In 2022, BCG supported several social impact projects in Denmark to create positive, societal change. Learn more about the projects in our Annual Social Impact Report below.
At BCG, we are committed to making a positive impact beyond the traditional business domain. This is why we prioritize social impact both internally as well as when working with clients and external partners.
One of the ways we do this is through our yearly social impact projects, where we join forces with organizations dedicated to creating value for society and the environment.
Last year, BCG supported 8 social impact projects that spanned across topics such as sustainability, DE&I, and entrepreneurship. Take a look at the slideshow for a quick summary or learn more about each project by reading the Social Impact Report below.
Gender Diversity Roundtable
Every year BCG collaborates with UN Women to co-host the Gender Diversity Roundtable where industry leaders discuss the latest topics in advancing gender diversity. The Gender Diversity roundtable is held annually on March 8th with the purpose of bringing together recognized leaders of society, including private sector, academia, and civil society to discuss the latest research on gender diversity in Denmark.
In 2022, the theme of the roundtable was ‘Retention and Advancement of Women’, and the research behind therefore focused on how companies can retain and advance women into leadership positions to build an organic and sustainable women leadership pipeline. However, building the pipeline is not enough in itself. To retain a diverse workforce and ensure that individual needs are met on an everyday basis, it is important to implement dedicated processes and initiatives for diversity, equity, and inclusion into the backbone of a company’s culture. Or as our BCG colleague Tobias puts it:
“Companies need to realize that enhancing diversity, equity and inclusion demands a lot of work and can’t only be done by recruiting a more diverse workforce.”
Tobias Wriedt, Associate at BCG
If you want to learn more about the key topics in gender diversity, you can access this article interviewing two BCG Associates on their work with the Gender Diversity Roundtable 2022.
BCG’s Nordic Net Zero Report
In April, we published the Nordic Net Zero report. Since September 2021, a BCG team had conducted extensive research on net zero levers and developed an affordable and achievable pathway to reach net zero in the Nordics by 2050. The pathway jointly optimizes for local abatement and global export potential where Nordic companies have a competitive advantage through what we call ‘smart decarbonization’.
The Nordic Net Zero report helps companies and countries identify and prioritize the right levers, determine the investment required to implement them, and capitalize on their export potential across five key ecosystems.
“Climate change is the challenge of our generation. Yet, we believe it also presents the biggest opportunity for the Nordics. I’m proud that we, in BCG, help drive this agenda and hope to inspire others”
Andreas Parker, Consultant at BCG
You can read more about the report here: Nordic Net Zero Report
Project Green Constitution
With the ambition to add provisions to the Danish Constitution regarding climate and environmental protection, BCG and Grundfos launched the Project ‘Green Constitution’ together in 2019. The project has since grown intensely and now counts 35+ organizations and corporations. Adding provisions on environmental protection to the Danish Constitutions would provide heightened protection and enable Danish courts to hold politicians, society, and companies accountable for complying with these provisions.
In 2022, we emphasized our engagement into the green agenda by arranging the Green Constitution conference titled ‘Future for the Young Generation – Democracy, Promises & Rights’ (In Danish: Fremtiden for den unge generation – demokrati, løfter og rettigheder) which took place at the Confederation of Danish Industry on Tuesday, June 7th. The conference was open to the public and included panels with politicians, NGOs, industry representatives and of the younger generation. Invited speakers included amongst others, one of Denmark’s leading researchers within constitutional law, Sune Klinge, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights & Environment, David R. Boyd, CEO of Ørsted, Mads Nipper, and one of the world’s leading researchers within Biodiversity, Kathrine Ricardson.
Let’s hear some of the participants why the project Green Constitution is so important:
“Over 80% of the world’s countries include environmental provisions in their Constitutions, their highest and strongest laws, and these provisions make a positive difference in terms of better environmental performance, so it’s surprising that Denmark – a country with green reputation – has no environmental provisions in its constitution, and it’s time for that to change” – David R. Boyd, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights & Environment
“If we want to be a green first mover, we have to take responsibility of within Denmark but also globally and therefore we should – as many other countries have – add green provisions to the Danish Constitution” – Mette Müller Kristensen, Head of Secretariat, Global Focus
The conference was opened by Anders Fæste, Managing Partner of BCG Denmark, posing the question “The climate crisis is growing and it’s our responsibility that we do not leave behind an unsolvable task for future generations. But how?”. This question led an open, research-based, and inspiring discussion around how we together manage the growing climate crisis, and if you are curious as to which answers where given, you can learn more in this short recap video, or join the initiative and conversation on www.groengrundlov.dk, Twitter or Instagram.
Green Startup Cup
On August
24th, BCG, Antler and Vækstfonden hosted the first Green Startup Cup in
Copenhagen. The main objective of the Green Startup Cup is to support and
accelerate innovative solutions that can spearhead the green transition in
Denmark.
More than
100 fantastic startups with bright, green ideas had applied. Out of this
amazing pool, 12 were selected to pitch their ideas for a greener future to a
panel of experienced judges. The 12 selected semifinalists pitched a variety of
innovative ideas ranging from sustainable fashion to packaging,
decarbonization, construction, logistics, food and many more. Four of the
startups made it to the finals which took place in Børssalen in Copenhagen.
“It was a fantastic experience to be a part of the organizing team for the first ever Green Startup Cup. To bring together BCG, Vækstfonden (now EIFO) to support tomorrow’s green leaders in accelerating the green transition was truly inspiring! It is a testament to BCG’s high ambitions in Climate & Sustainability and a great way to raise awareness internally and externally”
Morten Lybæk, Consultant at BCG
Curious about who won the final? Read more about the event, the participating startups, and the winners here.
Project Greenland
In 2022, BCG supported the Government of Greenland (GoG) with assessing attractiveness and market design opportunities for using local hydropower potential for production of green ammonia for export. Key pillars of the project were to understand and balance societal benefits for Greenland while creating financial upsides, delivering an attractive business case to investors, and considering risks related to the project.
With this project, we helped the GoG to understand the potential value of the hydropower resources – a key to inform the decision of how to design the market. Further, we assessed market design options to help balance the attractivity to private investors with benefits to Greenland. We also reviewed whether the current project roadmap is feasible to ensure a competitive award process between potential developers.
The overall goal of this project was to support the GoG in maximizing the value of the hydropower resources to the people of Greenland. Realizing a project like this would imply an investment 10x higher than any investment ever performed in Greenland, leading to local jobs, revenue to the state and important contributions to mitigating climate change.
“I am proud and humbled to have been part of a project that was both super exciting, had a great team, and was able to create a large positive impact for Greenland.”
Lars Habostad, Associate at BCG
Mind Your Own Business (MYOB) Venture Camp 2022
Since 2012 BCG has contributed to the development of Mind Your Own Business (MYOB), an organization that helps young boys from marginalized communities start their own micro-business.
On the 26th of November, BCG hosted the MYOB Venture Camp 2022, where ~70 boys (distributed along 6 early-stage micro-ventures) brought street-smart-attitude and an explosion of energy to the BCG office while building a business plan for their venture. During the day, the groups got support from BCG consultants to set a strategy for their venture, define a roll-out map and prepare a presentation for the BCG expert panel.
Examples of the creative business ideas are:
- Slagelse – 11 boys aged 11-14 years who want to sell multi-colored pancakes, primarily through B2B, and who already have a line-up with cross-selling products.
- Sydhavn and Tingbjerg – two groups who both want to create a perfume with a masculine smell. While the group from Sydhavn wants it to be a refillable bottle where the user should be able to pour as much perfume on without it getting too much, the group from Tingbjerg wants it to be roll-on perfume and has already initiated contact to a perfume factory for a prototype.
- Varde – 10 boys aged 13-14 years who have discovered a gap in the market for male-necklaces in Varde and now want to develop their own style.
“It was very inspiring and fun to be hosting the young boys from Tingbjerg during the Venture Camp. They had their mind set on entering the perfume industry and had already reached out to local producers – needless to say they didn’t lack creativity. We spent the day working on structure, business planning and presentation skills, and it was super impressive to see how far they’d come when presenting to the panel of judges after only ~8 hours.”
Mads Wind, Associate at BCG
LGBT+ Danmark
To deliver a strong societal impact on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), BCG partnered with the organization LGBT+ Danmark (DK), the main NGO in Denmark advocating for the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals. With the goal to improve the inclusion of LGBTQ+ individuals in the Danish workplaces, BCG contributed in two ways:
- We supported the creation of a “Company Toolkit” that would enable LGBT+ DK to help companies establish specific LGBTQ+ inclusion initiatives and,
- We developed a Thought Leadership report on LGBTQ+ inclusion, which provided a “call for action” for Danish companies and delivered concrete solutions.
With our “Company Toolkit”, we helped LGBT+ DK structure their interaction with companies and supported the development of “how to” guides to secure inclusive company policies, operations, and leadership. This enables LGBT+ DK to have a widespread reach and deliver fast and impactful initiatives to a range of companies. With our Thought Leadership report, we identified current challenges for LGBTQ+ inclusion in the Danish workplaces; a staggering 81% of LGBTQ+ respondents have been exposed to or witnessed at least one discriminatory situation against LGBTQ+ individuals at a workplace in the last two years. To change this problematic status quo, we surveyed the most impactful solutions and found that by focusing inclusion initiatives on relevant actions within policies, leadership, operations and people, companies can dramatically improve inclusion of LGBTQ+ individuals, thereby increasing well-being, job satisfaction and achievement at work.
“As Danish companies clearly miss the mark on LGBTQ+ inclusion, this project has identified much-needed solutions. By helping companies deliver on LGBTQ+ inclusion we offer a dual opportunity; employees will thrive which in turn will lead to increased business performance.”
Martin Reichhardt, Project Leader at BCG
If you want to know more, read our report: Danish Companies Miss the Mark on LGBT+ Inclusion
World Business Council for Sustainable Development – The EU Digital Product Passport
Imagine you could make more sustainable purchasing decisions by knowing the environmental footprint of a product along its value chain. This will soon become reality as the EU proposes the Digital Product Passport (DPP) as a tool to create more transparency and unlock circularity. In 2022, BCG collaborated with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) on this upcoming EU regulation for DPPs which share product information across the entire value chain, including data on raw material extraction, production, recycling, etc.
BCG supported with assessing the implications of this regulation and launched three publications about the EU DPP together with WBCSD. These analyze the EU regulation and how companies will be impacted, propose actions for companies to start preparing today and illustrate key implications for electronics value chain actors.
Our work with the WBCSD is a series of three publications. Learn more below and follow the links to read them:
Enabling Circularity through Transparency: Introducing the EU Digital Product Passport
- Introduces EU DPP and objectives
- Summarizes EU DPP status as of Nov 2022
- Outlines options for open policy elements and discusses implications
Navigating Uncertainties of the EU Digital Product Passport: How to Prepare Now as a Company
- Introduces EU DPP from a corporate lens
- Outlines why companies should act now and how they can prepare
- Highlights challenges and additional growth opportunities
The EU Digital Product Passport Shapes the Future of Value Chains: What it is and how to Prepare
- Summarizes regulatory status
- Illustrates key implications for electronics value chain actors
- Highlights actions companies and the EC can take to prepare for the DPP
