ESC 2.6: How to align your clients with positive environmental impact

• What is ESC2.6 in the B Lab Standards V2? 
• How to identify your most material potential clients or projects
• How to assess the potential negative environmental impact of a client or a project 
• How to mitigate the potential negative environmental impact
• Additional Recommendations & Guidance

Clients and projects play a critical role in a service company’s environmental footprint. To ensure that Certified B Corps select clients and projects with environmental impacts in mind, the B Lab Standards V.2 require  companies in certain industries on the Service with a minor footprint track to assess the negative environmental impacts related to potential organizational clients and projects, and take necessary mitigation actions. 

This how-to guide explains how companies can meet sub-requirement ESC2.6, using a practical, proportional, and integrated approach that leverages environmental due diligence. Add ref to HR3.3

What is ESC2.6 in the B Lab Standards V2?

Companies on the Service with a minor footprint track may have indirect environmental impacts through their choice of clients and projects. For example, an advertising firm may contribute to potential impacts by marketing products that encourage overconsumption and exacerbate climate change. To address these indirect impacts, ESC2.6 asks that companies in specific industries (for example engineering, real estate, advertising & market research) assess the negative environmental impacts related to potential organizational clients and projects, and take necessary mitigation actions.

This standard seeks to reduce the likelihood of contributing to greenwashing or other negative consequences. The intent is not to prohibit specific clients or projects, but rather to ensure that a sustainability lens is applied while selecting clients or projects to work with, so that any mitigation action can be taken to address potential negative environmental impacts. 

Categories of potential negative environmental impacts may include, among others, contributing to: climate change, pollution of water, soil, air, or noise, loss of biodiversity or other environmental degradation, exploitation and extraction of natural resources, waste and pollution.

How to identify your most material potential clients or projects

“Organizational client” means clients that are organizations, including businesses, public sector organizations and civil society organizations. It excludes individuals. You can determine your  most “material” clients or projects by considering one or more of the following:

• Revenue from the project or client,

• Number of hours involved in working with said client, or

• Importance of a potential negative environmental impact

It is recommended to use multiple categories to determine the “most material” clients or projects, including the importance of potential negative impacts.

To assess the importance of a potential negative environmental impact the company should consider its likelihood and severity. For further guidance on the prioritization of the most significant environmental impacts see the related section in the article How to conduct an environmental impact assessment. 

If the company has multiple projects with one client, it does not need to reassess that client. The company may also assess related clients in groups — such as subsidiaries of the same corporate family. However, it still needs to assess each project individually.

How to assess the potential negative environmental impact of a client or a project

You can assess clients’ or projects’ potential negative environmental impacts by:

• Conducting online research of potential clients, such as their:
  • Participation in sustainability initiatives
  • Scores in public benchmarks and rankings
  • Certifications that the client has earned 
  • Impact reports and other public commitments
  • Approach to assessing and mitigating their own environmental impacts
• Having an internal committee that reviews clients and projects
• Gathering worker or peer feedback on a potential client or project
• Setting exclusion criteria — for example, not working with specific high-risk industries, countries, or clients (examples include fossil fuels, nuclear power, mining, tobacco, weapons manufacturing, defense, etc.)
• Creating a risk matrix to evaluate industries or clients based on the severity and likelihood of potential impacts and the client's mitigation measures.

This is an illustrative list of examples – you may use other methods.

How to mitigate the potential negative environmental impact

The company’s mitigation actions may include, among others: 

• talking to the client and jointly adjusting the project to consider environmental criteria and prevent or mitigate environmental impacts 

• declining clients and projects with potential negative impacts, unless the company’s project addresses the potential negative impacts.

Company example

Company A: a software firm developing a data analytics platform for a large retail client.

What they identified:

• The platform requires significant cloud computing resources, contributing to high data centre energy consumption

• The client had no existing policy on green cloud hosting and had not considered energy efficiency in their technical requirements

• Mitigation actions taken:

  • Proposed and implemented optimised algorithms that reduced processing load, lowering energy consumption

  • Advised the client to migrate to a cloud provider with a verified renewable energy commitment

  • Built energy usage dashboards into the platform so the client could monitor and reduce their own footprint over time

  • Documented outcome: client adopted greener hosting solution.

• Company B: a mid-size advertising agency approached by a fast fashion brand to run a high-volume seasonal campaign.

  What they identified:

  • The campaign brief was designed to drive maximum purchase volume of low-cost, short-lifespan garments

  • Assessed as high severity: fast fashion is directly linked to textile waste, water and chemical pollution from production, and carbon emissions from global logistics

  • The client had no sustainability commitments and no transparency on supply chain environmental practices

• Mitigation actions taken:

  • Raised concerns with the client and proposed reframing the campaign around a new durable product line rather than volume-driving seasonal items

  • Client declined to adjust the brief

  • The agency declined the project based on its internal exclusion criteria for clients in high-risk sectors without credible environmental commitments.

Additional Recommendations & Guidance

• If the company is in public relations or advertising, publicly disclose the revenue by client industry through a Client Disclosure Report.

• For resources on identifying and mitigating potential negative environmental impacts of clients of creative agencies specifically, explore Clean Creatives insights and resources and consider taking their pledge once you have adhered to the ESC 2.6 requirements. Also, reference Race to Zero’s Interpretation Guide for creative agencies on client disclosure.