Since 2012, Roland Berger has been committed to making the Global Compact and its principles part of our company’s strategy, culture and day-to-day operations. Based on our responsibility, we pay particular attention to the further development of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and make special efforts to continuously improve in this area. Having achieved carbon neutral status since 2019, we aim to become Net Zero. To create transparency about where we stand, we have committed to the Science Based Targets Initiative and will publish our progress in these topics in a special sustainability report from 2022.

Since becoming a member of the UN Global Compact in 2012, Roland Berger has been issuing a Communication on Progress (COP) report that illustrates our commitment to the ten principles while increasing overall transparency and accountability. Our 8th report highlights and takes stock of the activities undertaken by us to meet the expectations set by the UNGC, and to meet our responsibilities towards improving both people and planet.

Supporting our people

In what turned out to be yet another year of unprecedented challenges, we prioritized the health and wellbeing of our people as well as the communities we live in. A Corona Taskforce was established early on that focused on safeguarding employees during travel, putting measures in place to respond to COVID-19 infections in the company, providing masks, air filters, flu vaccines and much more. Additionally, we continue to enable remote working through our ‘New ways of working for Roland Berger’ program wherein budgets have been allocated for teambuilding activities and virtual health clubs that allow employees to stay motivated and maintain a well-balanced lifestyle. In 2021, we launched the RB Trip app, which among other things, ensured employees would get immediate alerts informing of COVID-19 restrictions (as well as other unforeseen events) in the country they are travelling in.

Diversity + Inclusion matters

Over the past year, driven by our values of entrepreneurship, excellence and empathy, we doubled down on our commitment towards fostering an equal opportunity work environment that is open and respectful by taking actionable measures to address inequalities and discrimination.

At the center of our efforts to create racial and social equity is our decision to root diversity in Roland Berger’s corporate strategy. As a global business that employs and works with thousands of people worldwide, we’ve always believed that the diversity of our employees enriches and empowers us. In 2020, a Global Diversity Team was put in place to drive local and global initiatives for a diverse workforce. Additionally, we have mandatory workshops on ‘unconscious bias’ for management teams worldwide, as well as a regular ‘Diversity Dashboard’ that comprehensively tracks both local and global diversity KPIs.

A new sustainable paradigm

Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges of our time, and we at Roland Berger are committed to doing our part to help avert an inevitable disaster. That’s why sustainability has always been at the very core of our purpose and our business strategy.

Not only will we be net-zero, but we are aiming to be carbon negative beyond that. This means that we are striving to actively reduce our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions along the entire value chain, and offsetting our emissions by purchasing carbon credits. In the interest of transparency, we will also publish our GHG emissions, reduction targets and progress in our first ESG report in 2022.

Fight for Data Security and against corruption

The security of our customers' data is our top priority, which is why we apply the highest standard to our IT (ISO 27001) and why we also take the protection of personal data of employees and customers very seriously. We support the fight against corruption and are committed to speaking out against all kinds of unethical behavior. We are constantly updating our existing compliance training courses, and raising employee awareness of our whistleblower system.