E (Property, Plant & Equipment) plus leased real-estate assets is the firm's physical infrastructure on the balance sheet. This shows the carbon intensity of that physical footprint — uses Scope 1+2+3 for consistency with the other headline intensities. Surfaces stranded-asset risk for asset-heavy firms.

Carbon per FTE (full-time-equivalent employee) — the diagnostic measure for people-leveraged businesses where headcount, not capital, drives delivery. Captures the office, energy and travel footprint per person.

Huron seeks to lower Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by leveraging renewable energy sources in its offices where it has purchasing decisions over energy consumption. No PPAs, RE100, or specific renewable % targets disclosed.

Huron collaborates with Climate Vault, a nonprofit that removes carbon pollution allowances from government-regulated carbon markets to quantifiably reduce CO2 emissions. Climate Vault's Technology Chamber also funds carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies. Beginning in 2023, Huron neutralized its 2022 Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions through this collaboration as part of its annual neutralization commitment.

• Employee engagement: Huron Chooses Green Challenge

  In November 2023, Huron's fourth annual sustainability challenge engaged nearly 85 employees in 600+ activities, diverting 31,000 lbs of waste from landfills and reducing CO2 emissions by 4,900 lbs. Includes lunch-and-learn sessions on composting and sustainable lifestyle choices.

• Office space reduction

  Huron has demonstrated business growth and exceptional client outcomes while simultaneously reducing office space requirements, lowering Scope 1 stationary combustion and Scope 2 purchased electricity footprints.

• Business travel reduction via hybrid work

  Air travel is the dominant emissions category (8,246.76 tCO2e in 2023, ~80% of total footprint). Huron has reduced overall emissions over 50% from 2019 baseline by reducing office space and travel requirements, with hybrid work enabling employees to serve clients with reduced travel.

• Office footprint reduction and hybrid working to cut Scope 1 and 2 emissions

  Huron has reduced its office footprint while growing revenues at 15.8% CAGR since 2020 and increasing employees by more than 50%. Flexible and hybrid working models are being leveraged to reduce the emissions associated with office energy use. Stationary combustion and purchased electricity are the primary Scope 1 and 2 sources, estimated using office square footage and EIA average energy data. The firm is also transitioning to renewable energy where possible.

• Electronic waste diversion programme

  Huron uses a certified third-party company to manage its electronic waste programme, ensuring computers and other IT hardware that are no longer useful are repurposed or disposed of in an ethically and environmentally responsible manner. Since 2018, Huron has diverted more than 42,000 pounds of electronic waste from landfill.

• Business travel reduction via flexible and hybrid work models

  Business travel (air and non-air) constitutes the entirety of Huron's disclosed Scope 3 emissions. The firm has demonstrated it can grow revenue and deliver client work while reducing travel, with Scope 3 falling from 22,442 tCO2e in 2019 to 3,409 tCO2e in 2021. Huron uses hybrid and flexible working models as a lever to alleviate Scope 3 travel emissions. In 2022, improved data coverage for air travel (70% of actual data vs 49% in 2019) supported more accurate tracking.

• Office footprint reduction and cloud migration to cut office energy

  Huron reduced its office footprint by 26% since 2019 through a hybrid in-office and remote working model. In 2021, it migrated 3,000 server workloads and 2 petabytes of data storage from traditional private data centers to the cloud, reducing energy consumption associated with owned IT infrastructure. The company discontinued ordering single-use plastics in offices as an additional waste-reduction measure.

• Business travel reduction via flexible working models

  Business travel is identified as the dominant source of Huron's GHG emissions, comprising the significant majority of Scope 3 emissions. Huron is proactively reducing reliance on travel by leveraging flexible and remote working models, allowing client delivery with reduced on-site presence. The company acknowledges travel will remain necessary but expects structurally lower levels than pre-pandemic 2019 baseline. Emissions are measured annually to track progress.

• Annual GHG measurement to identify reduction opportunities

  Huron committed to measuring its greenhouse gas emissions on an annual basis, beginning with a 2019 baseline calculation undertaken in 2021. AccountAbility, a third-party ESG consultancy, was engaged to estimate environmental impact. This measurement programme is intended to identify priority areas to lessen environmental impact and track progress over time, including Scope 1 (stationary and mobile combustion), Scope 2 (purchased electricity), and Scope 3 (business travel).

• Client advisory work on climate (NY Climate Exchange)

  Huron supports the New York Climate Exchange (launched May 2023) with Stony Brook University on Governors Island, helping to operationalize a global climate-centric nonprofit convening academic, corporate, and community partners to address the climate crisis.