Consulting and marketing firms and other professional services providers have relatively small greenhouse gas emissions through their value chain. While it is important that professional services providers reduce these emissions in their inventory, it is also crucial that they address their biggest climate impact stemming from the clients they work with and the projects they work on.

The matrix applies four criteria to allow mapping both customers and projects, respectively, along the matrix’ two dimensions. For assessing customers, the matrix determines whether the customer is a climate solutions company, a 1-5°C aligned entity, a non-aligned entity or a non-aligned high emitter.

Projects are assessed against whether they accelerate deforestation or fossil fuel expansion at one end of the spectrum, or whether they accelerate climate solutions, on the other end of the spectrum. Circles in different sizes represent the revenue associated with each customer and project, making for easy visualisation of where the professional services provider stands with regard to the climate alignment of its customers and projects. The matrix thus increases internal transparency and enables easy monitoring of progress.