Taking action for a sustainable future

We are committed to protecting our planet and believe it’s our duty to use natural resources responsibly and proactively to address climate change. As we continue our environmental sustainability journey, we aim to align our approach to reporting climate-related risks and opportunities with the core elements of the disclosure framework laid out by the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD): governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets.

Governance

As discussed in more detail in the environmental, social, and governance oversight section, our Nominating & Corporate Governance Committee oversees our corporate social responsibility objectives and initiatives.

Strategy

Our strategy for environmental sustainability focuses on strategic impact areas aligned with potential business risks. As a professional services firm, we do not engage in manufacturing, product distribution, or hazardous waste generation. Due to the nature of our business, our offices have low water consumption, but we remain observant of any need for water recycling initiatives should that change.

While we acknowledge the carbon emissions resulting from office operations and business travel, we have demonstrated our ability to achieve business growth and deliver exceptional client outcomes while simultaneously reducing office space and travel requirements.

Our forward-looking target is to neutralize our Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions on an annual basis through collaborations with organizations like Climate Vault, that take a measurable and verifiable approach to reducing carbon emissions. Climate Vault is an award-winning nonprofit organization that takes a quantifiable, market-based approach to decreasing carbon emissions by removing carbon pollution allowances from government-regulated carbon markets. Because there is a cap on the number of allowances available, this effectively decreases carbon dioxide

emissions in a quantifiable and verifiable way. Climate Vault also supports and advances carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies through its Technology Chamber – an assembled team of scientists, policy experts and academics who evaluate RFP proposals for innovative CDR projects and provide grant funding on an annual basis.

In addition to working with organizations such as Climate Vault, we seek to lower our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by leveraging renewable energy sources in our offices where we have purchasing decisions over our energy consumption.

Key aspects of our sustainability approach

Resource conservation: We seek procurement opportunities and implement operational conservation measures to minimize natural resource consumption.

Reuse and recycling: Our commitment to sustainability includes reusing and recycling when feasible. We responsibly manage waste streams, including e-waste and water, as relevant to our business.

Our dedicated and highly engaged workforce plays a vital role in our sustainability strategy. To align with Sustainable Development Goal 13 (SDG 13) and our commitment to climate action, we prioritize educating and raising awareness among our employees about climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction, and early warning.

In November 2023, our fourth annual sustainability challenge took place, reinforcing our ongoing dedication to promoting sustainable practices, cultivating eco-friendly habits, and enhancing environmental awareness among our workforce. The Huron Chooses Green Challenge featured two primary missions:

Take action on your own: Focused on encouraging personal actions.

Take action with the Sustainability network: Centered around collaborative engagement with colleagues through live events organized by Huron’s Sustainability network.

Nearly 85 employees enthusiastically participated in this two-week event, collectively completing over 600 sustainability-focused activities. These activities ranged from adopting sustainable lifestyle changes to consuming educational content. As a direct outcome of these collective efforts, our employees were responsible for diverting 31,000 pounds of waste from landfills and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 4,900 pounds.

In addition to the Huron Chooses Green Challenge, we enriched our employees’ knowledge through a series of engaging lunch and learn sessions. These sessions covered various environmentally relevant topics, including composting, further empowering our workforce to make informed, sustainable choices and drive positive environmental impact.

Climate-related risks and opportunities

Our approach to addressing climate-related risks and opportunities is comprehensive, encompassing considerations from physical, regulatory, and operational standpoints. Recognizing the significance of these factors, our Enterprise Risk Management Committee maintains a consistent practice of reviewing and evaluating our exposure to climate-related risks.

As a professional services firm, our day-to-day operations are generally less directly affected by climate change compared with other industries. However, we remain mindful of the potential for business disruptions caused by extreme weather events, such as flooding, wildfires, or power supply disruptions. Continuing to adopt a hybrid work environment helps to mitigate against such disruptions as our employees can effectively serve clients with reduced travel through remote work. Employee safety risks posed by climate events is mitigated through our partnership with International SOS, which enables us to monitor business travel and ensure the well-being of our employees during crises, including natural disasters. Further details regarding our commitment to employee safety, particularly during business travel, can be found in our Health and Safety Policy.

How we work with clients to advance climate goals

Our dedication to sustainability extends to our clients as demonstrated by our work with Stony Brook University. During 2021, the Trust for Governors Island — a branch of the New York City government dedicated to the island’s upkeep and continued development — launched a competitive process to select a university to anchor a climate center on Governors Island. In response, Huron supported a coalition of top academic, corporate, and community partners, led by Stony Brook University, in putting together a proposal that resulted in the creation of the New York Climate Exchange (the Exchange).

The Exchange was launched in May 2023, and since that time, a dedicated Huron team has been helping to stand up this new nonprofit organization, playing an integral role in creating and operationalizing this new entity and serving in important roles to support the various partners and stakeholder groups. The Huron team, together with the growing Exchange staff, is supporting the development of cutting-edge facilities, designing deeply integrated programs, and convening a global network of academic, corporate, and nonprofit partners to unlock new ways of approaching and responding to the climate crisis.

The Exchange, based on Governors Island in New York City, will leverage its partners and relationships to have an immediate impact on climate-centric innovation, commercialization, education, workforce development, and community engagement. Through its breadth and global reach, the Exchange will serve as a convener of policymakers, academics, corporations, community groups, and others to collectively address climate change.

Metrics

^{Fig. 13. A graph of Huron's greenhouse gas emissions}

From 2020 to 2023, we achieved robust financial performance with revenues growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17%, accompanied by a workforce expansion of over 70%. As our global workforce continues to grow, we recognize the potential impact it can have on our GHG emissions.

In 2023, we continued our efforts to track our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions data, working with AccountAbility, a third-party global consultancy firm. While we made progress in our data collection processes, we continue to rely on activity data estimations for the calculations as illustrated in figure 14.

While our Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions increased from 2022 levels due to higher electricity usage and expanded business travel, as our data indicates, we continue to demonstrate our commitment to limiting carbon emissions through an overall reduction of over 50% from our 2019 baseline.

We also continue to see a significant decline in our GHG emissions per employee from 2019. Beginning in 2023, we also neutralized our total 2022 Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas (GHG)

emissions through our collaboration with Climate Vault, as part of our commitment to neutralizing our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions on an annual basis.

^{Fig. 14. A table of Huron's greenhouse gas emissions}

_{^{*The GHG emissions in this chart cover only the emissions-producing activities listed and are estimated using the methods, emissions factors, and assumptions detailed in in our GHG Emissions Calculations Methodology. They are not exhaustive of all of Huron's GHG emissions-producing activities.}}

_{^{*tCO2e is metric tons in carbon dioxide equivalent. Total employees include full-time employees as of Dec. 31 of the respective year.}}

_{^{*For more details on the methodology for these environmental impact calculations, please refer to Huron's GHG Emissions Calculations Methodology in the Appendix.}}